Embedded Files
something something for Violin and Piano (2020)
Live performance video (Edition 1)
Live performance video (Edition 2)
Nomenclature
Violin
Pianoforte (prepared on Edition 1 only)
written for Taeho Kim & Sungguk Sohn
something,
something bad.
Date of composition : (2020)
The Ghostly Riddle for two Pianos (2020)
Nomenclature
2 Pianos
The theme is well known for a background music of a meme called ‘it is a mystery’, even though the original title is ‘Happy H. Christmas’. I once wrote 6 variations on a theme in 2016 in the style of Rococo period, uploaded on my old channel. But the idea of making a whole variation on the theme still was present until the year 2020, when I decided to make a piece for two pianos for a concert, while experimenting with some absurd rhythms.
Date of composition: (2020)
Bards of the Primordial for Violin and Percussion (2022)
Nomenclature
Violin
Percussion (4 membranophones of the same family, in different pitches)
written for Taeho Kim & Yongjin Kim
live on 30.JUL.2022, at SNU Concert Hall (49), Seoul
One boiling, yet so boring summer day, a pair of bards come to town. But they do not look so ordinary. The sound of fiddle and drums so peculiar. Somehow you dance along with this strange rhythm as if driven by one's primordial instinct…
Date of composition : (2022)
Cats in Box, Box in Space for String Quartet (2022)
Nomenclature
Violin 1
Violin 2
Viola
Violoncello
Date of composition : (2022)
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)
farewell for Piano Trio/Quartet (2023)
Nomenclature
Violin
Viola (optional)
Violoncello
Pianoforte
commissioned by Dilis Trio
premiered at The Chamber Music Universe : Humanity in Music, in 19.MAY.2023, SNU Concert Hall (49), Seoul
Date of composition : (2023)
JUNKCORE #1 for Flute, Clarinet, Contrabass, and Piano (2023)
Live performance video (conductor view)
Nomenclature
Alto Flute in G (doubles Cephalopod-Flute in C)
Bass Clarinet in B♭(doubles Half-Clarinet in B♭)
Contrabass (IV dropped to C)
Pianoforte (prepared)
premiered by Ensemble Black
live on 26.SEP.2023, at Ilshin hall, Seoul
The composition of this piece was for Ensemble Black’s call for scores, EARTH : The Color of Trash.
Special thanks to Eungjin Lee for compositional advice, Eunbi Bæk for Flute-dissection research & Junyeong Hyeong for staying right by my side and helping me with everything.
To me, garbage represents lifeless objects (or even organisms, metaphorically) that have exhausted their assumed “vitality”. If we consider that most objects we touch, or have touched, (and even our own bodies) will eventually become garbage, it can be said that even the notes we write-utter and the sounds originating from them are destined to become garbage from the moment they are produced.
However, the garbage of modern society neither decomposes nor disappears. The progressions in this piece struggle by repeating themselves to avoid becoming garbage and being overlooked. But they don't realize. These progressions, embodied in sound, are continuously losing their momentary vitality.
The audience looks at this work from the perspective of a cat sitting on a pile of garbage in a junkyard. Can this piece of music truly avoid becoming garbage?
Date of composition : (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)
vierhundertsechsundzwanzigpunktneun for Violin, Viola, Bassoon, and Piano with tuners (2023)
DEEP DARK SHENG♂ for Sheng, Viola, and Electronics (2023)
Nomenclature
Sheng (37-pipe, Shanghai style)(doubling Fan and Harmonica)
Viola (doubling Fan and Melodica)
Electronics (Sampler)
commissioned by Repertoire Series for Hyoyoung Kim
live in 29 Feb. 2024, The Gravitational Field, Seoul
Date of composition : (2023~2024)
misinformed anti-propaganda movement for three Gugak Players (2023/2024)
Nomenclature
Daegeum
Haegeum
Geomungo
commissioned by Ensemble Geori
Premiered in 3.MAR.2024, at Music Forum Auditorium, Taipei as a part of C-Camerata Taipei International Contemporary Music Festival “Crossing Sound”
Thoughts and emotions led to catastrophe by those skilled in the art of mass manipulation: there is no doubt that we all live in a world of propaganda. However, anyone who wishes to reject propaganda must first possess a certain degree of knowledge about it.
I began this series as a form of mockery toward songs like Arirang. Regardless of whether it is genuinely “Korean” or not, Arirang is often used—without justification—as a tool to elevate some notion of “national spirit” or other vague ideals. But as I continued working on this project, I came to realize that I do not know enough about Korean traditional music to criticize it, nor am I in a position to denounce Korean propaganda songs as hypocritical. In fact, I found myself constantly at risk of becoming a hypocrite who cherry-picks evidence to suit my own taste.
This work is both a journey of learning more about Korean traditional instruments and music, and a process of self-critique. Without a doubt, to speak without sufficient understanding is a grave sin. This piece includes the voices of two individuals who have had a significant influence on my compositional process. I extend my gratitude to composers Jaein Hwang and MinJoon Choi for lending their voices to this project.
Date of composition : (2023~2024)
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)
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)
Katzentänze for String Quartet (2025)
Nomenclature
Violin 1
Violin 2
Viola
Violoncello
written on request by Donūm Quartett
Date of composition : (2025)
An Amazing Life & Death of Mr. Kilroy, version for Ensemble Hwadam (2025)
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)
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