Son Hye-eun - 1st Album: Mosaic

■ Product Description

It's beautiful. Truly beautiful folk music. This is the first impression of singer-songwriter Son Hye-eun's first full-length album [Mosaic]. No one who listens to the album would deny it. Like the dazzling morning sun pouring down after a dark night, like countless sparkles shimmering on a peaceful lake. The warm interplay of guitar and keyboard, which form the album's core, and the artist's clear vocals paint a gently luminous soundscape.

However, it's not just a beautiful album. The music is solid, and the storytelling is well-structured. [Mosaic], which captures the artist's past few years in reverse order, is quite multi-layered. She included songs she had meticulously crafted over several years, starting from the end of the album. The first track was made most recently, and the last track was made the longest time ago. This is why the emotions in the early and late parts of the album feel different. A bright and solid present, a lonely and wavering past. The "me" then and now are certainly different, but isn't life about all those moments coming together, sometimes clashing, sometimes harmonizing, and each shining in its own way? [Mosaic] is a record of youth compiled by Son Hye-eun, who is currently navigating her twenties.

In that sense, the first track 'Root' is meaningful. In this song, which gently unfolds with just a nylon guitar played by herself, she gathers a handful of sounds to grow a small, delicate root and sprout a tiny bud. And then, this song, which quietly says "I'm still here, I'm alive," is a musician's confession that even while living in a world of harsh sandstorms, her music breathes fully alive within it. The soil where her musical roots can firmly take hold is found in the title track 'Change of Season'. She energetically steps out "to meet the sprawling green sunlight as yesterday's worries fall like spring rain." Even when an unfamiliar wind blows as seasons change, she raises her head anew. The rich sound, with acoustic guitar strokes joined by violin, accordion, and banjo, and a pop melody, musically depicts a hopeful mindset.

Let's listen to the pre-released track 'Gap' alongside 'For No Reason'. 'Gap', where guitar and piano create a beautiful harmony, is a song about a relationship where two people embrace and fill each other's gaps. The lyrics "I want to fit myself perfectly into your gap" are impossible without considerable altruism and affection. In contrast, 'For No Reason', predominantly featuring serene keyboard playing, stars a character who, as the title suggests, blames and pushes away the other person for no reason. Overwhelmed even by herself, she finds it difficult to fully express affection and form relationships, contrary to her heart's desire. While the amount of time between the two songs is unknown, the "me" in 'For No Reason' has taken a step forward to become the "me" in 'Gap'.

The album's namesake song 'Mosaic' originates from Son Hye-eun's experience. Last year, while traveling in Barcelona, she fell into thought as she witnessed the brilliant multi-colored light entering Sagrada Familia through its stained-glass windows, encompassing a 360-degree view. She resolved that just as different colors combine to form one light when viewed individually, her various aspects, "though all a little rough around the edges," would create a beautiful light. As light refracts through colorful glass mosaics, the soft arpeggios of the nylon guitar, clean piano playing, and clear vocals blend to offer a delightful experience.

'How Are You Doing?' is a farewell song that recalls a longed-for person in a fresh way. The protagonist in the song has now grown past melancholic feelings or seemingly unending resentment, her pure longing for the other person having deepened. Ironically, this song, which merely asks about the other's well-being, meets with a refreshing jazz touch, leaving an even more poignant lingering impression. Though also depicting a farewell situation, the emotion of 'Even if We See the Same Moon' is somewhat different. In this song, composed with just one acoustic guitar, the protagonist has not yet overcome the loneliness of the empty space. Furthermore, those who spoke of different shapes even while seeing the same moon eventually drifted apart, leaving only the desolate, sinking 'me' in that spot. Perhaps the 'me' in 'Even if We See the Same Moon' later became the 'me' in 'How Are You Doing?'.

The album's turning point, dividing the first and second halves with different tenses and atmospheres, is another title track, 'Shower'. In this song, which develops a gentle melody centered around the nylon guitar, Son Hye-eun confesses that she had searched for happiness for a long time. "What makes me breathe when there is no joy within me," she spent time agonizing over, until one day she feels a warm embrace. Someone who fully shares a sudden shower, and comforts her by sharing her pain as if it were their own. This is not mere love. It is, so to speak, Agape. Let's look at 'You Say Harsh Words to Me'. Here, she sings coldly and solitarily that she wants to be loved only by you, and so she wants to love you and herself with all her might. What is important is the position of this song. Placed on the last track, this song is her oldest story.

Having been harsh and severe with herself, has she now come to love herself? I don't know her personally, but listening to the album, I somehow feel she has. Let's listen to the last song and then go back to the first. With [Mosaic], she has laid roots that are stronger and possess a more unyielding vitality than ever before. The diverse days experienced by Son Hye-eun, the human, are captured in this album as a clear and shining present. The first album by a singer-songwriter who weaves her own stories into captivating music has been released to the world.

Jung Min-jae (Pop Music Critic)

■ Other Special Features

Lyrics sheet included