Jaehoon Kim’s P.N.O(Prepared New Objects) is a contemporary music performance and experimental music theater that starts from the sociological perspective and consideration of the piano. The performance carefully examines the complex network surrounding the piano and shows the process of physically and ideologically dismantling the piano and forming a new instrument ‘P.N.O.’ based on it.

Jaehoon Kim has explored the piano in various ways within the music genre, including classical ensemble and ensemble with electronic music, by building his music world through piano solo pieces and chamber music based on minimalism. In this work, Jaehoon Kim looks back on his piano, which was his main instrument, from various perspectives. To overcome this, P.N.O, a new musical instrument, is produced as a result of collaboration with various art genres, and the music and story surrounding the piano are newly illuminated.

Since its invention, the piano embodied the results of the industry that humans developed until the 20th century. The history of the piano has been gradually intertwined with machine development and mass production systems, and in between, the piano has continued to strengthen its body toward louder, more colorful, and clearer sounds. At the same time, the pianists who played it had to exert mechanical skills, strength, and high patience. Music became more complex, faster, and more colorful, star pianists appeared, and their skills became competitive and endless. The various aspects surrounding the piano were extreme. The entry gate for pianists has become a Concours, the music competition that the world pays attention to. As the piano music culture becomes similar to the competition of supercars racing, another musical possibility and community value latent in the instrument has slowly become blurred. Is it impossible to play the piano without competition, to play the piano together, to share their pleasure and hospitality?

Jaehoon Kim’s P.N.O The dismantling of the piano physically and conceptually, and reconstructing the new instrument ‘P.N.O.’ with the materials thus obtained. After disassembling the iron, wood, and felt that were connected to make a sound, I look at and listen to these materials. Furthermore, looking back on the development process chosen by Western music history, we explore the possibility of an ensemble instrument that requires cooperation, not a solo instrument that requires overwhelming performance alone. To this end, the elements that made up the piano are divided into string instruments, keyboard instruments, and percussion instruments and modularized.

Through this performance, the audience can not only recall the piano of the past behind the memory but also meet the current musical landscape projected on the piano and the ‘virtual music history’ proposed by Jaehoon Kim’s P.N.O. This performance still imagines a slightly different present and future from this instrument we love.

Shin Yeasul