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ARTIST
TITLE
Coexistence
FORMAT
LP
LABEL
CATALOG #
GB 161LP
GB 161LP
GENRE
RELEASE DATE
6/20/2025
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LP version. Dal:um -- alongside peers Park Jiha, Jambinai and Leenalchi -- are at the forefront of new Korean music. The duo of Ha Suyean and Hwang Hyeyoung are virtuosos on two different types of traditional zithers, the gayageum and geomungo, and their music deftly navigates a plethora of contemporary influences: post-minimalism, experimental folk and abstract jazz. The sound of 21st century Seoul, where the boundaries of tradition are stretched and occasionally broken. Something magical is happening on the South Korean music scene, and it isn't K-Pop. Blow away the froth, and it is soon apparent that in the concert halls and clubs of Seoul and beyond, a febrile music scene is bubbling up. Ha Suyean and Hwang Hyeyoung grew up learning formal Korean gugak music, excelling on two different types of zithers: the gayageum and geomungo respectively. But these two young women soon became restless. Dal:um translates as "to keep pursuing something," a name which couldn't be more apposite. Suyean and Hyeyoung garnered wide acclaim and toured around the world with their debut album, Similar and Different (GB 112CD, 2021), and with their second album, Coexistence, they are taking another leap forward. Similar and Different was the sound of two musicians pushing and pulling one another. In Coexistence they have become one: one with one another, one with the wider world around them, one with life itself. It is music that is deeply personal, but personal in the way that it absorbs the life that surrounds the pair, finding peace, fear, drama and -- ultimately -- hope. Coexistence was forged at the tail end of the COVID pandemic. The duo, who first met as members of the Seoul Metropolitan Youth Traditional Music Ensemble, determined that this time round they would compose the whole album themselves. They took inspiration from the nature around them in Seoul, as well as from their tours in Europe, where long car journeys took them through natural landscapes that were strikingly different from home. "The pandemic made us realize how precious the things around us truly are," they explain. "As we wrote, we contemplated the value of living alongside other living things. The question that arose was: how can we harmoniously coexist with the life surrounding us? We wanted to encapsulate these thoughts in our music."
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