Plug in. Close Your Eyes. Let “A Sea of Us” by sEODo BAND Pull You Under
Heralded as pioneers of “Joseon-pop,” sEODo BAND (서도밴드) return with “A Sea of Us” — a single that still carries echoes of tradition, though more gently woven into a modern sonic palette than in their earlier releases.
Imagine. This ocean is our ocean. It's just the two of us. It's out of this world.
Not disappearing, not being nothing.
Move to it. Dance to it.
It just flows. Us.
This is how the members depict their latest song on their social media profiles. Carried by the evocative timbre of the lead singer’s voice, the song soars gently over a dense, pulsing musical current. It doesn’t just play — it envelops, immersing the listener in a soundscape as deep and endless as the night sea.
There’s a hermetic quality to the lyrics of “A Sea of Us”. They are sparse, relying not on narrative progression but on internal resonance — the repetition of verses, the subtle interplay of sound and meaning. Each word is simple, picked with clarity, and eased onto a sonic landscape that lets it breathe, expand, echo, carried more by musicality than direct description. Over its 4 minutes and 43 seconds, the lyrics return in gentle cycles, like waves, understated on the surface, yet deeply evocative.
This is a song that speaks little, yet says so much, leaving space for the listener to inhabit its spaces and infuse them with their own inner world.
On the sea that is you, we
Dance endlessly
You and I, together
Just the two of us
At the forefront of the song is sEODo’s vocal performance, marked by emotional intensity and vivid expression. His vocal flourishes, shaped by his background in Korean traditional music, blend seamlessly with the smooth control and phrasing of modern pop, creating a dynamic interplay that makes each lyric resonate, drawing the listener into every sustained note.
sEODo BAND, a closer look
The band was formed in 2018 and is composed of vocalist and composer sEODo (서도, real name Seo Jaehyun, 서재현), keyboardist Kim Seonghyun (김성현), guitarist Yeon Taehee (연태희), bassist Kim Taeju (김태주), drummer Lee Hwan (이환), and percussionist Park Jinbyeong (박진병). They’re known for their innovative fusion of traditional Korean music (especially pansori, 판소리, a form of narrative singing that dates back to the 17th century), with various modern genres like jazz, rock, and funk, creating a unique sound they call “Joseon-pop”.
In an interview for the Korea Times in 2021, sEODo explained: “Our music is rooted in traditional music, specifically pansori. Also, there has been a long history of fusion gugak in Korea, but we don't want to be called a fusion gugak band.” He went on to detail how the band identifies as a pop band, and wants to defy the cliches of the fusion gugak category. Most notably, he said they try not to use the typical traditional rhythms of the genre: “As Latin music first became Latin-pop and then a mainstream pop genre in the international music scene, I hope our Joseon-pop will become a pop genre in the music scene worldwide.”
Certainly, sEODo’s vocal style is the first and most evident testimony to this approach. It’s a seamless blend of the high-pitched, piercing quality of traditional Korean pansori singing and modern pop vocal techniques. He brings a Korean groove into a broader pop framework. He said that his dramatic yet nuanced delivery was shaped by classical training and influences from Western artists like Amy Winehouse, Queen, and Whitney Houston.
After the formation, sEODo BAND participated in 21st Century Korean Music Project, a competition for innovative Korean music. They earned the Encouragement Award at this event. In 2019, they won the grand prize at the 11th Korea University Gugak Festival, receiving the Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism award. Later on, the band gained wider recognition through appearances on TV shows such as I Can See Your Voice (2020) and, most notably, by winning first place in JTBC’s Poongryu – Battle Between the Vocalists in 2021. Their notable releases include the mini-album Moon: Disentangle (2021) and the album Breakthrough with the title track “NillRiRi” (2024).
sEODo also studied Korean Dance (한국 무용), and you can see how that influences his hypnotic moves in the official video for “A Sea of You”, released on June 16. You can find a 1-hour loop version of the song on the band’s management’s (Stone Music Entertainment) YouTube channel, and the caption reads: “sEODo BAND’s vibe is insane. A song you should sit and listen to on a summer night by the sea”.
So, are you ready to make “A Sea of You” the wistful, emotional soundtrack of your summer nights by the sea?
Edited by Sandy Ou