Open your heart to RESCENE’s soft, reflective K-pop sound
If RESCENE were a scent, they’d be an entire flower shop in bloom: each note distinct, yet blending together to form something soft and memorable. Liv is a red rose, bold and fragrant. May, a sunflower – bright, unmissable, impossible not to notice. Zena calls herself a pink rose: not too strong, but lovely in a way that lingers. Woni would be baby’s breath, quietly graceful, wrapping herself around the others with gentle support. And Minami sees herself as a lily – not loud, but balanced, a soft harmony that ties everything together.
“When you smell them all together, you expect it to be weird,” leader Woni tells NME with a smile, “but it smells really nice. I think it captures the identity of our group.” It’s a fitting metaphor for RESCENE, a group defined by balance and subtlety. Since making their debut in March 2024, the rookie girl group have been carving out a softer, more reflective space within K-pop. Their music lingers like a scent on warm skin, a half-remembered dream, or a page from an old diary.
‘UhUh’ feels like blooming roses, theatrical and feminine, with a touch of youthful grandeur. ‘Love Attack’ is reminiscent of the sea in late summer – bright, briny, and all-consuming, like love crashing over you in a single wave. ‘Glow Up’ is all clean cotton and soap bubbles, a sparkling track that captures the thrill of self-growth and transformation with a fresh, sweet scent. This sonic landscape they’ve cultivated favours feeling over flash, and it’s even landed them a spot on this year’s NME 100 list of essential emerging artists.
Their name RESCENE is a blend of the prefix “re-”, indicating a return to a previous state, and the words “scene” and “scent”, evoking a captured moment and the feeling it leaves behind. It’s the emotional blueprint behind everything the group do. “We’re probably the only K-pop group that have a scent as our concept,” May says proudly. Woni further explains: “Each album has a different scent associated with it. It’s one of the ways we create an atmosphere that stays with people, even after the music ends.”
Their latest single album, ‘Dearest’, doesn’t try to dramatise the experience of growing up. Instead, it leans into their softness, as familiar as the smell of wet grass or old books on a shelf. Woni describes lead single ‘Deja Vu’ as “a scent like a forest after a rainfall. It’s there, but you don’t really recognise it at first. It subtly pops up. It naturally becomes part of your life”. That quiet familiarity is the heart of the single. It’s the kind of feeling that emerges slowly, like memory itself.
“Each of our songs starts with a core emotion, and over time, I think that feeling naturally settles into someone’s heart” – Liv
That idea carries over into the visuals, too. In the music video for ‘Deja Vu’, the girls – ranging in age from 16 to 21 – wander the city in school uniforms, swinging backpacks adorned with plushie keychains and charms. The handheld cameras capture them in slow, dreamy cuts: riding the bus, staring out at the skyline, running across the overpass. There’s no high-concept twist, no dystopian framing, just the hazy intimacy of girlhood unfolding in real-time.
Minami expands on that idea: “Everyone has their own school life, and they have their childhood. Wearing a uniform brings back those memories. We tried to express that.” But what makes the video feel even more lived-in is the way it was made. “In the past, when we used to shoot our music videos, it really felt like we were on a set,” Woni says. “But this time, the directors had their own cameras and tried to capture the most natural moments outdoors.”
“We were told [to] just be yourself,” Liv adds, so that’s what they did: laughing over silly moments, forgetting about the camera altogether and nurturing a bond that feels less like a performance and more like a shared coming-of-age. “It felt like we had been friends forever,” she says. “Especially because we’re spending our teenage years together as a group.” One of their favourite things to do during downtime? Singing ballads together – not “loud K-pop idol” tracks, but emotional songs with soaring high notes. “We don’t really listen to hype music,” May admits. “We love ballads.”
That tenderness carries over into how they describe their personal memories – transitions, in-between spaces, and the excitement of not knowing what comes next – and how those are closely intertwined with emotions and scents. “When the seasons change, that breeze doesn’t bring out one specific memory,” Liv says. “But it does make our hearts feel a little squishier than usual because it represents change.”
“That’s our direction: something quiet but long-lasting, timeless. Something you can take out of your pocket whenever you need it” – Woni
For May, it’s the smell of dawn that brings her back to the days when they were just idol hopefuls. “As a trainee, we would finish practice at 1 or 2am and go to school just a few hours later,” she recalls. “That early morning air reminds me of everything we went through together before we were RESCENE.” These sensory memories are the core of the group’s artistic identity, shaping the sound of their music and how they express it.
“We pursue a very natural way of [creating and expressing] music,” Liv says. Rather than chasing spectacle, RESCENE are shaping a sound that’s more intimate and atmospheric – almost like walking into a memory. “Each of our songs starts with a core emotion,” she adds. “And over time, I think that feeling naturally settles into someone’s heart.” Every song is constructed like a lingering imprint: not overpowering, but quietly persistent.
Minami describes their music as “warm but adventurous”, noting that while the lyrics may not always spell things out, the emotional intent is clear in the atmosphere they create. “That’s the identity of RESCENE – not just the message, but the vibe we give to the listener.” And that vibe doesn’t disappear when the song ends. “We want to make music that people can always think about later,” Woni adds. “Something that just pops into their head from time to time.” Just like a scent that returns without warning.
That quiet emotional pull comes from both intention and instinct. “There’s a sincerity in how we approach music, and I think that sincerity just comes through when we sing together,” Liv explains. “Even though our vocal styles and tones are really different, somehow, when we harmonise, it just blends – like it was always meant to.”
It’s not unlike a bouquet of flowers. Each bloom is distinct in color, shape and scent, but arranged together into something unexpectedly whole. “There’s also something we can’t really explain – a kind of emotional phenomenon,” Liv adds. “Like how one person can feel many emotions at once, we each bring something different, and it just becomes one sound.” It’s a delicate harmony, a feeling you didn’t know was still with you until it returns on the breeze.
“We want to create music that lives in someone’s heart,” Woni says. “Something nostalgic but overwhelming – in a good way. The kind of song that just pops into your head when you’re triggered by a memory, and suddenly you’re humming it without even realising it. That’s our direction: something quiet but long-lasting, timeless. Something you can take out of your pocket whenever you need it.”
RESCENE’s second single album ‘Dearest’ is out now via The Muze Entertainment on Spotify, Apple Music and more.
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Crystal Bell
NME
