Poster for the collaboration between Hyundai Motor Group and electronic musician Kirara. Photo courtesy of Hyundai Motor Group
Hyundai Motor Group (005380.KS) has translated the philosophy behind its new technologies into music through a collaboration with electronic musician Kirara.
The group said on the 13th that it had released a track titled “Jeongryeon,” a Korean word meaning refining, produced in partnership with the artist.
The piece depicts the process by which raw iron is forged through countless rounds of tempering into a single automobile. It opens with a mysterious passage suggesting the limitless potential of raw material, builds through added beats that evoke a car body taking shape, and closes on a clear, bright note as if the finished vehicle were revealed at last.
The release marks a new attempt by Hyundai Motor Group to extend its journey of technological development into the sensory language of music, part of an effort to draw closer to its customers.
Kirara began performing in 2014 and has planned and released numerous albums, including five studio albums. The artist has consistently staged more than 30 live-set performances a year, playing self-composed electronic music using a computer and a MIDI controller.
In February, Kirara won the award for Best Electronic Album at the 23rd Korean Music Awards for the fifth studio album, “KIRARA.” It was a second Korean Music Awards win, coming nine years after taking the same category in 2017 for the second album, “moves.”
“Working to express Hyundai Motor Group’s new technologies was a continuous experience of wonder, like when I first learned synthesizing to become a musician,” Kirara said. “I wanted to express the sophisticated technology that has reached a high level, and the feeling I had when encountering that technology, in music that is just as refined.”
A Hyundai Motor Group official said the track was an attempt to express the group’s new technologies as it builds innovation in the mobility market beyond industry boundaries, in areas such as robotics and software-defined vehicles (SDVs). “Through this collaboration with Kirara, who is leaving an experimental mark on Korean popular music, we want to convey the effort of ‘refining’ that Hyundai Motor Group pours into its work,” the official said.