Dal:um, who made their London debut at the Purcell Room last year, open the festival with an intriguing new collaboration with duo ReMidas to create a string quartet of zithers, the gayageum and the geomungo. Despite their similarity these two instruments are surprisingly different in structure, playing technique and tone.

Dal:um is a Seoul-based musical duo that challenges the sonic possibilities of the gayageum (played by Ha Suyean) and geomungo (played by Hwang Hyeyoung). Their debut album Similar & Different (the title also refers to gayageum and the geomungo) was released in June 2021 on Glitterbeat’s label imprint tak:til, also home to Park Jiha.

Ji Hyun Park (the leader of Hey String) has joined forces with Min Young Kim to form ReMidas and they explore timbres expressed through improvisation. They released an album, ESSENTIAL in 2021