bela
Guidelines

Éditions Appærent is immensely proud to present Guidelines, an EP by South Korean musician bela. Over seven incisive tracks, Guidelines is bela’s investigation of Nongak, a traditional form of Korean folk music. Through a process of meticulously uncovering sheet music from government archives and ensemble performances on YouTube, bela has crafted an astonishing album of pulsing, splitting, time-warping music, rooted in a traditional past and yet entirely distinct from it.

bela is a unique voice in electronic music. From their first release, their music has been suffused at every level with a narrative intensity and craftperson’s attention to detail; a conceptual throughline that extends from their life directly to the musical elements of their work. In Guidelines this unique focus is found in the concept of “Jangdans” -- discrete rhythmic patterns that make up Nongak, of which tempo changes are an essential aspect. This disciplined practice makes each bela record feel like a discrete object; a unified gestalt that is larger than the sum of its parts.

Born out of the dual impulses of painstaking researching and boredom with the sound of the club music around them, Guidelines is a unique experience. Tempo shifts, so essential to Jangdans, are responsible for some of the most striking musical moments here. Tracks like “Chilchae” and “Jjaksoe” are jaw-dropping exercises in jet-propulsion percussion, building to whirling, irresistible climaxes, while the lurching, scattershot rhythms of “Variation 1” or “Bangilgunak/Byeoldalgeori” are equally compelling.

Timbrally, the record is clattering and mercurial, built on bela’s skillful sound design. Based on what could typically be heard in a Nongak ensemble, bela has purposefully alienated the sounds from their source, and the sources from their sounds; a self-described attempt to queer both the sound and meaning of Nongak. Instead of making “computer Nongak,” bela is disturbing the fine mesh of historical rhythms and timbres with alien concepts of the DAW and the current moment.

This music is, in essence and execution, non-binary. It operates somewhere along the continuum of the past and the future while sounding totally unique to the present; and doesn’t belong fully to either world. The result is a record that is singular in its vision and excellence.