sDauurem by Yoosin Kim

From your seat in the theater, you watch as the orchestra tunes up, playing a few notes to establish the sound of the room and set the tone for the evening. And then… that’s it. sDauurem by Yoosin Kim takes influence from traditional Korean overtures to create an eerily liminal sound, an eternal sunrise that obliterates our concept of narrative. Composed using a variety of traditional Korean instruments and sounds, Kim applies the improvisational ethic of jazz music to a sound largely arranged and constructed on a computer. The resulting composition sees improvisation on every possible axis, with wild swings in tambre, space, and pitch that an individual, unaided player would have difficulty replicating. Through this constant digital tinkering, Kim seemingly searches across every spectrum for some ideal sound, some concept of perfection to take off and chase in order to start this journey in earnest. Instead, we trip over our feet just beyond the starting line, stumbling to and fro without choosing a path, spending energy until we realize, horrified, the irreplaceable time we’ve spent here.