ZEROBASEONE Ascends — Harper’s BAZAAR Korea June

5 contributors. One unbreakable title. ZEROBASEONE steps into their maximum cinematic technology but — they usually’re now not having a look again.

right here’s a second — proper prior to the song drops — when each and every atom in an area holds its breath. For ZEROBASEONE, that second has at all times felt electrical, a bit of unhealthy, and inconceivable to seem clear of. However this June, status within the pages of Harper’s BAZAAR Korea, the 5 ultimate contributors of ZB1 aren’t looking ahead to the beat. They’ve already moved.

Sung Han-bin, Kim Ji-woong, Seok Matthew, Kim Tae-rae, and Park Gun-wook arrived on set in a configuration the sector hadn’t relatively noticed prior to: leaner, sharper, and radiating the particular power of people that selected each and every different. As a result of that’s the tale no viral MV teaser can absolutely inform — they selected to stick. When their authentic nine-member undertaking duration drew to a detailed in March 2026, those 5 decided rooted in one thing rarer than skill. They made it rooted in consider.

And Harper’s BAZAAR Korea, the mag that has at all times understood K-pop now not simply as leisure however as high-concept tradition, gave them a canopy worthy of that call.

From Boys Planet to the Global Degree

To grasp the place ZB1 stand as of late, you could have to bear in mind the place they started: beneath the fluorescent lighting fixtures of Mnet’s Boys Planet, a survival program that aired in early 2023 and become a cultural phenomenon in actual time.

90-eight trainees from around the globe competed prior to a world fandom vote. When the mud settled on April 20, 2023, 9 names had been known as.

The gang that emerged — multinational, meticulously skilled, brimming with person aura — debuted 3 months later with Formative years within the Color and in an instant rewrote the principles for Fifth-generation K-pop debuts.

“In Bloom,” the EP’s lead unmarried, landed on Billboard’s World 200. The album itself moved over 1.24 million copies in its first week — a debut file. Six consecutive million-selling albums adopted.

By way of any metric, ZB1 was once one of the crucial commercially and creatively potent acts in their era, a bunch whose fanbase, ZEROSE, constructed one of the crucial faithful and globally dispensed communities in fashionable K-pop.

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They selected each and every different now not as a result of a freelance demanded it, however as a result of one thing actual have been constructed between them — and that’s the type of basis you’ll be able to in fact construct one thing atypical on.” — Kpoppie Mag Editorial, June 2026

The Resolution That Outlined The whole lot

February 12, 2026. WakeOne Leisure launched a observation that despatched shockwaves via each and every K-pop fan account, Weverse group, and crew chat from Seoul to São Paulo. 4 contributors — Zhang Hao, Ricky, Kim Gyu-vin, and Han Yu-jin — had been parting techniques with ZEROBASEONE following their contract expiration, returning to YH Leisure and their very own futures. 5 contributors would lift the title ahead.

The web, predictably, fractured. Fan boards lit up with grief, hypothesis, and the precise K-pop heartbreak that comes from looking at a cherished formation dissolve. However the fandom’s resilience was once similarly speedy. ZEROSE — a reputation that has at all times carried one of those quiet ferocity — processed, mourned, after which rallied.

By the point the 9 authentic contributors took their ultimate bow in combination on the KSPO Dome encore live performance in March, the tears within the area had been the tears of people that had cherished one thing absolutely, now not of people that felt betrayed. The 5 who remained made their place transparent via WakeOne’s observation: they had been starting “a brand new season in combination as ZEROBASEONE,” united through “deep consider.”

Seok Matthew and Park Gun-wook signed unique contracts with WakeOne. Sung Han-bin and Kim Ji-woong remained with their respective companies however dedicated absolutely to the crowd. The root was once new. The ambition was once unmistakable.

Ascend–: The Album That Reintroduces ZB1

Launched Would possibly 18, 2026, Ascend– isn’t a comeback. It’s, in essentially the most exact sense of the phrase, a re-introduction. The name observe “TOP 5” arrives with the swaggering readability of a bunch that has not anything left to end up — and subsequently is loose to just do what they would like. Musically, it threads early 2000s dance-pop DNA via a modern groove framework: hip-hop rhythms, layered synths, and lyrics that place 5 as now not a diminishment, however a declaration.

The “TOP 5” MV surged previous the two-million-view mark inside hours of free up, its monochrome palette and sharp, geometric choreography organising the visible grammar of this period. The video’s aesthetic — all slick angles, assured stillness, and restrained colour — reads as an immediate observation: we now have edited all the way down to our essence, and our essence is that this.

The standout B-side, “Customise,” carries its personal landmark standing. It marks Park Gun-wook’s first composition credit score because the crew’s debut, a second that alerts ZB1’s evolution from polished undertaking crew to really self-authoring artists. Collaborators at the album come with songwriter-producer JUNNY and lyricist Jvde (previously of BIGSTAR), confirming that WakeOne has assembled a roster worthy of this crew’s inventive ambitions.

“ZEROSE isn’t a passive target audience — they’re co-authors of this tale. They streamed in the course of the heartbreak, voted in the course of the uncertainty, and held the title ZEROBASEONE like one thing sacred when the sector wasn’t certain it will live to tell the tale” — Kpoppie Mag, Harper’s BAZAAR Korea Characteristic, June 2026

Model as a 2d Language

Model has at all times been core to ZB1’s identification — now not as dress, however as verbal exchange. The gang has cycled via visible worlds that may really feel jarring in much less professional palms: the sun-drenched formative years poetry of Formative years within the Color, the molten depth of Melting Level, the oceanic intensity of Blue Paradise. Every technology carried its personal sartorial signature. Every dresser selection telegraphed one thing about the place they had been emotionally and creatively.

