Music review: Camino de Sangjaru, Assembly George Square Studios, Edinburgh

Curiouser and curiouser, as the extraordinary trio Korean Gypsy Sangjaru conflate Alice in Wonderland with a pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela as expressions of their quest to combine traditional Korean and modern western music. There’s no doubting the musicianship and energy of percussionist Kwon HyoChang, Nom SeongHun on the zither-like gayageum and Cho SungYung on guitar. Things can get bemusing, though, between their endearingly cryptic introductions and a rudimentary animated video that jerkily charted their progress, either in pursuit of Alice’s white rabbit or along the Camino.

Camino de Sangjaru, Assembly George Square Studios (Venue 17) ***

The ear-piercing clamour of drums, hand gong and shawm that accompanied their procession on stage gave way to a swingier affair on guitar, zither and drum from which, astonishingly, a Grappelli-Reinhardt number was fighting to get out. Elsewhere, a piece entitled The Earth saw sonorous deliberations on bass zither, while another featured unexpectedly bluesy guitar phrases.

SeongHun’s vibrato and frenetic sawing could grate at times on an unaccustomed western ear, but as they yawed between western riffing and eastern microtonalism, some raucous free-improv sparking from the collision, one couldn’t but warm to their serious intent and infectious charm. - Jim Gilchrist

Until 26 August.