HYBE global group &TEAM released a track sampler on the 20th that lets listeners hear parts of the Korean mini album 1st EP Back to Life.
The track sampler comes in six versions, featuring short but addictive beats and striking scenes. Centered on a common object called the "sandbag," it was completed by varying space, lighting and direction techniques according to each song's lyrical theme and concept, foreshadowing &TEAM's expanded musical world.
As the music rises, the sandbag swings left and right creating a mysterious atmosphere, and flashing lights and a swinging door add tension. Symbolic images — a scene where fallen feathers gather to form wings, the moment when rippling waves shimmer with the lighting and connect like a single wave — accumulate to heighten viewer immersion.
&TEAM (Ui-ju, Huma, K, Nicholas, Yuma, Jo, Harua, Taki, Maki) also announced with the track sampler that they will appear as a special guest at OneRepublic's Japan concerts in February next year.
OneRepublic is a band with many global hits including Apologize, Counting Stars and I Ain't Worried from the film Top Gun: Maverick. In particular, frontman Ryan Tedder is a Grammy Award-winning hitmaker who participated as a producer on &TEAM's song Dropkick.
&TEAM, through their agency YX Labels, said it was an unbelievable and glorious opportunity that left them speechless when they first heard, and added they would do their best so as not to tarnish OneRepublic's reputation.
&TEAM will release Back to Life on the 28th and begin full-scale activities in Korea, the center of K-pop. Domestic fans have high expectations for them after their previous album Go in Blind surpassed 1 million cumulative shipments.
HYBE's first overseas localized group, &TEAM is starting its leap toward the world as a global group beginning with its Korean debut.
[Photo] Provided by HYBE.
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