Taemin's 'PHASE 1 : Soft Violence' and LiMiNaL Tour Dates

What happened

Taemin releases PHASE 1 : Soft Violence on 31 August 2026 at 6 p.m. KST, his first EP since Galaxy Corporation announced his exclusive contract in March. The project surfaced on 23 July, when a teaser video titled ‘This is’ appeared at midnight KST. On 24 July he posted the album poster — a sugar cube and ants beneath the title — and, at 11 a.m. the same day, a teaser poster for a world tour, ‘2026-27 TAEMIN WORLD TOUR [LiMiNaL]’. Sports Kyunghyang described it as his comeback after two years.

A video for ‘This Is The End’ arrived on 11 August, the official trailer went up on Taemin’s YouTube channel on 17 August KST. At midnight on 18 August the track list was posted on his official accounts: 11 songs with two title tracks, ‘FLOAT’ and ‘Gooey’. Sports Kyunghyang and Newsen call the record an EP (in Korean, a 미니 앨범, or mini album). Five songs are new — among them ‘This Is The End’, ‘Easy Loving You’ and ‘SKIN’, which had been heard in an earlier intro video — and six were first performed at Coachella in April: ‘Let Me Be The One’, ‘PERMISSION’, ‘Sober’, ‘1004’, ‘PARASITE’ and ‘Frankenstein’. ‘Sweet Violence’ and ‘Bitter Violence’ concept photos followed on 20 and 24 August.

Why is it trending?

The reason the track list reads like a set list is Coachella. On 11 April 2026 at 7:30 p.m. local time Taemin played a roughly 50-minute solo set on the Mojave stage in Indio, California. According to Sports Kyunghyang it was the first time a Korean male solo singer had been on the festival’s official lineup with a solo set. He returned for the second weekend on 18 April. Alongside catalogue songs such as ‘MOVE’ and ‘WANT’, he performed six unreleased songs for the first time, and all six are on the EP. One of them, ‘PERMISSION’, came out as a digital single the following month, on the 22nd at 1 p.m. KST, produced by JORDi with lyrics by JHart, Rachel West and Taemin. It followed his first English-language digital single, ‘Long Way Home’, in March. Sports Kyunghyang and Newsen also report a set at BST Hyde Park in the United Kingdom before the comeback.

The credits explain the two title tracks. ‘FLOAT’, the first, is a pop song made with SOFTSERVEBOY (who has credits for LE SSERAFIM and SEVENTEEN), Drew Love of the US R&B duo THEY. and Bava, a co-writer of DJ Snake and Selena Gomez’s ‘Taki Taki’. ‘Gooey’ is hip-hop pop whose lyrics Taemin took part in writing, joined by BUMZU, jonjon, Ninos Hanna and WILJAM as writers. ‘Let Me Be The One’ was made with Kuk Harrell, and ‘1004’ is a pop track Taemin co-wrote and co-composed. Galaxy Corporation’s own description is that the album combines songs proven on the Coachella stage with new songs that attempt new directions.

Then there is the tour. LiMiNaL opens with three nights at Seoul’s Jamsil Indoor Stadium on 18, 19 and 20 September (8 p.m., 6 p.m. and 5 p.m.), with tickets sold exclusively through Yes24 Ticket after a membership presale on 10 August and general sales on 11 August. The stage design is by ANDO PROJEKT, led by former Gentle Monster space designer An Do-hyun. The official tour site, run by Galaxy Corporation, lists 17 stops: six North American shows from San Jose on 12 October to Newark on 23 October; five Latin American shows from Monterrey on 28 October to São Paulo on 8 November; and five in Europe — Paris on 16 November, Berlin on 18, Frankfurt on 20, London (OVO Arena Wembley) on 22 and Amsterdam on 24 November. As of 26 August the Seoul and European dates are on sale and the American dates are marked coming soon.

What you need to know

• PHASE 1 : Soft Violence is released on 31 August 2026 at 6 p.m. KST through online music services: an EP of 11 tracks with double title tracks ‘FLOAT’ and ‘Gooey’.
• Six of the 11 songs — ‘Let Me Be The One’, ‘PERMISSION’, ‘Sober’, ‘1004’, ‘PARASITE’ and ‘Frankenstein’ — were first performed at Coachella on 11 April 2026; ‘PERMISSION’ followed as a digital single on the 22nd of the next month.
• Galaxy Corporation announced its exclusive contract with Taemin on 11 March 2026; Hankook Ilbo reports that his SM Entertainment contract ended in March 2024 after 16 years and that he moved via Big Planet Made Entertainment.
• The LiMiNaL tour opens at Seoul’s Jamsil Indoor Stadium on 18–20 September 2026; Seoul tickets are sold only through Yes24 Ticket.
• The official tour site lists 17 stops through Amsterdam on 24 November 2026 — North America 12–23 October, Latin America 28 October–8 November, Europe 16–24 November.
• Sports Kyunghyang reports that the tour title LiMiNaL comes from the Latin ‘limen’ (boundary), with the message that a boundary is the moment new change begins.