bela

Originally from Paju, South Korea, bela (they/them) is a musician and performance artist based in Berlin and Prague. Their work combines electronic music with pungmul—a Korean folk tradition rooted in agricultural rituals and social movements—and raw vocals influenced by extreme metal. Using heavy distortions and guttural cries, bela turns pungmul into a ritual of queer rage and grief. Their debut album ‘Noise and Cries 굉음과 울음’ (2024) was co-released on Subtext and Unsound.

It includes five avant-garde basement experiments and two ambient pieces, reflecting on the precarity of life in South Korea, queer identity, broken relationships, and survival. bela also collaborates on audiovisual performances with Theresa Baumgartner and Lukas Feigelfeld and performs improvised vocals with AKA HEX (Aïsha Devi and Slikback). Their solo and collaborative live performances have been featured across Europe at Berghain (DE), Trauma Bar und Kino (DE), Nowadays (NY), Schauspielhaus Zürich (CH), Lunchmeat (CZ), Cafe OTO (UK), CTM Festival (DE), Ephemera (PL), Unsound Kraków (PL), Rewire Festival (NL), Le Guess Who? (NL), transmediale (DE), and EVA International (IE).

As a DJ, bela focuses on system music with deep, heavy rhythms, moving through genres like Bass, Dubstep, Grime, and UK Garage. They debuted in Seoul’s underground scene in 2017 at Cakeshop (KR) and have since played at clubs like Tresor (DE), Säule (DE), ALL Shanghai (CH), and Ankali’s Planeta Za (CZ), among others. bela co-runs Sorrow Club, an event series combining music and non-music formats. They were nominated for the SHAPE+ Platform 2023–24.