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산울림 제2집

Korean Music / 1970s · 1978

산울림 제2집

산울림

Why listen

Extended guitar passages and approachable melodies share the same space without smoothing away each other’s edges.

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Tracks · previews

English editorial edition

Album story

Before the singing begins, Sanullim’s second album has already established its tension. The long opening of Spread Silk On My Heart makes the arrival of a voice feel like an event within an ongoing performance.

The rest of the record is not simply an extension of that opening. Shorter bursts and gentler melodic shapes create different rooms. A rough instrumental surface can coexist with a tune that is easy to enter, and that coexistence gives the album much of its character.

Introducing the band

Sanullim were a South Korean band built around three brothers: Kim Chang-wan on vocals and guitar, Kim Chang-hoon on bass and Kim Chang-ik on drums. Their debut appeared in 1977; this second album followed in 1978. After the opening track’s sustained preparation, Let’s Sing demonstrates a more compressed use of time. Listen to how recurring instrumental parts push against or support one another rather than isolating each player’s technique. When the guitar becomes more prominent, does the rhythmic ground change with it or hold its place?

A different surface for melody

A Flower Blooming In The Haze keeps a lyrical melody alongside abrasive guitar colour. The more intimate titles and moods elsewhere do not mean the sound becomes conventional. A conversational vocal presence and a surrounding instrumental resonance can seem slightly separate. Follow the tune on one pass, then concentrate on the repeating accompaniment beneath it. The same melody may take on a different emotional weight. Notice where the album relaxes after its more forceful moments, and what remains by the closing Leaving My Love.

Reception and editions

A later historical article on Bugs recalls the title song’s popularity and a student audience for Just The Two Of Us. That account is retrospective, not a contemporary review or an independently verified sales total. Reissue label Guerssen likewise highlights the extended opening and rough guitar textures. This page uses the ten-song digital edition without an album-level 2023 Remastered label; a separately listed remaster also exists. A remaster annotation attached to one track cannot establish the mastering history of the whole programme. Compare the performances and sequence before drawing conclusions about different editions from loudness alone.

The album through its tracks

Remember the movement before the first vocal, then compare how the next two tracks compress or loosen the sense of time.

  1. Spread Silk On My Heart

    Treat the long instrumental opening as music already in progress, rather than a queue for the singer. Follow the distorted guitar and the recurring movement beneath it, asking whether they reinforce the same direction. Guerssen’s reissue description also singles out this extended introduction, but loudness alone does not explain its effect. What matters is whether the accumulated tension dissolves when the melody arrives or remains beneath its more inviting shape. On a second pass, stop anticipating the first words and look for moments when the guitar leaves space. A consistently rough surface can contain changing densities. The border between instrumental preparation and song becomes an expressive part of the performance.

    Reference · Guerssen Records: Volume 2 reissue and arrangement description

  2. A Flower Blooming In The Haze

    The melody can be welcoming without the guitar becoming smooth. Hear those qualities together instead of treating either as an exception to the other. The reissue label’s description pairs the track’s melancholy with its distorted instrumental colour; the useful listening question is how those elements occupy the same space. Follow the vocal contour first, then shift attention to the resonance between phrases. Does it echo the singer’s mood or form a slightly distant background? Coming directly after Let’s Sing, the track also shows a change from physical momentum towards a more reflective pace. Its translated title offers an image, but you need not make that image the only interpretation of its sound.

    Reference · Guerssen Records: Volume 2 reissue and arrangement description

Listen next

Return to Sanullim’s debut to compare compact momentum with the space opened by longer instrumental passages.

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References & editorial note

Written for English readers. Album facts are referenced below; listening suggestions are editorial interpretations. AI-assisted editorial review; not independently human-reviewed.