With His Song “Far” KYUL Casts A Whispered Spell Against Distance
Photo: @kyulisme/Instagram
On July 22, the Korean indie artist KYUL (결) released "Far" ("멀리"), a new single under the label POCLANOS (포크라노스). It's the kind of hushed, unhurried song that doesn't announce itself so much as it settles into the room. That stillness mirrors the feeling at the heart of its lyrics: the lingering absence of someone you wish was still beside you.
According to the release note on POCLANOS, "Far" grew out of the impulse to check in on someone who has already gone, and to ask them, gently, not to drift too far away. The note goes further: even knowing the message won't reach that person, and that they won't come back, the songwriting itself is meant to function almost like a protective charm for the singer, like some sort of private ritual.
The lyrics bear this out. KYUL asks quiet, almost mundane questions: whether the person is doing alright, what the place they've gone to is like, before admitting that longing speaks up on its own, that shared dreams have been buried, and that sleep itself has grown thin and "mirror-like." The soft-spoken lines of the chorus sound like an incantation, "don't go far, watch over me," and are followed by the confession that the singer is stuck in a state of anxiousness that is stretching on too long. This is a feeling KYUL has returned to across recent social media posts.
The sound: hushed, suspended, unmistakably intimate
Sonically, "Far" sits in a register that will feel familiar to fans of Cigarettes After Sex: it conjures that same rarefied, slow-drifting atmosphere where reverb-soaked guitar and unhurried rhythm create a kind of suspended time. KYUL's vocal delivery leans into that comparison too: soft, almost whispering close to the microphone, more interested in intimacy than power. The kind of intimate performance that fits the theme of the song aptly, enhancing the sensation that it’s more of an inward mulling rather than an outward plea. After all, as the singer explained himself in the release note, he knows that the message is never meant to arrive.
KYUL is credited across the board on this release — bass, drums, keyboard and synth, and electric guitar, mixing, and mastering all fall to the artist alone.
Part of a larger, ongoing story
“Far" isn't an isolated release. It follows last month's "Forever Dream" ("영원히 꿈"), which KYUL described, in an Instagram caption announcing that single, as the start of a new chapter built around songs drawn from KYUL's current life and state of mind — that one specifically about being distant from someone while still feeling close to them in dreams. KYUL added a note that will resonate with any listener who ever felt represented by someone’s music or art: the belief that somewhere, someone is living with the same feelings, and that if so, this song is for them. The caption closes with a promise that once enough songs accumulate, a live show announcement will follow.
Taken together, "Forever Dream" and "Far" both dwell on the gap between presence and absence, and on how dreams and words become the places where distance gets quietly undone.
Some days earlier, publishing a new profile picture on his feed, KYUL also told his followers how he’s struggling with heavy thoughts, which led him into a highly creative state, since all the tough questions, all the difficulties of his life are being poured into new music, an album he hopes to release in November. And he closed the caption by saying: “I need to break out of my shell, but the process of emerging isn’t exactly a walk in the park,” and he then thanked fans in advance for their support as he takes this "first step."
We wish KYUL all the best and wait for the album to come out in the fall!