Kick back and listen to Luna Lee gorgeously plays hits like “Stairway to Heaven,” “Voodoo Child,” “Back in Black,” and Adele’s “Hello” on a 1,500-year-old Korean instrument.
The gayageum is a long, stringed instrument very similar to other traditional one’s like Japan’s koto or China’s guzheng. Let’s start by hearing her play some traditional Korean music.
Although very pretty sounding, songs like this can be hard for some people to relate to, so let’s hear Korean musician Luna Lee play Adele’s “Hello.” In this recording Luna mixed two performances, with one gayageum acting as Adele’s voice and the other doing the piano accompaniment.
The versatility of the gayageum is very impressive with it emulating either a piano or guitar at times. Luna worked with experts to get her gayageum fitted with some output jacks so she could connect to an amp for heavier sounds like what she uses in Jimi Hendrix’s “Voodoo Child” and AC/DC’s “Back in Black.”
On her YouTube page (linked below), you can see Luna cover many other artists including Bob Dylan, David Bowie, Ray Charles, B.B. King, Radiohead, Leonard Cohen, and more. Here’s just a small taste of “Stairway to Heaven” (the solo), but you can also hear the song in its entirety on the artist’s YouTube page.
Luna’s works all combine a certain grooviness with a relaxing sound that never gets cheesy like contemporary covers with eccentric instruments sometimes do. If you feel the same way then you ought to visit Luna’s Patreon page, which is also linked below, where you can donate as little as one dollar every time she produces a new video.
At the moment Luna’s only US$85 short of her goal which will allow her to support herself as a full-time musician. Given that freedom, she’d be able to shine even more and show us all what a gayageum is capable of.
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Source: Huffington Post Japan (Japanese)
Videos & Images: YouTube/Luna Gayageum