North Sea Round Town op de Kaap: Midnight Resets

With new work, pianist and composer Chaerin Im (1999) moves through the city in different forms and together with other musicians. With Midnight Resets, Chaerin Im shows a personal side of her artistic project during North Sea Round Town. The evening brings together her life between different cities and her musical development: from jazz piano and the Korean classical piano scene towards a more electronic sound.

As Artist in Focus at North Sea Round Town 2026, she shows how her background in jazz piano and the Korean classical piano scene continues to shape music that now moves more towards electronic sounds. Seoul, Amsterdam and Rotterdam come together in her work.

Sunstroll

Chaerin Im and Sunstroll bring a duo performance this evening in which personal memories and electronic music come together. Sunstroll is a South Korean musician and producer who works between Rotterdam and Seoul. In his practice, guitar-based songwriting comes together with ambient, electronic music, field recordings and live improvisation.

DJ-set - Lucas Sim

Lucas Sim opens and closes the evening with a Korean City Groove DJ set, inspired by the pocha: a place in the middle of the city where people come together to eat, drink and talk. City Pop, which emerged in Japan in the 1970s and 1980s and later spread through Korea and East Asia, brings together smooth jazz, funk, disco and bossa nova. It evokes the feeling of neon lights and tall skylines, and that particular balance between solitude and comfort in a crowd.

Korean dishes from Pocha Rotterdam

Pocha is an informal Korean food culture in which people come together after a long day to eat, drink and talk. It is lively, warm and quickly makes the distance between strangers disappear.

Pocha Rotterdam serves cup tteokbokki: chewy rice cakes in a sweet and spicy sauce, served in a paper cup like the ones sold on the streets of Seoul. After the performances, the evening ends with japchae: glass noodles stir-fried with vegetables and sesame oil, a Korean celebratory dish meant to be shared. Throughout the evening, drinks flow freely in true pocha style, because in Korea food and drink are closely connected

Two bowls of Korean food on a dark surface. Left: noodles with vegetables and fried tofu, garnished

Pocha Rotterdam

Programme

5.00 p.m. – Doors open, DJ Lucas Sim and appetisers by Pocha

5.30 p.m. – Live performance by Chaerin Im x Sunstroll, Artists talk x Pocha

7.05 p.m. – DJ Lucas Sim and main course by Pocha

9.00 p.m. – end

About North Sea Round Town

North Sea Round Town is the city festival of NN North Sea Jazz and brings live music to Rotterdam from 25 June to 12 July. Across more than 125 locations in the city, the festival presents over 350 concerts, from jazz and soul to electronic, hip-hop and pop.

About Pocha Rotterdam

Pocha Rotterdam brings the atmosphere of the Korean pocha to the city. Since 2024, the restaurant on Eendrachtsplein has been serving authentic Korean dishes. For this evening, Pocha has created a menu of dishes that Chaerin Im associates with home and memory.