On June 27, 2025, Korean musical visionary Yajac unveils his latest single, “山有花산유화@my flower 진달내꼿,” a spellbinding track from the upcoming album Azaleas 100. Timed to honor the centennial of Kim So-worl’s cherished poetry collection Azaleas, the song rebirths Korean literary tradition in the era of global K-culture. Riding the current wave of international attention after Han Kang’s Nobel Prize win, Yajac meditates on the fleeting yet eternal beauty of life, youth, and memory through his new genre-bending form: K-aria.
The song blossoms with a subtle heartbeat-like thump before Yajac’s rich and operatic voice enters, soaked in feeling. His thick, deep soprano flows with precision and aching vulnerability. The emotional weight he carries is amplified by glistening guitar plucks and a gentle swell of strings that shimmer like mountain mist. Then comes the surprising backbone like a reimagining of Bach’s Cello Suite No. 1 Prelude, intertwined with jazzy electric bass and surging violin melodies. It’s as if a traditional Korean “gagok” walked into a jazz bar in Berlin and found harmony with Bach and Chick Corea at once.
The track evokes the imagery of the azalea, the mountain flower that So-worl so famously compared to love and loss, blooming brightly just before it falls. This fleetingness is captured through Yajac’s signature layering of Western classical structures with Korean tonal aesthetics.
Yajac, who first moved audiences in 1992 with Mom in Heaven, continues to reinvent Korean soundscapes. From geomungo-infused baroque to UNESCO-honored Arirang recordings, he’s long blurred the boundaries of genre and nation. Now, with “山有花산유화@my flower 진달내꼿,” the artist is composing memories.
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Review by: Naomi Joan