SEOUL, November 04 (AJP) - Thirty years after his solo debut, pianist and composer Yang Bang-ean finally sees himself as a musical nomad, shaped by years of moving across countries, genres and projects.
That realization has taken form in “Nomadesque,” one of the new works on “NEW HORIZON,” his first full solo album in 11 years.
“My roots are in Korea, but I was born in Japan, and I’ve traveled to many places, absorbing many things and turning them into music,” Yang said at a press conference in Seoul on Wednesday.
“I thought that maybe I’ve lived that way all along.”
For Yang, “nomad” does not simply mean a wanderer. He described a nomad as someone not fixed to one place, carrying experiences gathered along the way. Adding the suffix “-esque” to “nomad,” as in musical titles such as “Arabesque” and “Humoresque,” led him to “Nomadesque.”
The piece features Ha Hyun-woo, the vocalist of rock band Guckkasten. Yang had initially considered making it instrumental before deciding to use Ha’s voice without conventional lyrics, treating it as part of the musical texture.
“Nomadesque” is one of 13 tracks on “NEW HORIZON,” due out Nov. 27. The album follows “Embrace,” released in 2015.
The 11-year gap did not mean Yang stopped composing.
He spent much of that period writing for films, games, museums, cultural heritage projects and regional events. Looking back, Yang said those commissions were not separate from his solo career but had changed the music he eventually brought back to it.
“When I think about how I have made music and how I have grown, I cannot leave those works out,” he said.
The difference this time is where that experience returns.
While “Embrace” emphasized the combination of band and symphonic orchestra, “NEW HORIZON” brings Yang’s piano more firmly back to the center.
His compositions often begin there, then expand according to the subject -- into orchestra, voice or Korean traditional instruments rather than following a fixed genre.
“Sayu” shows that process.
The piece grew out of Yang’s work with the National Museum of Korea’s “Room of Quiet Contemplation,” which houses two pensive bodhisattva statues. He spent several years developing music around the project, searching for sounds that could express contemplation rather than simply attaching traditional elements to it.
The resulting work combines piano with orchestral textures and Korean instruments, including piri and taepyeongso.
For Yang, the subject comes before the instrumentation.
That approach also shaped “Rebirth,” written for the 60th Danjong Cultural Festival in Yeongwol, Gangwon Province.
The piece combines piano, orchestra, percussion and taepyeongso, carrying the sorrow associated with the deposed Joseon king while moving toward a more forceful and hopeful sound. Yang said traces of “Arirang” emerged in the music without directly quoting its melody.
His relationship with Korean traditional music developed in much the same way.
Yang did not formally study gugak**, or Korean traditional music**. He became fascinated with Korean traditional instruments after beginning work in Korea in 1999.
“I’m not someone who majored in traditional Korean music,” Yang said. “I came to Korea in 1999, saw traditional instruments being played and fell for them.”
But he never stayed exclusively within that world.
He continued writing orchestral music, animation and game scores**,** and other projects before returning to Korean instruments again. That ability to move away and come back, he said, has allowed those sounds to become a natural part of his music.
His understanding of “Arirang” also changed through that process.
Yang knew the folk song from growing up in Japan, but said he only came to grasp its breadth much later when he was asked to arrange and perform it in Korea.
“The Arirang I thought I knew was nothing,” he said.
What interested him was not simply preserving the melody, but seeing how it could continue changing as younger musicians interpreted it in different ways.
That openness has also taken Yang in the opposite direction -- toward worlds that do not exist at all.
He composed music for NCSoft’s “AION” and later returned for the sequel, “AION 2.” Yang said games and animation appealed to him because they allowed a composer to imagine where music might travel without the constraints of a physical place or historical subject.
Those seemingly unrelated projects now sit together on “NEW HORIZON.”
Alongside “Sayu” and “Rebirth,” the album includes “Dragon’s Panorama,” written for a digital reconstruction of the ancient Silla royal capital, as well as works that begin with far more personal memories.
“Wind Phone,” for example, was inspired by the telephone booth in Otsuchi, Japan, where visitors speak to loved ones who have died.
For Yang, bringing such different works onto one album reflects what he realized while looking back on 30 years.
“The 30th anniversary gave me a chance to look back,” he said. “Until now, I had just kept moving forward. This time I realized, ‘This is how I learned music.’”
“NEW HORIZON” is not simply a collection of the projects that filled the years since his last solo album.
It brings what Yang absorbed from them back into his own music, with the piano again providing the center.
Yang will perform the new material at the concert “UTOPIA – NEW HORIZON” on Nov. 28 and 29 at the National Theater of Korea’s Haeoreum Grand Theater. The 26-member lineup will combine his piano with a band, an orchestra, and Korean percussion and wind instruments.
Ha will also join Yang for the first live performance of “Nomadesque.”
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