When I wrote up South Korean dreampop trio Swiimers back in January, they’d been radio silent for over a year since their last singles “Knight Verse” and “Winter Resolution” dropped at the end of 2022, and I assumed they – like many indie bands from Asia – had simply quietly ceased operations to move on with their lives. But then this Spring, some unexpected Instagram activity advertising shows around Seoul showed up in my feed, and indeed the band are back on active duty.
It’s only performances right now, but while we wait for something/anything new, here’s a video for a single released in 2018 entitled “You Do Not Believe In Eternity”. It’s comprised of 2017 tour footage of a European tour built around an appearance at Liverpool Sound City Festival. In the description, they say:
스위머스의 시린 사랑 노래 ‘Polaris’와 ‘Woodstock’을 잇는 “영원을 믿지 않아도”에는 겨울이 가득하다. “이 삶에 아무런 의미 없다고 해도” 살아가고 사랑하는 연인들에게 바치는 엘레지 elegie.
Swiimers – “You Do Not Believe in Eternity” @ YouTube
(“Even If You Don’t Believe In Eternity”, which follows the Swimmers’ bittersweet love songs “Polaris” and “Woodstock”, is full of winter. An elegy dedicated to lovers who live and love “even if this life has no meaning.”)
It also says that this, and two subsequent singles – presumably the 2022 releases noted above – are earmarked for a new album, their connectedness backed up by their similarly-themed cover art. One hopes that the downtime was devoted in part, at least, to writing the remainder of that follow-up to 2016’s self-titled EP.
Additionally, appetite for new material was satiated somewhat by discovering that Swiimers had a previous incarnation as Ultra High Frequency or UHF Seoul – it’s not clear – and a mini-album of the same name came out in 2012. It’s a little more up front-sounding than the hazy dreaminess that Swiimers cultivates, but still very much the same band. I don’t know if the name change was for stylistic reasons or just for marginally easier searchability, but it’s a record worth seeking out if you like what you hear.
