As the scorching weather continues through summer, take a gentle breeze and relieve some stress by listening to Autumn Vacation’s soothing music. While most of the holidays in Korea occur during the summer or winter, the duo wants people to take a break and appreciate how relaxing autumn really is beneath all the work and toil that nonvacation seasons entail.

It is time to check out Autumn Vacation as they are taking over the indie music scene. This group started performing back in 2009 with two members—Jung Bobby, the male writer and guitarist, and Gyepi, the female vocalist. Before they came together to form Autumn Vacation, they were individual indie artists who also happened to admire each other’s work. This interest eventually led them to meet at the 2008 Fall Grand Mint Festival, an occasion meant to promote a modern and sophisticated lifestyle among the youth through its alternative pop and indie music.

▲ PROVIDED BY EGLOOS.

With three albums, one extended player (EP) album, and six singles, Autumn Vacation has been faithfully releasing music since their debut. Most recently, they released a compilation album called Heart House on July 7, consisting of 10 songs from previous albums and two new compositions. The quote from the members, “This album is not ‘commonly known’ as the best record” is an eye-catching introductory phrase. In a way, this new compilation album would be a fine way to understand the group’s overall song personas and get a chance to cool the heat away with their tranquil melody.

What makes Autumn Vacation quite special is that they only sell their albums and singles during their concert. Listeners and fans could listen to the song digitally, but to buy a physical album, they would have to attend the concert in person. According to Autumn Vacation, there are two reasons why they do so—the duo wants more people to come to the concert and take with them the whole performance that cannot be replicated on individual song files. For their newest single in 2017, the duo chose to add in a collection of their past songs for those who missed out on their previous concerts.

The two new songs, “Stopwatch” and “For a Name”, adds an extra layer of depth to the songs that came before. In an interview with Genie, a South Korean album distribution company, Jung Bobby said, “‘Stopwatch’ is all about that little perfection you can find in a little room, with your favorite music on and a can of beer in your hand, and a gentle breeze coming in through the windows to greet you.” The song “For a Name ” is for those people who contemplate a lot. In the words of Gyepi, “Most of the time, we cannot find a rational reason to like someone…We just feel, and we tried to incorporate the flutter of feeling when meeting that special someone for the first time.”

An interesting feature in Autumn Vacation’s new album is that they used an analog tape recorder in the studio. While mastering a song, the tone and pitch are simultaneously adjusted with the volume to make the vocals sound clearer. These enhanced qualities coupled with the light and jazzy rhythm characterizing the duo’s songs, sets this album apart from that of other indie musicians. Although Autumn Vacation utilizes a wide array of instruments, its charm lies in the predominant strains of the acoustic guitar and warm beat of the drums—there lies their identity as steady sellers in the genres of indie and acoustic pop. Although it is unclear when Autumn Vacation will release more of their music at the moment, Heart House will be enough to comfort and heal listeners’ mind when the daily grind becomes too hard to handle.