WEBZINE ACC

As twilight descends, the Asia Culture Museum’s Special Document Viewing Room buzzes with young people adorned in unique attire. Their eyes gleam with excitement and anticipation as they eagerly await the performance of DJ Soulscape. Despite the fatigue of a weekday evening, they have gathered to see DJ Soulscape up close and listen to his music.

DJ Soulscape, renowned as a producer, DJ, and music archivist, is deeply fascinated by vanishing music from specific eras and regional cultures. This passion likely led him to enthusiastically join the “Asian Sound Archive Project,” initiated by the Asia Culture Centre (ACC) Foundation.

The “Asia Sound Archive Project” aims to reinterpret and revive the music of the past into present-day sounds with contemporary musicians. It seeks to uncover and compile diverse Asian sounds, including Korean, integrating them into the project’s identity and promoting them as widely accessible cultural artifacts.

The album “The Prophet,” officially released in collaboration with the Studio 360 Light Music Group, is the outcome of these endeavors. Composed, arranged, and curated by DJ Soulscape, it is an all-star project featuring prominent Korean artists such as Cadejo, Yoon Seok-cheol, and Kim Okie. The album’s title, “The Prophet,” is also extraordinary. With a short word, it makes a strong impression. While its Korean counterpart translates to “prophecy,” the English title “The Prophet” carries a special intention.

It hints at the challenging environment of the 1960s and 1970s for Korean light music and jazz music, where producing “authentic” jazz recordings was difficult. Despite these obstacles, musicians of that era left behind works that “prophesied” a new “glocal” music genre merging traditional Korean music with jazz and contemporary sensibilities.

The album comprises seven tracks prominently inspired by traditional Korean folk songs such as “Milyang Arirang,” “Saetaryeong,” and “Jajinmori.” In an interview, Lee Pan-geun, a pioneering figure in Korean jazz theory, emphasized, “Studying folk music, including folk songs and pungmul, and integrating them into jazz is our unique approach to capturing the essence of Korean jazz.” Led by DJ Soulscape, Studio 360 pays tribute to the Korean jazz identity shaped by Lee Pan-geun, re-imaging familiar Korean folk tunes such as “Milyang Arirang” and “Saetaryeong” in a contemporary context through their 2024 release “The Prophet.”

‘One track from the album, “Baram,” has a fascinating backstory. Sharing its title with “Baram,” composed by Shin Joong-hyun, the piece features a nylon guitar as the focal point, complemented by electric and traditional guitars. During the creative process, jazz pianist Yoon Seok-chul was instructed to evoke a turbulent atmosphere akin to swirling winds. A vibraphone was added to enhance a melancholic mood, and a soulful saxophone sound narrates a poignant tale. The resulting composition, “Baram,” evokes a nostalgic ambiance reminiscent of recordings from Seoul Records during the nascent years of the 1960s and 1970s recording industry.

In the first part of the listening session, audiences embarked on a journey through DJ Soulscape’s extensive archive and musical reflections that culminated in the creation of the project album “The Prophet.” Listening to “Hate” on vinyl from Kim Hee-gap’s “Salon Music Vol. 2” provided insight into how Korean light music of the 1960s and 1970s already embodied a sophisticated form of Korean jazz. DJ Soulscape compared Korean light music to bibimbap, noting its diverse ingredients that create distinctive flavors depending on their combination.

The second part of the session featured DJ Soulscape’s live performance at Parachute, an LP bar in Jangdong. Throughout a two-hour set, attendees enjoyed the eclectic musical bibimbap mixed by the DJ’s expert hands. The fusion of 1960s and 1970s melodies with contemporary beats created an atmosphere that was unfamiliar and sophisticated.

The project album “The Prophet” is available on various music platforms, and vinyl copies are available at the ACC’s merchandise store, DLAC. In addition, a range of collaborative products, including T-shirts, hats, handkerchiefs, metal keyrings, and ceramic plates with Busan-based subculture brand Sound Shop Balansa, are also on offer.