A song that breathes, narrowing and widening — YESUNG's 'Winds of Time'

Today's NONOL Pick is 'Winds of Time' by SUPER JUNIOR's YESUNG. We picked it because the song widens and narrows as if it's breathing. How differently the sound comes through your left and right earbuds — its stereo width, in other words — keeps changing as the song moves along.

It starts out wide. For the first 15 seconds of the music video, the acoustic instruments are spread far out to both sides. Then, between 0:37 and 0:50, where the song begins to tell its story, the sound gathers into the center, at its narrowest. It's the stretch that draws your ears to that one voice.

And then, 2:52. The low end drops out for a moment, and the sound swings wide open to both sides again. After three seconds that feel like a gust of wind sweeping through, the final chorus comes in at 3:00, and around 3:22 it swells to its fullest point in the whole song. Opening wide, then gathering in, opening again, then filling up: that flow is a good match for the 'Winds' in the title.

The song sits at the very front of 'Where We Are', the second full-length album YESUNG prepared to mark ten years as a solo artist. The full album comes out on October 6. YESUNG personally had a hand in the lyrics, which are said to look back on the time that has passed while still choosing to live in the present. Maybe that's why the music video, too, drives along with memories loaded into a single car. Kids asleep in the back seat, someone gazing out the window, and, around 3:42, a 'Winds of Time' box sitting inside the car.

You can hear stereo width far better on earbuds than through speakers. Today, put your earbuds in and listen, waiting for 2:52.