Yiruma

Yiruma crafts gentle piano pieces that explore nature, feelings, and the flow of time, merging minimalist new age textures with classical programmatic elements. His sophomore effort, First Love from 2001, which came out the same year as his initial release, featured the track "River Flows in You." Built around a solitary melodic motif paired with understated left-hand support that defines his approach, the composition gained international chart traction and gained widespread use in TV programs and commercials. Following roughly ten albums, Sony issued The Best: Reminiscent 10th Anniversary in 2011. A version of this compilation featuring fresh recordings and rearrangements of beloved songs ascended to the top of the Billboard classical and new age albums charts during 2020. In the subsequent year, Rewritten Memories and Solo both appeared, marking two decades since his debut as a recording artist.

Born Lee Ru-Ma on February 15, 1978, in Seoul, South Korea, Yiruma started piano lessons at five years old. Relocating to London during 1988, he attended the Purcell School of Music. Upon completing his studies there in 1997, he pursued composition at King's College London and earned his degree in June 2000. The Stomp Music label put out his debut pair of solo piano albums, Love Scene and First Love, in 2001. "River Flows in You," drawn from the second of these, emerged as his defining work, climbing into the Top 20 on singles charts in places such as Germany and Austria while sustaining media placements across television, ads, and other formats over the ensuing years.

For two films released in 2002, Yiruma provided the music: the romantic drama Oasis and the claymation production Doggy Poo. Soundtracks followed for both, with the one for Oasis carrying the title Oasis and Yiruma. From the Yellow Room, his third studio album in 2003, introduced the well-received piece "Kiss the Rain." Nocturnal Lights They Scatter arrived in 2004 as a collection of improvisations alongside prepared compositions, and Destiny of Love the next year presented revised versions of earlier material, two of which received orchestral adaptations. Before 2005 concluded, he put forth the live recording Live at Hoam Art Hall along with the original album Poemusic. Early in 2006, Seoul Records released the four-part soundtrack for the KBS drama Spring Waltz, to which Yiruma supplied a full album's worth of contributions. That November brought the religion-themed H.I.S. Monologue, subtitled One Day Diary 19th September. He followed up in 2008 with the studio album P.N.O.N.I.

German DJ Alex Christensen, performing as Jasper Forks, issued a remix of "River Flows in You" in 2010 that enhanced its reach, and Sony marked the tenth anniversary of Yiruma's recording career the following year through the anthology The Best: Reminiscent 10th Anniversary. By then, the pianist had developed a practice of issuing accompanying piano books with his albums, noting his focus on creating accessible music for many performers. At his concerts, he frequently invited audience members onstage for joint improvisations.

Sony put out Stay in Memory, Yiruma's initial collection of original material for the label, in the middle of 2012, soon followed by the studio effort Blind Film and the Stomp Music anthology Healing Piano in 2013. Atmosfera, credited to "Yiruma and Friends," came out in 2014 and presented his compositions performed alongside various collaborators. Sony released an album titled simply Piano in 2016, after which Frame appeared in 2017. For a 2020 reissue of the tenth-anniversary collection, Yiruma revisited fan favorites with new studio interpretations. That year, The Best: Reminiscent 10th Anniversary reached the number one position on both the Billboard Classical Albums and New Age Albums charts. Meanwhile, the additional best-of set First Love: Piano Music attained the fifth spot on the former listing and seventh on the latter. Yiruma also put out the five-track EP Room with a View on Mind Tailor Music/Universal that May. To mark his 20th year in music during the next year, he delivered the orchestral Rewritten Memories and the minimalist Solo. Each project drew from selections spanning his extensive career.