Geoam Art Hall to Host World Premieres of 7 New Contemporary Music Works on October 8

Sound begins to disappear the moment it resonates. However, does everything disappear along with the sound? It may remain as reverberation and memory, permeate into other sounds, or sometimes, even if it cannot be heard, continue to wander through our memories and imaginations.

‘Trace of Vanished Sound’ poster ©Hyundai Culture

The contemporary music project ‘Trace of Vanished Sound’, which explores the ‘traces’ left by vanished sounds through the musical imagination of contemporary composers, will be held at Geoam Art Hall on Thursday, October 8, 2026, at 7:30 PM.

Selected as a 2026 Seoul Foundation for Arts and Culture Arts Creation Activity Support B-Track project, this performance is hosted by composer Soo Yeon Lee, managed by Hyundai Culture, and supported by Seoul and the Seoul Foundation for Arts and Culture. Additionally, SEOUL AUTUMN FESTA is cooperating.

Looking at ‘after disappearance’ rather than ‘disappearance’

Music is a temporal art. Once a sound occurs, it disappears along with the flow of time, and those moments connect to form a single work. ‘Trace of Vanished Sound’ begins its inquiry right here.

‘What remains after the sound disappears?’

This project focuses on ‘after disappearance’ rather than the occurrence and disappearance of sound itself. Seven composers explore ‘what is left after disappearance’ through different musical languages, including the process of how past sounds and images are transformed in memory, the traces that emerge anew by forming relationships with other sounds, and the process where objects and sounds that have lost their original use gain new roles.

All the works to be presented on stage are new works of 2026 and world premieres.

A total of 7 pieces will be performed, including No Ji-eun’s ‘Zustrom’, Kwon Young-seok’s ‘Sepia.’, Jeon Ji-eun’s ‘Ear-Splitting Aftermath’, Soo Yeon Lee’s ‘Die Schatten der Sterne II’, Song In-seo’s ‘The Wandering of Memories Let Go’, Jang Hwa-won’s ‘間 [After Ma]’, and Na Seok-ju’s ‘Dummy II’.

The first work, composer No Ji-eun’s ‘Zustrom’, looks at the existence of the ‘self’ formed amidst names, calls, and gazes that constantly rush in through the lips of others. It uses the sounds of bass flute and bass clarinet to pose the question of whether one can reclaim a complete self beyond the process of building oneself through the language and gaze of others and its traces.

Kwon Young-seok’s ‘Sepia.’ starts from the sepia tones appearing in old photographs where time has passed. Just as a photograph leaves traces even after losing its original color, the music expands the idea that vanished sounds also exist within the next sound as reverberation and memory. In particular, it sets the familiar functional harmonic progression of ii-V-I as a single ‘vanished sound’, and rather than presenting it directly, it reveals only traces through fragments of harmony, intervals, and timbre.

The work by composer and conductor Jeon Ji-eun, ‘Ear-Splitting Aftermath’, starts from the gap between the physical sound we actually hear and the sound perceived in the brain. It explores ‘inability to hear’ and ‘absence’ as musical paradoxes, such as frequencies and amplitudes that humans cannot perceive, and auditory stimuli that do not actually exist but are generated in the imagination.

From the shadows of stars to memories and scrap metal... Seven perspectives looking at ‘traces’

Part 2 begins with Soo Yeon Lee’s ‘Die Schatten der Sterne II’, the composer who planned this project.

This work, meaning ‘Shadow of the Stars II’, looks at stars, the shadows created from them, and the traces that remain even after they disappear. It expresses through music the idea that scattered fragments of sound permeate into other instruments and time, hiding or revealing each other, and finally, a sound similar to the beginning returns, but because it already carries the traces of time and change, it can no longer be the same existence as the beginning.

Song In-seo’s ‘The Wandering of Memories Let Go’ views the act of listening to sound as a ‘process of remembering vanished sounds’. Just as fragments of memory carelessly let go survive in the unconscious and eventually form a person's ego, the clear musical figures at the beginning of the work gradually become distorted and faint, yet leave their traces throughout the piece.

Jang Hwa-won’s ‘間 [After Ma]’ looks at today's situation where machines and systems created by humans replace human speech. In a situation where voices remain in a form capable of repetition and reproduction, but the humans actually speaking gradually disappear, it asks ‘what meaning can human speech have?’

Na Seok-ju’s ‘Dummy II’, which decorates the end of the performance, began from the composer's memory of a massive pile of scrap metal encountered on the outskirts of Cologne, Germany. Like objects that once had their own uses but have lost their original purpose, the work calls back things that have exhausted their use and assigns them new musical roles. The sounds meet, break, and repeat, creating another musical time.

Focusing on the ‘process of creating together’ rather than the completed performance

What is particularly eye-catching in this project is that composers of different generations shared the creative process under a single theme.

Four commissioned composers—Soo Yeon Lee, Na Seok-ju, No Ji-eun, and Jeon Ji-eun—and three student composers—Jang Hwa-won, Kwon Young-seok, and Song In-seo—participated, sharing their respective creative processes and thoughts through seminars and open workshops. In that process, the student composers continuously reviewed and developed their works.

Therefore, this performance does not merely stop at putting seven completed works on stage once. It is meaningful in that composers with different experiences and musical languages shared the creative process, and it is a result created after that process led to education and communication.

The project planner, Soo Yeon Lee, obtained degrees in composition and composition pedagogy from the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz in Austria after graduating from the composition department of Hanyang University, and has presented works through commissions such as the 2025 Daegu International Contemporary Music Festival and the 2024 C-Camerata Taipei International Contemporary Music Festival. Recently, she has been continuing a series of works with ‘shadow’ and ‘wave’ as main subjects and is currently lecturing at Hanyang University and Mokpo National University.

The performance features Son So-i on flute, Jeong Gyu-sang on clarinet, Jo In-young on violin, Ko Young-ju on cello, Yoo I-sak on double bass, and Chae Hyeong-bong on percussion, with composer Jeon Ji-eun also participating as the conductor. Performers who are actively working on domestic and international contemporary music stages will realize the different sound worlds of the seven new works with various ensembles.

Amidst the numerous sounds and images that are rapidly generated and consumed, we are increasingly losing the opportunity to linger on a single sound for a long time or to look back at the place where it has passed.

Rather than directly criticizing this trend of the times, ‘Trace of Vanished Sound’ poses the question to the audience through music: ‘What remains even after disappearing?’ The moment of experiencing the time when a single sound is born and disappears together, and looking back at the reverberation and memory left behind, is the musical experience that this project wishes to share with the audience.

‘Trace of Vanished Sound’ will be held at Geoam Art Hall on Thursday, October 8, 2026, at 7:30 PM. For performance inquiries, contact Hyundai Culture.

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