Cellist and composer Okkyung Lee has long made a name for herself as a renowned experimentalist, improviser, avant-garde jazz player, and noise-maker, but lately she has been doing something a little different. Lee's new album, Just Like Any Other Day (어느날): Background Music For Your Mundane Activities (out September 5 via Shelter Press), focuses on the keyboard instead of cello.

Lee has shared a new song, "let's walk down to the swamp together", which you can check out below:

Lee says the new single was inspired by Sherlock Holmes stories she read in her youth. She says:

"I read them in Korean translation, where the word 늪 (swamp) was used for 'marshes' — though 습지 (wetland) would’ve been more accurate. The only swamps I knew back then were the tropical ones with alligators, which didn’t seem to match the eerie English landscapes described in the stories. That slight mistranslation gave the setting a more exotic atmosphere. Since there were no swamps in Korea — and no internet, duh — I remember trying so hard to imagine what this specific 'swamp' might actually look and feel like. In the end, I decided it must be a place hauntingly beautiful, mysterious, and tinged with danger. So, the title became an invitation: to walk together into the unknown — and into my childhood memories at the same time."

According to a press release, the new LP was composed and recorded at home with " a keyboard, computer, and an inexpensive cassette recorder." It also notes that this shift in her compositional style has been accompanied by her move back to her native South Korea, after living in the US since adolescence.

Lee also has three shows currently set up in Germany, South Korea, and the UK. Find those dates below.

Just Like Any Other Day (어느날): Background Music For Your Mundane Activities is out September 5. Preorder here. Full tracklist:

1. this is a never ending story (you just need to close it)
2. hidden road (for yoo jae-ha)
3. it must’ve been the sunset (that altered my memory from that day…)
4. good morning, harrison, it’s time to go
5. let’s walk down to the swamp together
6. rainy night ride with roy
7. crows over my shoulder (take me)
8. spiral dance (up or down, i’m not too sure)
9. dear oddie, today rainbows are falling from the sky
10. lying here half awake, i hear kids outside laughing with their hearts and i think this must be the end then...
    

Tour dates:

08/30 Berlin, DE @ Atonal: Night IV (Main Stage)
09/01 Seoul, KR @ d/p
10/01 London, UK @ Kings Place