Hyundai Motor Group releases track with electronic musician Kirara to capture car-making process

Hyundai Motor Group announced Thursday it has released a new track titled "Jeongnyeon," created in collaboration with Kirara, one of South Korea's leading electronic musicians. The piece aims to express the process of transforming raw iron into a finished automobile, offering customers a fresh way to connect with the group.

"Jeongnyeon" — meaning refinement or tempering — traces the journey of cast iron through countless stages of forging until it becomes a single vehicle. The track opens with passages evoking the boundless potential of raw materials, builds with layered beats that mirror a car body taking shape, and closes with a clear, bright resolution suggesting a completed vehicle finally revealed.

To capture the feel of the advanced technologies applied in vehicle manufacturing, the track blends glitch sounds and breakbeats characteristic of the ambient techno genre, lending a quality that is at once precise and mysterious.

The release is part of Hyundai Motor Group's effort to bring customers closer by expressing the group's journey of technological development through the sensory language of music.

Kirara has been active since 2014, producing and releasing numerous albums including five full-length studio records. Her music draws heavily from British dance music of the 1990s and Japanese electronic music of the 2000s, evoking contrasting emotions of sadness and exhilaration at the same time through delicate melodic combinations.

Kirara consistently performs more than 30 live sets a year, playing her own compositions using a computer and MIDI controller. Her venues have ranged from domestic and international live and dance clubs to the Pentaport Rock Festival, the Venice Biennale in Italy, SXSW in the United States and Primavera Pro in Spain.

Kirara won the Best Electronic Album award at the 23rd Korean Music Awards in February for her fifth studio album "KIRARA" — her second win in the same category, nine years after taking the prize in 2017 for her second album "moves."

"Working to express Hyundai Motor Group's new technologies was a series of wonder, just like when I first learned synthesizing to become a musician," Kirara said. "I wanted to express in equally precise music the highly refined technology itself, and the feeling I had when I encountered it."

A Hyundai Motor Group official said "Jeongnyeon" represents an attempt to capture the group's new technologies — spanning robotics, software-defined vehicles and other innovations pushing beyond industry boundaries into the mobility market. "Through our collaboration with Kirara, who has left an experimental mark on Korean popular music, we want to convey the 'jeongnyeon' — the refining effort — that Hyundai Motor Group pours into its work," the official added.

"Jeongnyeon" is available on Hyundai Motor Group's official YouTube channel and on streaming platforms including Melon, Bugs, Spotify, Apple Music and YouTube Music. The group plans to release a manufacturing technology video featuring the track later this month.