Premiere: Yetsuby ‘Hippo Drinking Water’ (‘물먹는하마’)

Yetsuby, one half of Seoul-based production duo Salamanda, is releasing a new solo EP, ‘Water Flash’, on 21st July. Listen to ‘Hippo Drinking Water’ (‘물먹는하마’) below.

After releasing four albums in three years under Salamanda’s extrasensory ambient alias, Yetsuby continues her solo forays, which began on Taipei-based 禁 label JIN as well as through the Seoul store The Internatiiional, with a new 12” via London’s Third Place imprint.

Featuring four disarmingly beautiful cuts of interdimensional ambient music, ‘Water Flash’ sees the Seoul-born producer and DJ flaunting the world-building calibre of previous projects via newfound textural mediums. Its title cut leads off with starry-eyed synths and warm, winking percussion, introducing listeners to a sound journey across the dreamiest peaks of the ambient spectra, and drifting ever further from the frenetic breaks of Yetsuby’s early solo releases, including 2021’s ‘4040404’.

‘Electro Union’ ups the energy somewhat with punchy drums and mottled beats, before ‘Commercial Noisy Day’ returns to the soft muted palette on the project’s flipside, brushing low-key percussion and delicate keys with synths that sound like they have been submerged in water.

On the gorgeous finalé ‘물먹는하마’, which translates to ‘Hippo Drinking Water’, cascading arps shimmer with such weight and grace that they seem to abide by its own laws of gravity, making for what is likely one of the most beautiful cuts to ever land on the will Hofbauer-owned imprint.

Cementing Yetsuby as something of an ambient maestro in her own right, the ‘Water Flash’ EP finds the producer re-entering into the soundworld first established on 2022’s ‘MY STAR MY PLANET MY EARTH’, in order to conjure its dreamiest chapter yet.

Revisit DJ Mag’s 2022 interview with Salamanda here. Will Hofbauer recently released his own EP via Facta and K-LONE’s Wisdom Teeth. Listen to an exclusive mix of tracks from the label’s catalogue here. 

Yetsuby’s ‘Water Flash’ drops on 21st July via Third Place. Listen to ‘Hippo Drinking Water’ below.