Embedded Files
FACILEMENT ÉCOUTABLE Ia for Flute and Piano Trio (2022/2023)
Score video (audio remastered by Popsick)
Nomenclature
Flute
Violin
Violoncello
Pianoforte
premiered by Ensemble Intercontemporain
live on 28.APR.2023
Several weeks ago from working on the piece, numerous covers of “River Flows in You” by Korean composer Yiruma came up on my algorithm repeatedly after watching several videos that contained the piece.
Naturally, as I was so familiar with the piece, I found it almost too obnoxious. So out of spite, I decided to write a piece not directly based on “River Flows in You”, but based on several gesture and intervals extracted or so to say “STOLEN” from it.
After the piece’s premiere by Ensemble Eins on April 26th 2022, the flautist (who happens to be one of the dedicatees of this piece) suggested me revising it. So I added the Clarinet (which also can be played with the Bass Clarinet(hopefully)), and a couple of sections to make the instrumentation and the piece itself a little bit more balanced overall.
The piece pokes fun at the very nature of the genre of “Easy Listening”. The original material of the piece could be seen as a hallmark of “Easy Listening” pieces, containing easily followable melodic lines, slow arpeggios, and consistent/repetitive harmonic progressions throughout. I tried to manipulate and twist the stolen melodic gestures of the original material and the characteristics stated above to compose “my own piece” in my own style. (at least that is what I would like to think)
Date of composition : (2022, arr.2023)
FACILEMENT ÉCOUTABLE Ib for Pierrot Ensemble (2022/2023)
Nomenclature
Flute
Bass Clarinet
Violin
Violoncello
Pianoforte
Several weeks ago from working on the piece, numerous covers of “River Flows in You” by Korean composer Yiruma came up on my algorithm repeatedly after watching several videos that contained the piece.
Naturally, as I was so familiar with the piece, I found it almost too obnoxious. So out of spite, I decided to write a piece not directly based on “River Flows in You”, but based on several gesture and intervals extracted or so to say “STOLEN” from it.
After the piece’s premiere by Ensemble Eins on April 26th 2022, the flautist (who happens to be one of the dedicatees of this piece) suggested me revising it. So I added the Clarinet (which also can be played with the Bass Clarinet(hopefully)), and a couple of sections to make the instrumentation and the piece itself a little bit more balanced overall.
The piece pokes fun at the very nature of the genre of “Easy Listening”. The original material of the piece could be seen as a hallmark of “Easy Listening” pieces, containing easily followable melodic lines, slow arpeggios, and consistent/repetitive harmonic progressions throughout. I tried to manipulate and twist the stolen melodic gestures of the original material and the characteristics stated above to compose “my own piece” in my own style. (at least that is what I would like to think)
Date of composition : (2022, arr.2023)
aus allen Sternen in die Einsamkeit. for String Quartet (2023)
Official music video (Let's Clay)
Nomenclature
Violin 1
Violin 2
Viola
Violoncello
written for Heredium's inaugural concert
Die Blätter fallen, fallen wie von weit,
als welkten in den Himmeln ferne Gärten;
sie fallen mit verneinender Gebärde.
Und in den Nächten fällt die schwere Erde
aus allen Sternen in die Einsamkeit.
Wir alle fallen. Diese Hand da fällt.
Und sieh dir andre an: es ist in allen.
Und doch ist Einer, welcher dieses Fallen
unendlich sanft in seinen Händen hält
Date of composition : (2023)
FACILEMENT ÉCOUTABLE IIa for Piano Quartet (2024)
Live performance recording (remastered by Joonghyun Lee & Popsick)
Nomenclature
Violin (doubling party horn)
Viola (doubling party poppers)
Violoncello (doubling police whistle)
Pianoforte (doubling melodica)
premiered by Flex Ensemble at DCMF 2024
live on 27.JUN.2024
This piece deals with how the concept of “depth” is formed around the music. Is it really true that serious treatment of elements creates the deep substance of the piece? Then how about the ones that are already negating the concept of being deep by being mass-produced? The genre of “Easy Listening” can be thought as a prime example of this music that refuses to be deep even before the definition of depth in music. I wanted to dig deeper to see if I can make this music a paradoxical nightmare, treating unserious materials just as serious as I can, placing them in different positions to make them carry more important roles, to be far more than just gimmicks.
