King of Ballad returns: Lee Moon-Sae makes comeback with revived gusto

Ballad singer, Lee Moon-Sae released his 16^th album titled "Between Us" on October 22. The album includes 10 songs featuring various young artists like Heize, Sunwoo Jung-A, Jannabi and Dynamic Duo's Gaeko. The album comes after Lee's previous album "New Direction" was released in 2015.

The veteran singer made his debut in 1978 and was heralded as an icon of Korean pop music with many of his hits being played by the younger generation K-pop artists. Lee is well known for his soul-stirring emotional ballads like "Old Love" and "Standing Under the Shade of Roadside Tree". In his latest album, Lee has experimented with the genre, dishing out peppy numbers along with young musicians.

The main theme of the new album is a reminder to find common ties with others. Quoting Lee "Music reflects the dynamics of life and relationships that come in all forms and depths". He further urged his fans to listen to his songs in an open empty space with earphone to get the feel of the artist's soul-stirring emotions.

Lee hopes that his experiment with combining classical genre with peppy voices will be appreciated by all generations. Lee believes that an artist should stay abreast with the evolving trend and understands that he will lose track of his audience if he is going to produce the same kind of music he did 30 years ago. He believes in keeping up with the trend.

"Between Us" features his lead single rendered by Heize, depicting a smooth, pleasant vocal paired with soulful piano and jazz vocals. Speaking of his genre shift, Lee said, "I am more attuned to emotional, mellow music, but I challenged myself to try a different genre of music". To achieve this, Lee shortlisted 20 songs from among 200 entries he received from famous composers and finally narrowing it down further to five contenders.

Lee will next be seen at Olympic Gymnastics Arena on December 29 to 31 for his "2018 Lee Moon-Sae- The Best" concert.