Fusion Gugak

Fusion gugak is a South Korean approach that recombines traditional Korean music, gugak, with jazz, rock, pop and electronic idioms. Ensembles such as *Black String* place the geomungo zither beside guitar and electronics, *Jambinai* run gayageum and haegeum through post-rock dynamics, and *Leenalchi* rebuild pansori singing over bass and drums. The movement grew from state-supported crossover projects and independent scenes alike, treating Korean rhythmic cycles, pentatonic melody and instruments such as janggu and piri as living material rather than museum pieces, and it has toured widely on world-music and jazz circuits.