(Originally published June 18, 2017 on lostinareverieblog.wordpress.com.)
Okay, once again it’s Sunday, so here’s another “review” for the ones who are interested. This time I wanted to write about a Korean song, but not one of the K-pop variety. I feel as if K-pop songs usually receive enough press that they really don’t need a 3rd rate writer like me going over their songs when they have professionals doing that. I really just write these for fun and to get lesser known artists and music groups the attention I think they deserve since mainstream music already gets enough attention. Though I do want to write music recommendations for my music influences, specifically my Japanese bands, although I only have two Korean influences and one is mainstream while the other is Indie. Hence why I will only write about the Indie group given time, and if you know anything about mainstream K-pop you should already know about the other. So consequently, I really want to share really cool and interesting songs that many may not know about.
Case in point, this song, That Night, is by the Korean Indie artist, Kim Sungkyung, who goes by the name Lovewave as a stage name. Admittedly, most of the information I managed to scrape together is from website, K-pop Amino, a site that shares and informs readers of general K-popness I believe (I haven’t used the site at all, besides for this entry). K-pop Amino describes Kim Sungkyung as “a Korean piano and ambient noise driven indie soloist” who used her Youtube channel to debut in November of 2014.
This particular song was only discovered by me within this past week but I really love it. Her calming and soothing voice that’s neither too high or too low with that slight husk awakens my brain in a way. Her music is just refreshing for my brain contrasted to the usual music I listen to. The keys of the piano are distinctly heard being struck before she truly begins to sing. This beginning and the rest of the song just brings forth images of a quiet afternoon of pensive reflection with most likely a gentle downpour going on in the background. Perhaps you watch the rain fall from the sky with languid eyes as you reminisce over a lost love or the idea of the past. It’s the kind of song that carries a bittersweet melody that’s neither here nor there and all you can do is just appreciate the beauty it casts and let the tune relax you as if there is not a care in the world. At the end of the song, it sort of feels like you just have to make an accord with yourself, your thoughts, and the person at the reciprocating end in a capitulation to not worry and let things remain as they are. Which I believe is the general feel of the song’s message.
After all this, I wander why songs like these are more circulated, but perhaps they don’t have big companies or the same amount of advertising their mainstream counterparts receive. And perhaps they prefer it that way. For me at least, if I was in the music industry, I’d prefer Indie as it just seems more mellow and chill compared to popular music. Hopefully one day I will have more information and expertise on all of this but I will save that for a later post as I’m now running on a tangent.
All in all, I’d definitely recommend Lovewave. I’m already listening to her other songs along with “That Night” as I write this post. Ghost is another song I’d recommend from this greatly multi-talented musician and and independent artist. Her Instagram seems to showcase her as a great photographer as well. Okay, I’m a bit jealous, but it should only inspire me more.
As always, I’ll leave some lyrics from 그 밤 (Geu Bam) that I find the most interesting.
We who walked together on that night
We who were walking at the same tempo and sharing long stories
That night, we gradually
Got shivers and left behind our old regrets
Sidenote: I didn’t stumble upon Lovewave through her Youtube channel, however. I listened to a video called Chill Good Beats, created by Ramune ラムネ (Skelix). His or her video is just remixes of some songs including this one yet highly recommended along with the channel’s other videos. Click on the title of the video to go straight to when the remixed “That Night” starts to play. [March 5, 2022 edit: The video was taken down so I got rid of the link.
Thank you for reading!
