Four Korean and three UK musicians come together in a playlist titled Musicity Seoul 2017.
Each of the seven artists wrote a song based on the location they selected. One of the featured Korean musicians, Neon Bunny, for instance, composed a number entitled The Hill about Naksan Park in Seoul, where she spent her childhood. Her memories as well as the changes she’s witnessed at Naksan Park altogether give The Hill its emotional vibes.
On the other hand, there’s British sound artist Steve Hellier. Unlike Neon Bunny, Hellier, understandably, has no direct connection to the location he chose, Hoehyeon Citizen Apartment. Even so, he relates well to the story behind the building, which is the last civic apartment in Seoul. “I thought this building really symbolized a lot of the tensions and conflicts in Seoul. There are still people living here, but the plan is to turn it into artist studios. That really rang a big bell for me with the notion of gentrification,” he says in a short video that is made to introduce the project.
The playlist is already available for free on Musicity's website. For a limited time, the tracks are geo-tagged, so you can only listen to them when you visit the locations associated to them.
Tracklist:
1. Naksan by Neon Bunny
Naksan Park
2. In Numerous Rooms by Jang Young-gyu
Sewoon Electronics Department Store
3. Seoullo by Gabriel Prokofiev
Seoullo 7017
4. A Memory Conveyed by the Wind by Kayip
Cheongpa Hill
5. Hanyang Nanbong-ga by Music Group NaMu
Namsan Park
6. Follow the Flow by Hannah Peel
Dongdaemun Design Plaza (DDP)
7. Sound Systems by Steve Hellier
Hoehyeon Citizen Apartment
A global musical project founded in 2010, Musicity invites musicians and recording artists to compose tracks that are inspired by buildings or locations in cities around the world. Musicity Seoul 2017 is created as a part of Connected City, which is a program started by Arts, the British Council’s initiative to “create a friendly knowledge and understanding between the people of the UK and the wider world.” Arts has become a platform for artists to connect as well as provided them with grants and opportunities. It has also been setting up festivals in some countries around the world. One such example is the UK/ID, a festival linking the young creatives in the UK and Indonesia that celebrated its second year in October 2017.
