​Yaeji & South Korean musician Oh Hyuk collaborate on 2 new tracks

In her first major release since her 2020 full-length mixtape ‘What We Drew 우리가 그려왔던' in 2020, Yaeji, aka Kathy Yaeji Lee, has teamed up with Oh Hyuk from Seoul-based indie-rock band Hyukoh on two new tracks — called ’29’ and Year to Year’ — that have both come paired with music videos.

Since her mixtape swept the music industry by storm, she’s put out a couple of tracks — like a track with PAC-MAN video game sounds — and one epic Boiler Room session, and now we hear why her output was a bit slow.

She said in a statement to Pitchfork, “When I was feeling a bit stuck and stagnant with music, Hyuk helped me find the joys of creating again, and this was my first time collaborating with someone so closely on music.

”We spent many days together in the studio in Seoul, sometimes not even making music but just chatting about how we grew up and sharing meals together, and our musical collaboration blossomed as our friendship grew.”

The collaboration also sees both artists exploring new sounds, with ’29' sounding a lot like Yaeji fronting a groovy electronic rock band as she spurs her signature English lyrics and ‘Year To Year’ a Korean vocal collaboration set against a laidback futuristic beat.

Hyuk, who previously collaborated with Peggy Gou on ‘Nabi’, added, “Yaeji and I first started to jam when Yaeji visited Seoul last summer. At that time, I was experiencing a kind of 'musician's block' and the jams with Yaeji acted as a catalyst for me and brought back the joy of working on music again.”

“Through the jams we made many tracks, Yaeji soon began to plan the framework for ‘Year to Year’ and I did the same for ’29’. For the videos, we worked with Directors DQM and Nam Eunuk, who are both close friends of ours. It was the love and support of many friends that made the music videos come to life. I would like to send my undivided appreciation to them.

Watch the videos below:

[Images by Pakbae with Art Direction by Dasom Han]