myKOREA with Abi Raymaker

As part of our myKOREA series, we’ll be asking someone on the local scene to share their journey through Korean culture by naming their favourite musicians, movies, and artists. We’ll also be asking them to tell us about one more thing of their choosing.

Abi “Fab Ab” Raymaker is an internationally published photographer, punk drummer, and all-round living legend. Her work covering musicians such as Lang Lee and Depeche Mode has been featured in some high-profile magazines and was exhibited at our first and only art show. She’s a member of local supergroup Sailor Honeymoon and a one half of DJ-duo Scoops. Basically, she’s someone you want at a party.

Follow Abi on Instagram at @abiraymaker.

Music: SOUMBALGWANG

There are so many bands and artists I love in Korea, but lately, I’ve been loving the Busan band Soumbalgwang. Seeing live music always helps me connect more with an artist’s music, and I was able to see them live a bunch of times this past summer. Their music is very raw and powerful, but also very beautiful and melodic at times. I’ve never been super into post-hardcore music specifically, but this band is just undeniably good. My favorite songs right now are 방 Room, 이브 Eve, 기쁨 Happiness, and 춤 Dance.

Movie: CHOSEN (2022)

I first saw this film at the Jeonju Film Festival in spring of 2022. It is a documentary chronicling the campaign of five Korean Americans with very different political views running for US Congress. I was surprised at how much the film affect me immediately- seeing the wide diversity within the Korean American diaspora represented so artfully was extremely powerful. I highly recommend this film to anyone looking to understand a little bit more of the complexity of the Korean American identity, or to anyone who wants to see a moving story documented by a talented filmmaker.

Art: AYOUNG KIM

I saw Ayoung Kim’s video art piece, Porosity Valley 2: Trickster’s Plot, at the 2019 MMCA Korea Artist Prize exhibition. It reminded me of the feeling of a dream where you understand what it is alluding to but it exists in a surreal and untouchable universe where different rules of logic apply. The story touches on themes of xenophia, mass migration, the hyper-digital world, and more. All the music was composed by CIFIKA, which only elevated it even more.

One more thing: D

I’ve been working on a project with the production company LSV Union for the past couple of years where we highlight independent musicians from Korea. We wanted to think of what a super simplified digital magazine could be (and which parts we could execute just the two of us), so we use Instagram as our “gallery space” to post photos of each artist and a Spotify playlist to introduce anyone curious to the artists’ music. It’s a purely personal project so we curate it ourselves and I direct all the visual aspects. If you enjoy following Korean independent music please check it out!