“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. The Dal:um duo are at the forefront of new Korean music, bringing a questing, modernising energy to timeless traditions. 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 is the sound of 21st century Seoul, where the boundaries of tradition are stretched (and occasionally broken) to create something unique. 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 (Tak:til/Glitterbeat, 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”. (Glitterbeat)

Foto: Joongseok Oh