Two musicians who were on my playlist recently are singer-songwriter Lucid Fall and pianist Li Jin Wook.
Lucid Fall – fronted by lone musician Jo Yun Suk - returned to the K-pop scene in December 2009 with his new work “Les Miserables”. The 34-year-old took a hiatus when he headed to Switzerland to concentrate on working on his Phd thesis on nanotechnology. After 7 years of research, the talented songwriter was ready to bid goodbye to life as an academia to pursue music again.
Lucid Fall
In his interview with the Korea Times, he said his decision… which was pretty abrupt, was intuitive.
“The decision was quite clear. I’m not sure what it was (that made it clear), but it just felf right. It was a moment I can’t explain logically, but (leaving) felt like the right thing to do,” he said.
It was a right decision – the chemical engineer belongs to music, and his comeback album “Les Miserables” is proof to that.
The relaxingly dreamy and breezy sounds from his latest works seemed markedly different from his older stuff. I could be wrong because I am not a close listener of his work.
While I enjoyed his second and third studio albums “Oh, Love” and “A Night At Border”, they sounded too folksy and subdued to hold my attention for long. But I enjoyed the jazz and bosa nova sounds in his OST work for “Bus Stop”.
However, I was delightly enlivened by “Les Miserables”. Though I have yet to link the album title to his music, “Les Miserables” is truly an impressive album. It is richer in sounds, thanks to the use of the saxophone, piano and harp, compared with his previous releases. It is also livelier and happier – as if he’d unloaded the burden from his heart and started afresh.
Lucid Fall's 4th album
Cliche this may sound, but it’s a perfect-10 album. From composition to arrangement, there’s no flaws that could be picked at. What is amazing is that though some of the pieces may not sound catchy, they are wonderfully melodious. An oddity is that I couldn’t hum the tune even after numerous plays, yet they made a deep impressioin. And I remember it because every note in his pieces move me.
The other thing that I love about “Les Miserables” is the generous use of the piano. As the playlist runs along, you hear a different instrument taking centerstage in each song. For instance, the clarinet that came in at Track 5 or 6 ( I can’t remember which) during the bridge was a stunner. I hadn’t seen it coming, and so, was caught by surprise. I could still remember when I heard it the first time – I was slouching on the bus, my eyes watching the passing sight outside the window. Then the clarinet came in through the earbuds connected to my Cowon D2… I sat up, and I could feel the corners of my mouth quirking upwards … the arrangement is simply ingenious, and it took my breath away.
It would be truly regretable if not more people give this album a spin.
Lee Jin Wook in "Deja vu Waltz" MV
Moving on… I came across pianist Lee Jin Wook by chance. I happened to click on his album “A Midsummer’s Night Dream” on some music site and liked the sound of his work. But I fell for his music when I got my hands on his debut release “My Waltz Style”.
As the title suggests, all tracks from “My Waltz Style” are centered around waltz – one way or the other.
Music box tinkles formed the intro of the opening track from the 2009-released album, giving hints of what’s to come. The emotions that the simple tune that ”After Dreaming” evoked in me was similar to when I listened to Chong Park’s “Prelude No. 2″ for the first time.
The second track “White Cloud” is a happy piece that seemed to plonk me onto summery fields faraway, where I can smell the greens and tip-toe on the grass, and feel the breeze under cloudless skies… The third track “Deja vu Waltz” – a quintessentially waltz piece – maintained the high bar set, followed by the quieter notes of “Home Sweet” and “One Summer”.
The flow and style was consistent except for the little oddity in “Laissez-faire”, an electro-pop-commercial-like jingle.
Though having had the album from the mail for months now, I have yet to closely sample the rest of the tracks, but what’s on A-side are promising stuff.
This Youtube clip shows a sampler of his music from “Waltz Style” performed live at the Naru Arts Center.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2YeqKA1U1Dw&feature=channel
Waltz Style
Hm, I never heard of either until your post, will give them a try. Thanks!