Local Lingo 
by Bruce Gallanter 
Downtown Music Gallery Newsletter 
November 30, 1999 
  
Local Lingo is a new duo that has played together for years in other formations like the Far East Side Band, and features Jason Hwang on violin and Sang Won Park (also in Invite the Spirit) on kayagum, ajang & voice. Both of these men are great soloists and love to push themselves into unexpected situations. Sang Won Park is Korean and plays two instruments, the kayagum & the ajang, which look like smaller kotos and are more bowed than plucked. They played songs with Eastern-sounding melodies, sometimes solemn yet lovely as well as bending and twisting their notes into strange barbed pieces. It was a nice change to hear Sang singing what sounded like more traditional sounding songs which felt spiritual and were mixed with bluesy melodies. This duo blended ancient (sounding) songs with more modern improvisations and created something quite different.