SEOUL, May 25 -- Celebrating 20 years as a member of K-pop royalty BigBang, superstar Taeyang is marking the milestone with his most personal project yet: Quintessence, his first solo studio album in nearly a decade.

Released on his 38th birthday, May 18, the album follows BigBang's triumphant return at Coachella in April and represents a year-long journey of artistic self-discovery for the veteran idol, The Korea Herald reported.

"Since this year marks BigBang's 20th anniversary, the most important thing for me was figuring out what felt the most like myself while also being something new," Taeyang explained at a listening party in Seoul.

"I kept asking myself what kind of new challenge I could take on at this point."

The answer lay ...