The Ascend– technology, as captured on this BAZAAR pictorial, favors restraint with have an effect on. Suppose adapted silhouettes that command house with out challenging consideration, monochrome palettes damaged through a unmarried, planned colour observe. It’s the visible language of 5 individuals who have stripped away the surplus and stored handiest what burns brightest.

Sung Han-bin, whose expressive keep an eye on in entrance of a digital camera suits his level presence, anchors the unfold with the type of editorial stillness that takes years to expand. Seok Matthew brings an ease that reads as easy cool — the Canadian-Korean child who grew up between two visible cultures and now strikes via them each with sovereign grace. Park Gun-wook, in the meantime, turns each and every lens towards him with a nearly gravitational power, his aesthetic sensibility deepening visibly with each and every new undertaking.

“The Ascend– technology ZB1 has made up our minds that 5 isn’t a smaller quantity. It’s a sharper one — and in model, as in song, precision cuts deeper than quantity.” — Kpoppie Mag, Harper’s BAZAAR Korea Characteristic, June 2026

The Fandom That Strikes Mountains

No profile of ZEROBASEONE is entire with out acknowledging the power that has propelled them from survival display competition to cover-ready cultural icons: ZEROSE. The fandom — whose title encodes ZB1’s personal symbolism, the adventure from 0 to 1 — has persistently demonstrated a degree of coordinated, emotionally clever strengthen that separates them from a fanbase and elevates them to a group.

During the crew’s reorganization, in the course of the heartbreak of claiming good-bye to 4 cherished contributors, in the course of the breathless anticipation of a comeback, ZEROSE held. Fan-organized streaming events reached masses of 1000’s of concurrent contributors.

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Vote casting campaigns for song display wins mobilized throughout time zones. And when “TOP 5” dropped, hashtags in the case of the crowd and its new technology trended globally inside mins — a feat that also astonishes business observers.

The gang’s upcoming look at KCON LA 2026 this summer time marks ZB1’s first main global level as a five-member unit — and for ZEROSE in North The united states, Latin The united states, and past, it’s going to be a second of collective catharsis. The price tag call for by myself tells the tale of a fandom that hasn’t scattered; it has centered.

What It Method to Ascend

The title Ascend– is each musical route and lifestyles philosophy. The sprint on the finish of the album name — that small, planned punctuation — implies continuation, a sentence left open. It’s not a conclusion. This is a starting mid-stride.

Of their BAZAAR pictorial, the contributors don’t carry out pleasure or self belief for the digital camera. They include it — the particular, quiet self belief of people that have navigated one thing really tough and emerged with their identification intact. There’s a adulthood to this period of ZB1 that their debut yr couldn’t have predicted, now not as a result of they weren’t gifted then, however as a result of skill by myself doesn’t produce this sort of gravitational stillness. Revel in does. Selection does.

They’re 5 younger males who constructed one thing 9 folks robust, watched it reshape round them, and selected — within the complete wisdom of what that selection value and what it would create — to stay construction. That’s the tale Harper’s BAZAAR Korea is telling this June. It’s additionally the tale K-pop, at its very best, has at all times recognized learn how to inform: that essentially the most enduring artwork is made now not from perfection, however from the choice to proceed.

ZEROBASEONE’s 6th mini album Ascend– is out now by the use of WakeOne. The Harper’s BAZAAR Korea June 2026 factor is to be had in print and virtual. ZEROSE: D1, Be the ONE.

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Credit & Rights

Revealed In Harper’s BAZAAR Korea June 2026 Factor 하퍼스 바자 코리아 — 2026년 6월호

Unique Characteristic By way of Kpoppie Mag Editorial Division kpoppie.com

Media Spouse: Pace Leisure Inc. Japan / New Zealand

Artist Control: WakeOne Leisure, Seoul, South Korea @wakeone_offcl

Artist: ZEROBASEONE (ZB1), Sung Han-bin · Kim Ji-woong · Seok Matthew · Kim Tae-rae · Park Gun-wook

Images Credit score: Harper’s BAZAAR Korea © Harper’s BAZAAR Korea 2026 All pictorial rights reserved.

Styling: WakeOne Ingenious Workforce ASCEND– Technology Visible Path

Virtual Distribution: Kpoppie Mag in partnership with Pace Leisure Inc.Japan / New Zealand

© 2026 Harper’s BAZAAR Korea. All pictorial pictures and editorial content material produced in affiliation with the June 2026 factor are the unique highbrow assets of Harper’s BAZAAR Korea and might not be reproduced with out written consent.

Characteristic article textual content © 2026 Kpoppie Mag / Pace Leisure Inc. Japan / New Zealand. All rights reserved. ZEROBASEONE artist title, likeness, and related marks are emblems of WakeOne Leisure and respective member control companies. This editorial was once produced for journalistic and fan-cultural functions based on honest use provisions. Pace Leisure Inc. is a registered entity running in Japan and New Zealand.

For licensing, syndication, or reprint enquiries: editorial@kpoppie.com | Pace Leisure Inc. — Auckland, New Zealand & Tokyo, Japan

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