The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism will release the National Gugak Center Game Sound Series, which reinterprets famous music soundtracks as gugak (traditional music), jointly with the center. Shown are musicians Kim Jin-hwan (left), Yang Seung-hwan (middle) and Lee Ji-soo, who arranged the songs. (National Gugak Center)

By Aisylu Akhmetzianova

The soundtracks of famous video games like Lies of P and Maple Story now have gugak (traditional music) versions.

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism on May 7 announced the sale of 13 single albums from the National Gugak Center Game Sound Series, which reinterprets such music in the form of gugak, from May 9-24 jointly with the center. 

The albums feature the gugak versions of the theme songs and background music of 13 famous games: Lies of P, Skull, Sanabi, MapleStory, TalesWeaver, Epic Seven, Lost Ark, Everyone's Marble, Guardian Tales, Blade & Soul, Lineage, Aion and Black Desert.

Many talented musicians such as producer Kim Jin-hwan, gugak composer Yang Seung-hwan, film soundtrack director Lee Ji-soo and YouTuber Eunzel (aka Noh Eun-bi) participated in the project.

The gugak versions on May 3 received positive responses when played at a pre-listening event for game industry figures at the general game demonstration room of mobile game giant NCSoft.

The 13 albums will be released in order from May 9. The music is also available on the center's archive portal (https://archive.gugak.go.kr/portal/main) and major domestic and foreign album platforms.

aisylu@korea.kr