From 2024, an international jazz exchange programme will be launched between Korea and Hungary. The first stop of this project will be the concert of SINNOI on 10 May in Trafó House, in cooperation with Jazzfest Budapest and the Jarasum Jazz Festival. 

The unique combination of jazz, Korean traditional music and electronic sound creates a sound for SINNOI that is truly original and exceptional, by blurring the boundaries between genres and integrating different elements together.

SINNOI, also known as SINAWI, originates from shamanistic music, one of the oldest traditional Korean music genres, and is performed by an instrumental ensemble. This form focuses primarily on achieving harmony between instruments with different musical characteristics. As the name of the ensemble suggests, SINNOI primarily strives to present new variations of three different musical components – Korean folk music, jazz and electronic sound.

The members of SINNOI are: bassist Wonsool Lee, a dominant figure on the Korean jazz scene; Bora Kim, who ranges musically from gyeonggi minyo (Korean folk song) to jeongga (Korean traditional vocal genre); Godam, an artist of electronic sound; and Nayeon Lee, a piri- and taepyeongso player.

This performance was supported by the “Traveling Korean Arts” project of the KOFICE (Korean Foundation for International Cultural Exchange), the Budapest Spring Festival, the Korean Cultural Center in Hungary and the National Cultural Fund of Hungary, in partnership with the Jarasum Jazz Festival.