Sori Frontier

“Sound Frontier” is the Sori Festival's project that has been running since 2010 to discover new artists, now in its 15th year. A total of 43 teams have been selected and introduced to major overseas stages such as the Penang Jazz Festival (Malaysia) and Skiyaki Meets the World (Japan), constructing the foundation for new possibilities for traditional Korean music and its expansion into the global market.

This year's Jeonju Int'l Sori Festival has been chosen as the representative traditional genre festival by the “Genre-Specific Market Hub Support Project” organized by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Korea Arts Management Service. In this context, the festival will launch <SoriNEXT>, the only traditional music distribution platform in Korea. Through this new attempy, “Sori Frontier” aims to go beyond discovering new artists and serve as a platform connecting artists with the music market.

“Korean Music Group SOAK,” “SINAVI,” “Gong-Sang,” and “Cho Suna” are the selected teams by the Sound Frontier competition, having passed the second round (live performances). They will perform on the stage at the <SoriNEXT> showcase during the Sori Festival period: on August 13 (Wed) and 14 (Thu). One team selected through expert and audience evaluations will have an international showcase later this year. Let us keep attention to see which team will be chosen in the end.

Korean Music Group SOAK

"Korean Music Group SOAK" is a group that aims to create “popular music that does not lose its essence” by blending traditional base with modern music, under the motto “Seeing people through music.” “Not losing the essence” means preserving and passing on their identity embedded in traditional sounds, while being “popular” refers to the way they interpret and express the essence in their todayness. Rather than simply performing sounds passed down through generations, the group seeks to recreate and reinterpret music that resonates with the times and the people of the times, thereby creating new traditions. Through their music, which harmoniously blends diversity instead of removing it, SOAK reveals the identity of the community connected through music as well as the nature.