This series originally began with FACILEMENT ÉCOUTABLE Ia, composed for flute and piano trio, but now I have felt the necessity to delve deeper into the very idea of the instrumentation itself. It is clear that the addition of the viola to the piano quartet, historically considered the most perfect and the most challenging instrumentation, the piano trio, is a clever strategy to buffer the overly strong personalities among the instruments. However, the viola has historically been the subject of ridicule due to its acoustical flaws and ambiguous positioning. As a violist myself, I have composed this piece to explore the potential of this dramatic setup fraught with latent conflicts, mocking the piano trio as a small, condensed form of orchestra, the perpetually aggrieved viola, and mass-produced music that is easy to listen to, all while testing the limits of that potential.
Easily listenable things always hover around us. Yet, it is certain that someday they undoubtedly will penetrate our skulls and scramble our brains.
Date of composition : (2024, arr.2025)
An Unsolicited Serenade for String Quartet (2024/rev.2026)
[first edition] Score video
Nomenclature
Violin 1
Violin 2
Viola
Violoncello
written for Arditti Quartet, commissioned by RESIS Festival
Premiered in 31.MAY.2024, at Conservatorio Superior de Música de A Coruña, Auditorium
Date of composition : (2024)
The Art of Slop for Flute, Viola, Piano, and an isolated Violinist (2024~2025)
Nomenclature
Flute
Violin (seated behind the Pianoforte)
Viola
Pianoforte (prepared)
featuring Jessica Sloppingham's "Caprice"(1980, reconstructed 2024)
commissioned by HSLU Musik & Dissolution Ensemble
live at the Akademie für zeitgenössische Musik on 14.FEB.2025, Blackbox Kosmos
Reconstruction" crew of Jessica Sloppingham's "Caprice"(1980)
Jaewon Lee,
Jeongjun Lee,
Ryan Power,
& Ethan Blackburn
“The Art of Slop” rejects the pursuit of “good” composition, instead embracing careless juxtaposition of multiple compositional languages and fusion within an A.I.-generated form. It is neither masterfully crafted nor carefully written. Only exists here to plunge ourselves into a chasm of insanity.
Tied to A.I. slop—nonsensical, low-quality outputs—this piece blends this structure with human deviation. The instrumentation extends Debussy’s trio, treating the piano as a hammered harp, while a muted, hidden violinist paradoxically loses musical importance but gains conceptual weight. This contradiction forms a semi-coherent mess.
It also features Caprice (1980) by British plagiarist Jessica Sloppingham, who died this year in a retirement home bombing.
Is there beauty in its defect? I don’t know—but having fun seems to matter most.
Date of composition : (2024~2025)
An Amazing Life & Death of Mr. Kilroy (v.4) for Ensemble Hwadam (2025) [suspended]
Nomenclature
Oboe
Violin
Viola
Violoncello
Contrabass
written on request by Ensemble Hwadam
live on 12.APR.2025
Kilroy, known lexically as "the name of a mythical male figure." We have no way of knowing who he is.
The same goes for this piece. We have no way of knowing what this piece is trying to convey. And like the contradiction of this cheerful, French-style tonal music telling the story of a person I don't even know, the music is wrapped in multiple layers of contradiction, presenting the listener with a puzzling enigma that is clear and easy to understand, yet leaves us questioning whether it even intends to tell a story.
If anyone here knows Mr. Kilroy, please send him regards, whether he is in heaven or hell!
