Kim Dong-ryul (Korean: 김동률; born March 15, 1974) is a South Korean singer-songwriter. He composes, arranges, writes lyrics, produces, and performs his own music. He has been active since 1993.
Career
Exhibition era (1993–1997)
As an architectural major in Yonsei University, Kim Dong-ryul formed the duet Exhibition with his close friend, Seo Dong-wook. Dong-ryul composed their songs and played the piano while Dong-wook played bass guitar.
The duet became famous through an MBC University Song Festival in 1993. They emerged champion and won the special prize with the song "In Dreams" which Seo wrote and Kim composed. From then onwards, Kim began his career of singing, composing, and writing lyrics.
Exhibition's self-titled first album, which famous singer Shin Hae-cheol produced and featured on, was released in May 1994. Even though the duet were new figures in the world of popular music, they did the composing, piano, bass, and computer programming themselves. The album received positive reviews and climbed onto the top ten chart, going on to sell over 600,000 copies.
In 1994, Kim and Seo enlisted in military service together. Upon release, the duet released their second album Strangers in 1996. The album was also produced by Shin Hae-cheol, and instrumentalists Yi Byeong-woo, Kim Se-hwang, and Jeong Won-young participated in it.
