FEATURES: RECORDING
From rail track to multitrack The Neve 88RS analogue console is at the heart of the studio
A disused railway station has been transformed into a music performance and production centre by a South Korean artist. Richard Lawn reports from Music Village 1939 EIGHTY YEARS HAVE PASSED SINCE 66KM OF RAILWAY track connected the small town of Gapyeong to Seoul in the southwest of the country. When Gapyeong’s original train station was abandoned some years ago in favour of a high-speed connection, the city council was faced with a dilemma as to how best to transform the redundant site. Industrial facilities are discouraged in this idyllic hilly location, ensuring employment and revenue creation opportunities are somewhat limited in the town itself. Fortunately, a famous Korean producer and singer had a vision of transforming both the site and the fortunes of Gapyeong. In the late 1970s, Hong-seop Song was working on the live circuit of predominantly US military bars and clubs on Incheon island as an aspiring bassist. Practising love and peace, Song recorded albums including Cho Yong Pil, Kim Hyun Sik, Han Young Ae, Spring Summer Autumn Winter, Love and Peace and Lee Eun Mi. Having performed at an annual music festival in Gapyeong, he saw the light and made it his mission to settle down there and create a music village. ‘It’s a beautiful part of South Korea and, while the festival was great for the town for those few days, I wanted to create a musical community here that would welcome artists to really relax and perform,’ he says. Song’s vision to create a musical culture centre would take him the best part of 25 years to fulfil, and he became
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the chief architect in convincing the city council to invest in his dream. The repurposed and redesigned railway station combines historical and spatial symbolism. ‘It’s only one hour away from Seoul, but it is another world,’ Song explains. ‘While our guests come here to relax with music, more creative people are inspired with new ideas and concepts in such wonderful surroundings.’ From the outside, the semi-industrial, three-storey buildings provide no clues as to what goes on behind closed doors, even though some eagle-eyed locals may recognise artists such as soprano Sumi-Jo (Jo Su-gyeong) entering and leaving. Taking its name from the year of the railway station’s inception, Music Village 1939 incorporates indoor and outdoor theatres, a cinema, a recording studio, educational facilities and guest residences. Currently promoting around 25 music-related programmes a year, the music-themed complex represents the future of the Korean music industry. Located adjacent to one another, M-Station is connected to S-Station along the old railway track by a wide, newly laid pavement – and a Dante network. M-Station combines a music hall and cinema together with offices, seminar rooms and a cafeteria. On entering the facility, the aroma of popcorn is evident, while the bright, light modern interior design betrays the façade of the exterior. The design of the artistic
Old rail tracks are now repurposed
Music Village CEO, Hong-seop Song spaces within this unique facility is unmistakably that of Japanese acoustics innovator Masami ‘Sam’ Toyoshima. His transcendent acoustic design for some of the world’s iconic recording studios and contributions in the field of architectural acoustics earned him an AES Fellowship Award in 2011; one of many accolades that recognise his work. The walls of the 12m x 16m music hall are treated with floor-to-ceiling wooden defractors and the 7.5m-high ceiling