Date of composition : (2024, arr.2025)
nostalgia 1952 for Clarinet, String Quartet, and a Pianoforte (2025)
Nomenclature
Clarinet in B♭
Violin 1
Violin 2
Viola
Violoncello
Pianoforte
commissioned by Sangjun Lee
Based on Hisaishi Joe's soundtrack for "My Neighbor Totoro"
I've never experienced the 20th century.
Yet I have an unexplicable, nostalgic feeling towards it.
I don't want to experience the 21st century.
Date of composition: (2025)
seid ihr nichts der Schwanendreher? for Accordion, Guitar, Viola, and Contrabass (2025,collaboration with Borsch4Breakfast)
Nomenclature
Accordion
Guitar
Viola
Contrabass
collaboration with Borsch4Breakfast
Based on a german folk-song with the same title and adaptation of Paul Hindemith on the very song
This piece was originally composed on commission from Borsch4Breakfast to celebrate the 130th anniversary of Hindemith’s birth, as the opening performance for the award ceremony of the 2nd Paul Hindemith Competition.
It is a reworking of the German folk song of the same title, “Are You the One Who Turns the Swan?”—written perhaps with the intention of erasing Hindemith’s characteristic colors and leaving behind only pure playfulness. Like the original, this version also places the viola at its center.
A German folk tune, once passed down through generations, is here reborn at the hands of a Korean composer in the style of swing music—creating the effect of throwing a party with Hindemith’s legacy.
Date of composition: (2025)
Chantez Gayement! (à Mort) for two Keyboard Players (2025)
Nomenclature
Keyboard 1
Keyboard 2
dedicated to FICTA_ and Sara Glojnarić
This is a piece about unattainability of queer joy in music, and an answer that serves as a criticism to Sara Glojnarić's DING, DONG, DARLING!.
Some may call me a bigot, and I must admit that I AM a bigot. My disgust towards current identity politics in music is quite pronounced even though I identify myself as a part of the LGBTQ+ community. I find it quite obvious that a sound art has no crotch where reproductive organs can reside, therefore it is impossible to perceive anything sexual or political from the music. But for many people, it doesn't seem that obvious.
Identity politics has brought us the freedom of being proud of what we are, but at the same time brought the age of moral superiority, in which even a smallest question are recieved as an aggression. Everyone is sensitive towards everything, and it seems like we forgot any form of joy of true aggression. But at the same time, aggression was always an essence of humor - making fun of something, regardless of its intentions.
But what intrigues me is the fact that a flourish of memes surrounding gay pornography ("Gachimuchi (ガチムチ)" in Japanese ) in the early 21st century Korean and Japanese web, ultimately familiarized many people with the existence of homosexuality in general - making them more accepting of the queers who always had to stay underground.
However that age is long gone - many people nowadays monger their sexuality as a shield, to mask and market their severely malformed works as "voice of a minority", which feels quite contrived and extremely ugly. Sara Glojnarić's DING, DONG, DARLING! did fall through that trap, even though the piece was masterfully crafted and gave us quite fulfilling aural experiences. I try to negate that in this piece, even though it utilises many sounds from homosexual pornography of early 2000's. I diminish those sounds into simple, momentary pitches and rhythmical elements, treating them as if I'm generating a "live-Gachimuchi" on the stage - questioning whether or not this is a political or an homoerotic listening experience.
Cry in fear and sing joyfully, those who think they can hide behind your skin. As I come ripping off the skin for you to be finally free!
Date of composition: (2025)
the smell of death and italian cuisine #1 for two violins (2025/2026)
[ JHL26A01 ]
Nomenclature
Violin 1
Violin 2
dedicated to Kana, Lisa, and Hyojin
The first rendition of the series was scored for two violins and it spans about 6 minutes, which is quite long, regarding the historical context of the instrumentation. Historically, the instrumentation was written with a pedagogical or rather a recreational purpose - for a student and a teacher in a setting of a violin lesson, much alike what Leopold Mozart had written. This piece aims to go further than just a mere recreational one.
