CD review: Youn Sun Nah – Immersion 2019: Video, CD cover

The magical voice from South Korea: With the album IMMERSION the Korean singer YOUN SUN NAH breaks new ground and combines the intensity of the vocals with the expressiveness of jazz, rock, folk and the claim of great songs.

IMMERSION is a stylistically diverse album, an immersion into many worlds, from the ASTURIAS Andalusian Classics to the Motown carefree YOU CAN NOT HURRY LOVE and the thoughtfulness of MARVIN GAYE’s MERCY MERCY ME to LEONARD COHEN’s profound pathos in HALLELUJAH. Only YOUN SUN NAH changes the templates so sustainably that the songs not only tell new stories far away from the original versions, but turn into their own mysteries. Here comes a voice that captivates when listening. A personality who carries her mixture of seriousness and empathy into the music without becoming grave. A phenomenon that the producer and pianist Clément Ducol (Camille, melody Gardot) or even musicians like the drummer and cellist Pierre-François Dufour help to create a fitting, reduced as well as pointed sound.

YOUN SUN NAH has one of the most expressive and extraordinary voices of contemporary jazz. She consistently received rave reviews for her now nine albums and conquered the jazz world by storm. She won a number of prizes in jazz festival music competitions: the beginning of a long series of awards, culminating in the award of the title of “Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres” by the French Ministry of Culture and the Korean Government’s Sejong Culture Prize. In 2014, she sang during the closing ceremony of the Winter Olympics in Sochi.

Tracklist:

1. In My Heart
2. The Wonder
3. Isn’t It a Pity
4. Here Today
5. Mystic River
6. Sans toi
7. Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology)
8. God’s Gonna Cut You Down
9. You Can’t Hurry Love
10. Asturias
11. I’m Alright
12. Invincible
13. Hallelujah

Youn Sun Nah, vocals, kalimba
Clément Ducol, piano, synthesizers, programming, drum machine, acoustic guitar, marimba
Pierre-François “Titi” Dufour, cello, electric cello, drums, percussion, drum machine, udu drum, body percussion, prepared piano
Laurent Vernerey, electric bass (on tracks 9, 13)