A Music Composer Connecting Cultures, Emotions, and Genres Through Music: Ilyeob Choo

July 04, 2025 at 14:34 PM EDT

A South-Korean music composer who understood the music just not as a sound, but as a language of spirit and feeling – Ilyeob Choo’s musical journey began at a mere age of twelve. Choo recalls deciding to pursue music as his life’s direction rather than just a passion. Starting his journey with piano and guitar, he reflects, “It was a calling. I didn’t have an interest in any other profession. What truly compelled me towards music was its spiritual quality and the way it would communicate emotions beyond words.”

This early decision changed the trajectory of Choo’s life and now he has evolved into an amazing and remarkable composer whose work spans from pop production, orchestral scoring, and genre-blending innovation. Choo has become popular for his versatility across styles and for his capacity to translate layered emotion into vivid sonic storytelling.

A Distinctive Voice in Collaborative Scoring

In his early years, he was fascinated by Hans Zimmer and his synth-driven scores. Hans changed the way he used to think about sound. He reflects, “Pop music can sometimes feel confined by structure, but film scores offer a vast emotional and sonic landscape.” This influence became an inspiration and now Choo composes for Zimmer’s own company, Bleeding Fingers Music, where he has earned credits for film and television projects such as the TV series “Hagen”, and the upcoming WWE documentary “The Ringmaster”; and music libraries like Extreme Music and KPM and produced a sample pack for Splice titled Touch of Glass: Modern Intimacy. Choo’s journey shows not just admiration but mastery. He is a talent now recognized through his various works including collaboration with Bleeding Fingers Music. Outside of Bleeding Fingers, Choo has worked in and for number of film, music tracks, series, top-tier musicians like “25 Intro” for rapper Chillin Homie’s album Maze Runner, original score behind Spark Wheel, a short film that earned numerous international accolades and awards for it emotional soundtrack, DalVoice, a popular South Korean web drama platform, and the film Toy Soldiers: Fake Men 2, a cinematic project produced by CJ Entertainment and many more.

Choo is unstoppable and has a number of upcoming projects too that reflects both the caliber of his collaborators and the range of his creative strengths. In 2025 only, he will be working on the next installment of the Emmy-award winning BBC documentary film series “Blue Planet” and alongside Emmy-winning Denise Santos for The Last Resort, a romantic comedy directed by Donald Petrie (How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days) and written by Karen McCullah (Legally Blonde, 10 Things I Hate About You). He is also scoring Kensu Maru, a documentary exploring a WWII-era Japanese shipwreck in the Philippines, in collaboration with Denise Santos again. It is a departure in tone—requiring a more restrained, historically sensitive musical palette. These two back-to-back collaborations showcase Choo’s strength in directing the contrasting emotional feeling while still delivering cohesive, story-driven work.

Even exploring his heritage, Choo is collaborating with Korean rapper Woodie Gochild. Choo has co-wrote two forthcoming Afrobeat-infused hip-hop tracks, “Coco” and “On My Way”—both anticipated by the artist’s sizable fanbase. He has previously collaborated on Gochild’s track “Welcome to My Block (055),” further establishing his voice within Korea’s contemporary urban music scene.

Molding Emotions Through Sound

Choo’s relationship with music has always been personal. He completely immerses himself —something he describes as a necessary escape from daily life. “I’m in a trance when I make music. It makes me feel like nothing else in life matters… Even though it’s my job, it doesn’t feel like work.”, he says. His unique process, grounded with emotional depth and intuition refines the story or character without losing its essence. This guide helps his compositions distill the complexity into simplicity.

Spark Wheel, an award-winning short film directed by Billy Kent, is a prime example of this philosophical approach. In one scene, a character quietly walks through her house at night. Rather than exaggerating the moment, Choo opted for textural pads and plucked strings to underscore a quiet suspense. Later in a tender father-daughter scene, he used felt piano to evoke understated emotional warmth.

Learning from Experience

A former band leader of Acousoljah—a reggae/world music band that won first place at South Korea’s Indiestance Award out of 400 competitors—Choo brings a performer’s intuition to his scoring. “My primary instrument is guitar,” he shares, “and I record my own guitars on all of my projects.” This connection to instrumentation distinguishes his work, particularly in recent projects such as an Americana Noir collection praised for its guitar-driven atmospheres.

Throughout his career, Choo has learned to value kindness and presence as much as skill. “It really matters how you treat other people and what kind of energy you carry into the room,” he reflects. “Everyone observes things, and a ruined reputation is hard to restore.” Equally important to him is the idea that creativity can be reverse-engineered: “Nothing is rocket science… even when there are hardships in life, you just have to break it down, figure out what you need to do, and go do it.”

For Choo, composing is not simply a profession—it is a form of emotional translation, a structure for personal growth, and a way to build bridges across cultures and genres. Whether working on high-profile international films or creating genre-bending collaborations, Ilyeob Choo has carved a place for himself not by conforming to any single style, but by shaping sound into a deeply personal—and widely resonant—language.

Media Contact
Company Name: Ilyeob
Contact Person: Ilyeob Choo
Email: Send Email
Country: South Korea
Website: https://www.ilyeob.com/

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A Music Composer Connecting Cultures, Emotions, and Genres Through Music: Ilyeob Choo

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