UTOPIA / Nihil — SPINE PRESS

Hilgeum 1st Official Album
UTOPIA, 2022

Work Area: Album Cover, Teaser Video, Physical Album

Client: HILGEUM

Album Cover︎︎︎

5000 × 5000px

Hilgeum is the trio consists of Yoin Cho, the gayageum Player, Yerim Kim, the geomungo player, and Somin Park, the haegeum player. As musicians, they gathered to resonate their voices to the world through music. This album [Utopia], their first work, relates diverse emotions encountered in the life, telling the story they want to tell freely and straightly. All tracks, written together by three members, carries the color of each player. These present rich and immersive sounds through three traditional Korean string instruments. They hope this work, started from focusing their own minds and emotions, to also be extended to listeners' minds and emotions and be another story.

I set the visual concept for this album as 'a voyage to a faraway place'. While conducting research related to navigation, I discovered a 'signal through a flag' actually used by navigators in the past. The flag is made up of a combination of various geometric shapes. These individual flags represent the English alphabet. I wanted to actively use this flag as a visual metaphor and identity for music. Therefore, all major texts related to the album (album title, song title, etc.) were replaced with flag shapes. As a result, the image of the album does not intuitively reveal what it expresses, but it expresses the existence of an unspoken message conveyed by musicians through the flag code that continues to change.

Applications︎︎︎

Title Lettering (Track List 1 — 7 / Project Title), Teaser Video

Applications︎︎︎

Sleeve, Digi Pack Case (Front / Back Side), CD

Applications︎︎︎

CD, Lyric Paper

Produced & Composed by
Hilgeum (Yoin Cho, Yerim Kim, Somin Park)

25 Strings Gayageum by
Yoin Cho

Geomungo by
Yerim Kim

Haegeum, Singing bowl by
Somin Park

Mixed & Mastered by
Byoungkeuk Kim @ANTMIX

Recorded by
Jiyoung Lee @EUM Sound

Recording Directed by
Jaeha Lee (track 1-6)
Saehanbyeol Mun (track 7)

Album Design by
Marvin Kim @SPINE PRESS
Hyejin Jeon @SPINE PRESS

Photo by
Seunghawn Roh

Photo Source by
Drawingthemusic

Hilgeum Single Album
Nihil, 2022

Work Area: Album Cover, Teaser Image

Client: HILGEUM

Album Cover︎︎︎

5000 × 5000px

Nihil is a Latin word meaning “nothing” or “emptiness.” In a modern world, many people feel as if nothing is meaningful. The work expresses a hope of going beyond the nothingness. Its beginning part that starts with a fast beat portrays a mindless ego wandering without a clear purpose, stuck in a sense of emptiness. The following haegeum solo depicts a dance of insanity coming from the frustrated state of mind. The work goes on to express an intensifying dance through the dosalpuri jangdan. The repetitions and extensions in the piece’s initial part express an idea that nothingness always coexists with us and also pushes us forward, making us live our lives with a fresh mind.

Consisting of three musicians who play the gayageum, geomungo, and haegeum, Hilgeum seeks to create sincere musical sounds in this chaotic world. All of the band’s works are written through the three artists’ collaboration.

Gayageum instrument
Cho Yo-In

Geomungo instrument
Kim Ye-Rim

Haegeum instrument
Park So-Min