The title hints to the modified version of a Ritornello form, which was commonly used in concertos in Italian baroque era. Thinking of the original meaning for the word “concertare” are both to compete and cooperate, the piece is indeed a “concertante” in its nature. However, the relationship of each instruments are blurred, and sometimes gets exchangedbeat-per-beat, making it a truly cooperative experience.
Also the trace of an italian baroque music is also evident in the piece. The improvisatory nature is explicit in the middle section in D Major, as the section is based on the composer’s improvisation based on the original material based on the “La Bergamasca”, an italian dance music from early Baroque era (the rendition is the one by Marco Uccelini) – (metaphorically) getting lost in the way and then returning home somehow.
“The smell of death and Italian food is in the air!” - someone exclaimed these very words somewhere on the internet and it has stayed with me for quite some time now. How will they smell like? Quite fresh, I would assume.
Date of composition: (2025/2026)
the smell of death and italian cuisine #2 for tenor recorder and violin (2026)
[ JHL26A02 ]
Nomenclature
Tenor Recorder
Violin
dedicated to Kana, Lisa, and Annette
The second rendition of the series was scored for a tenor-recorder and violin, and it spans about 6 minutes, and it is a very slow piece. It takes inspiration from slow Italian baroque music, the ones with the tempo marking: Grave. Conventionally, it was forbidden (so to speak) to use any ornamentations unless told otherwise on a music with this tempo marking, maybe a ecclesial connotation with seriousness and solemnity.
This piece is very contrasting in nature with its first iteration - as the first iteration relies on patterns and rhythms unlike this one, which explores the perfect combination of tenor recorder and violin. As if they’re an amalgamation of a sort, they are almost always together. This piece requires no athletic/acrobatic skills, it requires a great deal of endurance and concentration. Within the long, fragile notes, the players must navigate to find a way out, concentrating on every single sound they make – even their breaths and movements.
“The smell of death and Italian food is in the air!” - someone exclaimed these very words somewhere on the internet and it has stayed with me for quite some time now. How will they smell like? Quite fresh, I would assume.
Date of composition: (2025/2026)
gold doesn't exchange for blowing pipes, kid(s) #1 for four recorders (2026)
[ JHL26A03 ]
Nomenclature
Soprano Recorder
Alto Recorder
Tenor Recorder
Bass Recorder
dedicated to Kana, Lisa, and Annette
The title comes from a mistranslation of a menu item (金不换吹简仔) on a chinese restaurant.
Date of composition: (2025/2026)
The Little Bells for String Quintet and Pianoforte (2026)
[ JHL26B02 ]
Nomenclature
Violin 1
Violin 2
Viola
Violoncello 1
Violoncello 2
commissioned by Ensemble Leeu
live at the Ensemble Leeu 5th Subscription Concert on 15.APR.2026, Choengju Art Hall
This piece is based on Niccolo Paganini's Rondo from Violin Concerto No.2 and Franz Liszt's Etude "La Campanella" based on the former.
Date of composition : (2026)
old korean dressing table for Geomungo, Sampler, and Electronics (2026)
[ JHL26A06 ]
Nomenclature
Geomungo
Sampler + Electronics
commissioned by Taehoon Kang
with collaboration with Noah Kim
Date of composition : (2026)
the smell of death and italian cuisine #3 for Baroque Violoncello and Harpsichord (2026)
[ JHL26A07 ]
Nomenclature
Baroque Violoncello
Harpsichord (2 Manuals, Lute Stop on G.C.)
commissioned by Agnes Hyunjeong Lee
Date of composition : (2026)
on playfulness and joy for Mixed Sextet (2026)
[ JHL27A01 ]
Nomenclature
Baroque Violoncello
Harpsichord (2 Manuals, Lute Stop on G.C.)
commissioned by Agnes Hyunjeong Lee
Date of composition : (2026)
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