LUMEN

Seoul, South Korea · four-member idol group · Dohyun (b. 2004) · Siwoo (b. 2005) · Jaehyuk (b. 2005) · Hojun (b. 2006) · FARA Records

LUMEN are four Seoul-based idols built around a single cosmic-romantic idea: that the right connection finds you across any distance, like starlight finally arriving. Dohyun (Seo Do-hyun, b. 21 June 2004), the leader and main vocalist, is the eldest — raised in a household that always had music in it, a mother who sang, a piano nobody could walk past without playing a few bars. His warm tenor opens the track and anchors the chorus; he learned to cook so he could feed the members on long practice nights, and still keeps the group's schedule in a worn paper planner he refuses to digitise.

Siwoo (Lee Si-woo, b. 3 March 2005), the lead vocalist and visual, is the delicate, artistic one who noticed the look and feel of things before anything else — the colour of a sky, the hush of a gallery. His breathy falsetto is the “starlight” itself, floating above the chorus and carrying the exposed high notes of the bridge; he collects film Polaroids of skies, insisting “no two are ever the same,” and is a group legend for being able to fall asleep anywhere, instantly.

Jaehyuk (Park Jae-hyuk, b. 23 October 2005), the main rapper, grew up in Seoul on hip-hop, dance crews and Y2K everything — the cool kid who filled notebooks with rhymes and knew every sneaker drop. His melodic rap line rides the Y2K-cool second verse and the bridge intensity; obsessive about vintage sneakers, he freestyles backstage to keep his nerves down.

Hojun (Kim Ho-jun, b. 2 April 2006), the maknae and main dancer, has been a dance kid since primary school — b-boy battles, contemporary classes, never still for a second. He's the performance centre, and he invented the song's signature “pointeu” point-move himself, in the practice-room mirror; he can land the choreography perfectly while talking through it, and mother-hens the older members despite being the youngest.

Together they draw on the 4th-generation idol-pop landscape — RIIZE, ENHYPEN, TXT, SEVENTEEN, Stray Kids, ATEEZ and NCT — and the high-gloss HYBE / SM production lineage, continuing K-pop's long tradition of cosmic, starlight-and-night-sky concepts. Personality in three words — Dohyun: steady, warm, dependable. Siwoo: gentle, dreamy, elegant. Jaehyuk: cool, witty, charismatic. Hojun: bright, mischievous, energetic.