Hidden Forest
환절기 (In Between Seasons)
한거름 가게 (Yourstep Lab)
Gwangju
Aug. 21, 2026
(Jisu Sheen recently moved from New Haven to Gwangju, South Korea, where she’s covering local arts and culture for the New Haven Independent and Midbrow.)
The sun was setting on another unusually hot summer night, one step closer to the new season. An indie folk mix of electric and acoustic guitar floated through a second-story experiment in the making.
It was Friday night at Yourstep Lab, a zero-waste shop and "circular lab" on one of Gwangju's main downtown streets, Chungjang-ro. Lim Woong, once a member of 2010s-established Gwangju band Badak Project, was playing a show as "Hidden Forest." Hwang Chihyun added vocal harmonies and spacey electric guitar.
In a melancholy tone, Lim told the crowd he thought often of dystopia, including the current climate catastrophe. At least while we still have seasons, we can celebrate them together; Lim called his show 환절기, or "In Between Seasons." Between the tender vocals and double-guitar soundscape, his songs made it feel like time was still in our hands, if only for the night.
"This is actually not a performance space," said owner 김지현 (Kim Ji-Hyun), A.K.A. 왕꽃 (Wang-kkot), in Korean.
She described the shop's usual functions: exchanges of clothing and books (hence "circular lab") and sales of eco-conscious household items. One wall of the shop was filled with tools visitors could rent out. The state of the world might seem gloomy, but Kim urged the audience to see that "we can make a new path, one step at a time."
Hidden Forest's opener, 이지형 (Lee Ji hyoung), broke the ice first, serenading the space with smooth R&B tunes as 이지브로 (Easybro).
Then Lim and Hwang came in with a soft-psychedelic, sentimental grain.
Hidden Forest's song structures were a tribute to the slow build. Perhaps as a result of his years of experience with his previous band, Lim knew when to let the piece breathe. Lulls set the stage for rock moments to come.
Hwang's reverb-heavy chords laid out a misty atmosphere for Lim's acoustic melodies to shine through and scatter. Hidden Forest's first song, also called "숨은 숲" ("Hidden Forest"), invited us to find the woods for ourselves.
By the end of the night, the crowd was belting along to a cover of "What's Up" by 4 Non Blondes. Not everyone knew the song beforehand; that didn't stop their HEYYYEEYYYEYYEYYEAHHs from coming straight from the heart.
Kim said she was nervous to see how the show would turn out.
It was Yourstep Lab's first-ever music concert, a step into a new path for the shop itself. Both Lim and Kim, at different points in the show, looked out at the crowd and noted the number of unfamiliar faces, each attributing this to the other's popularity.
The setting lent a cozy background to the crowd-performer interactions. Lim told stories from his Badak Project days and gave out Hidden Forest CDs.
In between songs, Lim asked the crowd if they got a chance to look through the shop's offerings.
While wandering the space for B-roll footage, I did indeed eye a free secondhand Crayon Shin-chan mug and baking soda sold by the gram. I decided to come back sometime when my bag wasn't heavy with a camera and notebooks.
"Take another look when the lights go up," Lim said in Korean. And the crowd did; after his set, the shop was alive with people looking through the items on display.
What's next for Hidden Forest?
Lim said he wants to keep playing at unconventional venues like Yourstep Lab. He's experienced the excitement of the big stage, and there's something special in the spots that are, as Kim put it, "not a performance space."
Her description might not be true for long—one step at a time.
Sign up here to get Gwangju Midbrow email updates delivered straight to your inbox.
