'Orbit', written at 19 and sung at 21: four songs Yun Jeong Hoon sang alone at a pirate-ship playground

Yun Jeong Hoon is a singer-songwriter who sings about youth. The 31st musician on NONOL LIVE, Yun took the stage on a hot, sunny day at the playground of Byeotgol Children's Park in Hwagok-dong, Gangseo-gu, Seoul. In front of a pirate-ship play structure with sails, carrying an acoustic guitar whose body is covered in drawings and writing, Yun sang four songs alone. The video description notes that many children came out to watch, drawn by the singing. Split the sound by instrument, and from start to finish there's nothing but guitar and voice. Times follow the video.

0:00 모르는 전화

The title means "an unknown call." The song opens with 25 seconds of guitar, and the singing starts at 0:25 with '아무렇지도 않아요' ("I'm perfectly fine"). From 1:20, the guitar carries on alone again for 25 seconds. After the song, Yun shared how it came about. Waking up the day after drinking a lot, Yun found call records from numbers that didn't ring a bell and felt as though every secret kept to oneself had come spilling out. It's a song that's both funny and sad, asking: if it's okay with you, let's just keep pretending we don't know.

4:00 궤도

The title means "orbit." Before singing, Yun said, "You might not believe it, but I turned 21 this year." The song was written at 19, with twenty just around the corner, about leaving the orbit of one's teens with the orbit of one's twenties ahead. The chorus line 'I'm falling into you every night' comes three times, at 5:06, 5:25 and 6:06. After the final '이젠 나를 놔줘' ("let me go now") at 6:30, the guitar rings on alone, with no voice, for nearly 45 seconds. After the song, Yun called it one of the most cherished of their own songs.

8:00 Say It To Me Now

A cover of Glen Hansard's song from the music film 'Once'. Yun first saw the film as a child, holding a parent's hand without understanding a thing, and recently, having become someone who sings with a guitar, watched it again and was moved in a new way. It starts on guitar at 8:00, the singing comes in around 8:25 with 'I'm scratching at the surface now', and from 9:55 it closes by repeating 'say it to me now' three times.

11:23 우리를 에워싼 꿈속에서

The title means "in the dream that surrounds us." Yun takes lyrics seriously when writing, and set out to make this song's words land differently depending on the situation: thrilling and joyful when a love is beginning, but bringing tears just reading the lyrics if it ends badly. After a guitar intro of more than 30 seconds, the singing starts at 12:00 with '우리 어느 순간부터 평소 같지는 않아요' ("at some point, we haven't been our usual selves"). On January 24, 2024, 231 days after the video went up, the song came out as 'NONOL VOL 29'. Its English title is 'In Our Dream'. Apple Music

According to the description, the next musician to play this playground was He:ro. The story of how long songs took to become NONOL VOLs is in our October 10 list.