Mothervibes (마더바이브) is the stage name of Lee Hee-kyung (이희경), a vibraphonist, composer and lyricist based in Seoul. A few credit lists print the name as Mother Vibe, and Korean Wikipedia files her under 마더바이브. The name plays on her instrument: the Hankyoreh newspaper explained in 2018 that it comes from "vibraphone," shortened to vibes, and IZM, the Korean music webzine, notes that vibraphone is sometimes written as Vibes. Her birth date and birthplace are not published. According to the Hankyoreh, she grew up in a mountain village in Gwangju, Gyeonggi Province, and began piano lessons at five, riding a bus into town. Her mother played the chromaharp and the ocarina as hobbies and her father played accordion and saxophone.

She came to the vibraphone through classical percussion. In a church band in middle school she met the timpani, switched her major from piano to classical percussion and entered an arts high school, then studied at Seoul National University's music college, where she first learned of the vibraphone and was won over by its clear, transparent tone. After graduating she went to Boston to study timpani with Tim Genis, the Boston Symphony's principal timpanist; the Hankyoreh names the school only as a Boston music school, and Korean Wikipedia and a concert listing give Boston University, where she took a master's degree. Genis, who came from jazz drumming, told her that music is one thing in the end and suggested she concentrate on the pitched percussion she loved. She then entered Berklee College of Music and began studying the vibraphone, which opened jazz, funk and Latin music to her.

She became a mother while at Berklee. Her professors made allowances, and she brought the baby to school; as the child grew, the difficulties multiplied, and she returned to Korea in 2013 without graduating. Korean Wikipedia gives 2012 as the year; the Hankyoreh and IZM both say 2013. At home she met the musician Jeong Won-young (정원영), who urged her to enjoy music and later produced her first album. IZM says she then worked on sessions for Yoon Jong-shin (윤종신) and the harmonica player Jeon Jeduk, and a record shop's description of her debut LP adds Zion.T to that list. She performed with the singer Sunwoo Jung-a (선우정아), Kang Echae and An Shin-ae of The Barberettes as 대한포도주장미연합회, a name that reads roughly as the Korean Wine and Rose Federation, and Korean Wikipedia also lists her in the band of the bandoneon player Ko Sang-ji (고상지) and in the singer Harim's Africa Overland. On records, she plays vibraphone on four tracks of The Barberettes' Seasons (EggPlant, January 16, 2018), among them "Mr. Sandman" and "My Winter Wonderland."

The Seoul Forest Jazz Festival booked her in both of its first two years. Korean Wikipedia's lineups place her on October 8, 2017, with the singer Harim, and on October 6, 2018, with the singer Jang Jae-in as special guest. The festival's organizer, Pageturner, is also her label. Korean Wikipedia lists her at the Yeowooluk Festival and Round Midnight in 2017 and at the Cheongnamdae Jazz Tonic Festival in 2018, and a video title dates her set at the ㅍㅍㅍ festival to May 27, 2018.

Her first release under her own name was the single "Every Time You Call My Name" (October 4, 2018), paired with "Mirror." The self-titled album Mothervibes followed on November 6, 2018, on Pageturner, with eleven tracks produced by Jeong Won-young. "Every Time You Call My Name," with English lyrics, was written for her daughter, then a first-grader, and sung by Sunwoo Jung-a, An Shin-ae and Kang Echae; the bandoneon player Ko Sang-ji joins her on "Mirror," the haegeum player Choi Min-ji on "기분 좋은 날" and the singer Elaine on "sLow & Low." The Hankyoreh described the record as five years of work after her return, and she told the paper she wanted to introduce the vibraphone with a mother's heart. Her first solo concert took place on December 1, 2018. The Korean Music Awards site carries a write-up of her under the 2019 (16th) Rookie of the Year category, written by the selection committee member Kwon Seok-jung, who called her an artist to watch from 2018; Airy won the award that year. Apple Music files the album under jazz, and Bugs files its lead single as jazz; Discogs files its 2022 white-vinyl LP under pop and folk, world and country.

She kept working in jazz settings. She is the vibraphonist on two Studio360 records made with the pianist Yun Seokcheol and the saxophonist Kim Oki: the 2021 7-inch 대합실을 위한 경음악 Vol. 1, where Discogs credits a vibraphonist under the name Lee Hee-kyung (이희경), and the 2022 LP Midnite Relaxation, where she is credited as 마더바이브. She is a guest on the singer Malo's double album Song Changsik Song Book (2020), whose Bugs notes call her a vibraphonist without equal in jazz; the album, with the drummer Lee Do-heon, won a Korean Music Awards jazz prize. She is also a featured artist on Jo Dong-hee's single "언니, 사랑이 뭐예요" (November 22, 2018).

In 2024 her music reached a wider audience through the video game Stellar Blade. Four of her pieces are on the game's eight-track mini soundtrack (April 26, 2024), and the full soundtrack (September 25, 2024) carries six tracks under her name, including "The Song of Destiny" at track 1. The game's sound director, Hwang Jooeun (황주은), told the Japanese magazine Famitsu in September 2024 that the camp music was made by the Korean jazz artist Mothervibes, who worked as if making a personal album, and that the track heard on the PlayStation 5 menu is also hers. She remains active on the Seoul stage: a concert review lists her among the players at Noh Young-sim's small-concert evening at Ewha Womans University's Yeongsan Theater on February 8, 2025, and a Christmas Ghibli Tango concert at Lotte Concert Hall on December 20, 2026 is announced with her as vibraphonist, with the bandoneon player Ko Sang-ji.

Her records are built on the vibraphone's ringing, long-sustaining tone, which IZM described as bouncy and fresh, with a clean afterglow. The reviewer heard two bossa novas at different tempos ("3AM" and "Paquito"), waltz-time pieces in "여우비가" and "기분 좋은 날," a groovy fusion piece in "Mirror" and a piano-led, moonlit "불꽃놀이," and said the genre changes keep the album from sagging. The Hankyoreh heard jazz, funk, tango and ballad colors held together by the vibraphone's sound and her easy melodies. IZM guessed that her choice of the vibraphone was probably helped by the fact that masters such as Gary Burton had given it a place in jazz; she herself credits Tim Genis's advice and Jeong Won-young's counsel. Her Berklee study put funk and Latin music alongside jazz.

Whether she is primarily a jazz artist is a fair question. For jazz: she studied jazz and vibraphone at Berklee, Apple Music and Bugs file her records under jazz, Korean Wikipedia lists her among Korean jazz musicians, she played the Seoul Forest Jazz Festival twice, IZM calls one track fusion jazz, and the notes to Malo's prize-winning jazz album single her out as a jazz vibraphonist. Against it: the debut is a set of songs, mostly with guest singers, on a label better known as a content company; the Korean Music Awards considered her for Rookie of the Year and not in a jazz category; much of her session and live work is in pop; and her best-known recent music is game soundtrack work. This profile treats her as a vibraphonist and composer working at the jazz edge of Korean pop, tagged Crossover Jazz and Jazz Pop.