Ki! is back. After his impressive debut The Boy from Haeundae Beach with its 20 songs encompassing a multitude of genres, where could Ki! go with his sophomore album? Well, of course: it had to be albums. Plural. And you're in for a treat! Christian Ki Dall (his Christian name - pun very much intended - and you're welcome) has had a busy 2023 playing live with his trio. The demand has been overwhelming and the group visited a lot of venues across Europe and also the show case festivals SxSW (US), Reeperbahn (DE), SPOT (DK) and Waves (AT). But Ki! also found the time to write and produce a slew of new tunes. They will be released in two installments: Yong-Gwanglo parts 1 & 2. Part one will be out on April 4th to coincide with his first Denmark-wide tour and the summer festival season. Part two is slated for release exactly 2 years after the 2022 debut. Yong-Gwanglo means "Melting Pot" in Korean. It's telling of both Ki!s music and his personal biography. As is reflected in his name, he was born in Korea (Ki) but raised in Denmark (Christian Dall) and his taste and knowledge of music, production and songwriting can definitely be described as global. As was the case on the debut, Ki! plays all instruments except the strings, horns, a guitar solo by Sune Rose Wagner (The Raveonettes, Psyched Up Janis) and theremins by Yebo (The Tremolo Beer Gut, Junior Senior etc), recorded, mixed, produced and mastered every single track - and apart from a cover song ("Pannonica" by Thelonious Monk) and some lyrical input from the legendary Danish band Laid Back ("Disco Man") Ki! wrote all these fine tunes on his lonesome. A jack of all trades - and a master of all, except... even though our lad from Haeundae Beach can surely sing he prefers to leave the leads to friends and icons like John Guldberg (Laid Back), Toke Bo Nisted (D/troit), Charlotte Schultz (who also appeared on The Boy...), Toby Ernest, Trung Hoa Tran (also a re-appearance form the debut) and of course several contributions from Simone Tang (solo artist in her own right but also plays the bass in the Ki! live band). In this first dive into Ki!s melting pot we'll find more groovy afro beat, some unapologetic disco with an even less apologetic over the top guitar solo, lo-down field recordings-style guitar tracks, retro-futuristic Asian synth anthems and so much more. The unifying aspects of Ki!’s sound – the touches and timbres that make Ki! Ki! – unfold underway. There is a holistic aspect to his eclecticism that gives the album the breadth and depth that ultimately is the real attraction.
