Seoul-Based Japanese Duo Mariko & Yukie Release Debut Album Namsan Tower Lights Trot singer Mariko and 30-year Korean rock veteran Sato Yukie split their first LP between 10 Korean-language and 5 Japanese-language tracks
Mariko & Yukie, a married Japanese duo based in Seoul, released their debut album Namsan Tower Lights (남산타워) on September 4. The record holds 15 tracks: 10 sung in Korean, 5 in Japanese. The CD, limited to 500 copies, ships with a 12-page booklet printing the Korean and Japanese lyrics side by side, and the album is streaming on Spotify and YouTube Music.
Sato Yukie first came to Seoul in 1995, at 32, because it was the cheapest overseas trip he could find. A record shop he wandered into sold him an LP by Shin Joong-hyun & the Yup Juns, and he never left. In 1999 he formed Kopchangjeongol, Korea's first all-Japanese rock band, and has lived in Seoul for the 30 years since. Mariko came to Korea through Korean television dramas, and from 2009 she began entering Korean-song contests in Japan. After reaching the year-end round of the KBS National Singing Contest in 2015, she made her Korean CD debut as a trot singer in 2016. A man who dug into Korean rock and a woman who chose trot became a married couple, and eight years into performing together as a duo, they gathered songs that had simply accumulated from living in Seoul into their first full album. None of it came out of a planning meeting; it came out of daily life.
Guitar lines out of 1960s-70s Korean group sound carry an '80s trot vocal style on top. On the title track, "Namsan Tower," the landmark isn't a tourist attraction but the tower that sits over the neighborhood where the couple lives. The five Japanese-language tracks aren't translations of the Korean songs — each one was written again from scratch. The word "yeobo-yeobo" in "Cup of Love" sums up where the album stands: in Korean it's what a couple calls each other, and in Japanese it's an onomatopoeia for shuffling like an old person. One word works two ways in two languages at once. Hallyu conversations usually run in one direction, out of Korea — this album runs the other way.
“For us, Shin Joong-hyun and Sanullim are the Beatles.” — Sato Yukie
Highlights· The duo's first full-length album together · CD limited to 500 copies, with a 12-page booklet printing Korean and Japanese lyrics side by side · A music video for the title track "Namsan Tower," shot in the style of 1970s-80s Showa variety TV, touring the neighborhood around Namsan Tower over the course of a day · A 49-minute full-album video with per-track chapters and lyric subtitles · Full video of the September 6 release show at Space Hangang, Seoul · The stage lineup is the duo, just the two of them
Sato Yukie settled in Seoul in 1995 and debuted in 1999 with Kopchangjeongol, Korea's first all-Japanese rock band. A fixture of the Hongdae indie scene, he has crossed paths with Otomo Yoshihide and Damo Suzuki and stood at the front line of Korea-Japan music exchange; in 2021 he published A Guidebook to Japanese LP Masterpieces in Korea. Mariko began entering Korean-song contests in Japan in 2009, reached the national round in 2011, and after competing on the KBS National Singing Contest made her Korean CD debut in 2016 with Sarangirannida, followed by her second album, Is Happiness Elsewhere, in 2025. In Korea she has performed on television, radio and at events; in Japan she has performed at the Korean Embassy and Korea-Japan friendship association events and taught trot singing. The two have now performed together as a duo for eight years, and Namsan Tower Lights is their first full album as Mariko & Yukie.
About the artist Mariko & Yukie are a married Japanese duo living in Seoul. Trot singer Mariko and Sato Yukie, 30 years into Korean rock, sing together in Korean.
