Last year marked a lot of firsts for me: first festival (SXSW), first time interviewing a Korean artist, first time meeting my new sisters in indie, Jenna and Rebecca. Among those was the opportunity to see my first electronica artist live: haihm. Though the lighting was a bit of an issue (as was her placement) that didn’t stop me form being in absolute awe of just how big her sound was.
haihm’s music combines all my favorite elements of house music: powerful melody, elemental beats, and space-aged madness. She has a soft presence. Small in stature, she doesn’t take up much space on a stage. However, what’s magical about her sound is that she doesn’t try, nor does she have to. She knows her place, knows where she belongs, and that’s right behind that mixing table creating sounds that would just knock your socks off.
One of the highlights of SXSW 2016 for me was getting to watch haihm in action. The visuals of her stage show, as with her music videos, are electrifying. Each image dances delicately on the line between beautiful and a little bit unsettling. Each buzz of feedback scratches into place, seeming to be more than just a sound distortion. Everything about her music is full of meaning, imagery, a dose of the fantastic boiled down, every molecule of sound, every particle augmented, making her music so much more than the sum of its parts. It’s all parts, all sounds, all elements.
Really, if you haven’t gotten a chance, you simply must experience her sound for yourself. I’m sure you’ll find haihm to be quite a surprising artist.
Please check out haihm and all her latest projects:
Rock 'N Seoul 