A question after four years — Choi Jin Hee's 'Who is it'

When someone who has sung for a long time releases a new song after a long gap, that song is heard twice. Once as itself, and once overlaid on the time that person has passed through.

The singer of '사랑의 미로' released a song on August 1, her first in four years.

A four-year gap

This song came out at 6 p.m. on August 1.

Item	Detail
Artist	Choi Jin Hee
Song	'Who is it'
Release	August 1, 6 p.m.
Genre	Jazz altered bossa nova
Previous new song	Four years ago

Four years is not a short time. But for someone with a long career, four years is less a gap than an interval. Anyone with enough songs already can take the stage without new material.

So when this kind of artist releases something new, it isn't for lack of anything to sing. It means something arrived that she wants to sing now.

Choosing bossa nova

The song sits on a jazz altered bossa nova rhythm.

Bossa nova is not music you belt. Instead of pushing the voice up, you hold it low; instead of landing squarely on the beat, you let it slide a little. It's a form that suits someone who has sung for a long time.

Past the years of competing on sheer volume, a voice gets used differently. How you place it matters more than how loud you make it. Bossa nova is a good vessel for showing that change.

The question 'Who is it'

The title is a question — and a formally polite one at that.

You don't ask this of someone you know. The phrase comes out when you don't know who is standing in front of you, or when someone you knew has turned unfamiliar.

It's said to hold the loneliness and longing of someone carrying the pain of a parting. Set that description beside the title and who the question is aimed at looks a little different. It could be the person standing there, or the self that has changed.

Which is why the formality matters too. It's a register that keeps distance. There are moments when polite speech comes out toward someone who used to be close.

Tonight, try it like this

Leave one light on and keep the volume down. Play bossa nova loud and the slide in the rhythm disappears.

Then bring up one person you haven't seen in a long time. You can go as far as wondering whether you'd recognise them now.

A song sung now by someone who has sung for over forty years doesn't land the way her debut songs did. The same voice, but with different time loaded into it. That difference shows not in technique but in where she lowers it.

Late at night, faces you passed during the day sometimes surface. Try handing this phrase to one of them: 'Who is it'.