Lacuna's 'Mangwon Funk' Created from Mangwon-dong Market Sounds... Improvisational Songwriting Using Puffed Rice and Ventilation Sounds

A video has been released showing the process of the band Lacuna transforming everyday noises collected in the Mangwon-dong area of Mapo-gu, Seoul, into musical elements. Lacuna collected various sounds heard in places like Mangwon Market and playgrounds, and proceeded with improvisational songwriting by reconstructing them into drum, bass, and synthesizer sounds.

Everyday noises of Mangwon-dong market transform into musical samples

The members of Lacuna visited Mangwon Market to capture the 'feeling of people living' in Mangwon-dong. The video captures the members collecting various sounds occurring in the market. According to the secured video content, the members captured the sound of puffed rice worth 3,000 won, the voices of market merchants, the sound of wind coming from ventilation ducts, and sounds heard from restaurants and other places. In particular, the sound of puffed rice and the sound of soju glasses clinking were mentioned as candidates to be used as snare or percussion sounds for the song in the future.

The collected sounds were designed to act as core instruments of the song rather than simple background noise. In the video, attempts were shown such as using the ventilation duct sound like white noise to serve as the ambience for the song's introduction, or implementing a feeling similar to bass sounds by drawing inspiration from the RPM (revolutions per minute) of a grass trimmer's sound. Additionally, some of the collected sounds underwent a process of adjusting the pitch to convert them into kick drums or synthesizer sounds.

Dakgangjeong, mackerel, cafes, and improvisational lyric writing filled with memories

After the collected sounds and instrumental composition were prepared, the members spontaneously wrote lyrics reflecting the characteristics of Mangwon-dong. The lyrics in the video mention food items from the Mangwon-dong market such as dakgangjeong, mackerel, and kalguksu, and include the content, "If you go to Mangwon, there is dakgangjeong, there is mackerel, there are cafes, and there are memories." During the lyric-writing process, the members shared each other's memories or preferences for specific foods to form the atmosphere of the song.

During the song composition stage, the division of roles and exchange of musical opinions took place among the members. The members set the chorus of the song as 'the mask of Mangwon' and discussed a method of dividing the vocals in certain sections. In particular, at the end of the video, they are shown shaping the song 'Mangwon Funk', which captures the sentiment of Mangwon-dong, based on the results made by combining the collected sounds.

Everyday sounds into music, Lacuna's improvisational musical experiment

This work is described as an experimental process that took everyday sounds as a source of musical inspiration. The members of Lacuna expressed their feelings that they confirmed musical growth through the process of market merchants' greetings or everyday noises being converted into musical melodies or rhythms. The video captures the flow of music production, where drum patterns are composed and layers are built based on the 27 sources collected.