ESSsssssACS: Ahn Cheol Soon Spotlight

For his final Quarantine Concert, ESS Curatorial Fellow James Gui teamed up with Seoul venue Ahn Cheol Soon (ACS) to highlight some of Seoul’s best experimental musicians, new and old. Read more about ACS below, and tune into ESSsssssACS on 12/2, at 7pm Central Time!

Learn more about the ESS Curatorial Fellowship here.

DJ CBS at ACS

Nestled between photographic print shops in the Euljiro neighborhood of central Seoul, ACS is a basement venue that exudes DIY spirit. On any given weekend, passersby on the way to munch on yasik might come across loud gabber kicks or straight-up noise blasting from the bowels of the otherwise unassuming building where ACS resides. Run by high-octane DJ duo Ahndo and CBS, ACS has been operating in various forms since August 2019. They’ve hosted flea markets, techno parties, and live performances over the past two years, quickly becoming an indispensable space for the weird and the wild of Seoul’s underground. 

This past summer, they had called it quits because of the COVID-19 pandemic; 10pm curfew and other restrictions had effectively shut down music performances starting in July. Planning to demolish everything, including their handmade DJ booth and other DIY structures in the space, they began archiving the process of “Hard Demolition” on YouTube Live, inviting DJs to provide a soundtrack of loud, fast music.

ACS post-renovation

But this “Hard Demolition” attracted a renewed interest from their friends and fans in the scene. And with the lifting of curfew in November, Seoul’s music scene has come alive again and ACS is reborn as well. “We were lucky,” says DJ CBS. But it’s not just luck that they were able to garner support; their vital contributions to the scene in the venue’s short two year lifespan have contributed to its survival through the city’s toughest period during the pandemic.