'Event Horizon' seven semitones lower on a snowy playground: four songs DABINCHI sang

The band DABINCHI, NONOL's 19th musician, took the playground at Wolcheon Neighborhood Park in Changdong on a winter afternoon after heavy snow. The three members met in their first year of high school and had been playing together for 11 years when this was filmed. The name comes from the hope that people will feel the music differently, the way viewers read Leonardo da Vinci's paintings differently, and it helped that the leader's name is Choi Da-bin. Around 8:00 the camera catches the keyboardist's hands pressing the keys in red knit gloves with the fingertips cut off.

There's one habit in this session that catches the ear. All three songs DABINCHI wrote themselves start without any low end. The bottom stays empty for over a minute, and only after the first stretch does the low end come in underneath. The cover, 'Event Horizon', does the opposite: the low end arrives two seconds in.

0:10 'oh'

A song with English lyrics, meant to capture the emotional connection and beauty of being in love more than its physical side. It even has a cheeky line about putting off tomorrow and ordering pizza instead: 'Don't need to make the stuff tomorrow / Just order some pizza instead'. The low end only comes in at 1:13, after the first chorus. The song came out in June 2023 as 'NONOL VOL 16', with a 'NONOL Live Version' on the same release. Apple Music

5:52 '빛나지 않는 우리에게' ('To those of us who don't shine')

This one was still unreleased at the time of filming. When the band goes back home to see old friends now and then, friends who used to be happy with a single 10,000-won bill now struggle with anxiety about the future even with a million or ten million won. "Why have you gotten so old?" was the feeling, and the song came from sadness at seeing precious things taken for granted. After 'like children at sunset / we just wear wistful faces', the low end comes in at 7:31. The song was released as a single in June 2024, a year and four months after the video came out. Apple Music

10:29 'Event Horizon' (original by YOUNHA)

YOUNHA's song was enjoying a big chart comeback around the time of filming. DABINCHI chose it because there weren't many male versions out there. Separating out the vocals and comparing pitch with the original music video, the middle notes sit exactly seven semitones lower. A semitone is one step to the very next key on a piano, black keys included. Seven semitones is the drop from 'sol' down to the 'do' below it. The original is in A major; this version is in D major.

15:37 '바람개비' ('Pinwheel')

A single from January 2022 that also has a music video. A pinwheel can't turn by itself, only when the wind blows, the band explained: "In my own life I'm a pinwheel, but in other people's pinwheel-like lives, I want to be the wind."

Verse one opens with 'my life is like a pinwheel' and runs through 'I can't turn on my own strength' with no low end. At 17:26 the song holds its breath for a beat, at 17:27 the low end comes in, and when verse two starts at 17:48 the lyrics change to 'our life is like a pinwheel' and 'let's turn and turn together'. Right where the words move from 'me' to 'us', the bottom of the sound fills in too. At the end, 'turn, turn' repeats for over a minute before closing at 20:35 with 'my pinwheel'. Apple Music

As of October 1, the video had been played about 10,000 times. If there's someone you'd like to be the wind for, send them 'Pinwheel' on the last evening of the long weekend.