My work is a polemic of cultural identity. Consumed by ever-evolving rituals of disintegrating perspectives, I explore the liminal space between tone/noise and analog/digital. These investigations of the noise spectrum result in disparate timbres, representative of the duality of Asian America ritualistically searching in a diaspora. A confluence of the identities, both elected and imposed, my work aims to decolonize sound. For me, timbral deconstructions iconoclastically disrupt imposed identities, engendering new perspectives. Through timbral investigations, I aim to sear an imprint of identity.
The use of obsolete and failing technologies reminisces about a time of recent ancestors whose language is swallowed by a digital abyss similar to my own erasure of culture. The liminal sounds of in-betweenness are found in the process of discovery and experimentation, negotiating in broken tongues. The evolution and prevalence of contemporary technology, in our daily life, forces us to accept failure or crumble under the debt of becoming obsolete.
There exists, in simultaneity, converging paths of living vicariously, yet in isolation, through social media – an urge to digitally witness analog actions while hesitant to vulnerably put ourselves out on the web that we have become so dependent on as our primary source of consumption. This digital mycelium network connects living organisms over vast digital landscapes, perhaps even living themselves, at this point. The invisible, digital tendrils that bridge one person to other people have perhaps transcended the digital world and become as real as anything tangible. If information can traverse the digital abyss with such ease, then maybe the digital void is brimming with more life than we know. Through sound, my work attempts to explore this digital diaspora and occupy this liminal, technological space.
Joshua Marquez with the JACK Quartet
Calvin Windschitl and Allison Offerman performing Flare
Alvon Reed's Guitarra! with Regina Morones, Hannah Weeks, and Joshua Marquez
[Full List of Works, below]
Sound Installation
Cutting Through Static, 2023
commissioned by the Practice Gallery in Philadelphia, PA
Recycled Soundscapes, 2022
commissioned by RAIR in Philadelphia, PA
released on Bahay Records (12” vinyl LP + digital), 2023
Electroacoustic
Dirt, 2023 [fixed media]
commissioned by Dirtbaby Farm
released on Bahay Records (cassette + digital), 2023
words replace bodies replace ghosts, 2023 [fixed media]
released on Bahay Records (cassette + digital), 2023
standing still while my head slowly burns, 2021 [fixed media]
released on Bahay Records (7” vinyl + digital), 2021
Violent Yellow, 2020 [fixed media]
released on Bahay Records (cassette + digital), 2023
Putrefaction, 2013 [8-channel fixed media] | recording (E.M.P.i.R.E.S. Records)
premiered December 2013
released on Sonic Flux (E.M.P.i.R.E.S Records), 2014
Chamber Ensemble
my teeth are whitest when my mouth is shut, 2021 [2egtr] | score | video
commissioned and performed by Duo Charango
For Vincent Chin, 2017 [fl vln] | score | video
commissioned and performed by Access Contemporary Music for the Golden Triangle in Chicago, IL for Open House Chicago 2017
Awake, 2016 [shvi ten 2vln vla vc] | score
2016 Sayat Nova International Composition Competition 3rd Prize
Toward, 2015 [fl cl pno vln vc] | score | recording (ABLAZE Records)
commissioned and premiered by Ensemble 319, November 2015
Recorded by the Brno Philharmonic on Pierrot Series Vol. 2 (ABLAZE, 2019).
Abrade, 2015 [string quartet] | score | recording
premiered by the JACK Quartet, December 2015
Pagtindig, 2014 [string quartet] | score | recording
premiered by the JACK Quartet, October 2014
Fingerprint Skin Graft, 2013 [fl cl pno vln vc] | score | recording
premiered by the Stony Brook Contemporary Chamber Players, November 2013
Cold Star, 2013 [string quartet] | score | recording
premiered by the JACK Quartet, October 2013
a frayed, jute whipping knot, 2012 [ob cl asax bcl bsn] | score | video
commissioned and premiered by the Akropolis Reed Quintet, January 2012
A Certain Shade of Sertraline, 2011 [ob cl asax bcl bsn] | score | recording
commissioned and premiered by Quintet Sirocco, March 2012
Large Ensemble
Aperture Assonance, 2016 [chamber orchestra] | score | recording
commissioned and recorded by University of Iowa Center for New Music, April 2016
...in inky night..., 2015 [chamber orchestra] | score | recording
commissioned and premiered by the University of Iowa Center for New Music, April 2015
Ang Alamat Ng Araw at Gabi, 2011 [string orchestra] | score | recording
premiered by the Gate City Camerata, November 2011
Solo
fragments and souvenirs, 2022 [egtr]
released on Bahay Records, 2022
city of toppled moments, 2020 [egtr]
released on Bahay Records, 2020
Bagsak, 2018 [cb] score l video
premiered by Zach Bush in Phoenix, AZ
Slink, 2016 [fl] | score | recording (Sarton Records)
commissioned and premiered by Iwona Glinka, November 2016
recorded by Iwona Glinka on One Minute (Sarton Records), 2017
Slough, 2015 [vln] | score | recording (RMN Classical)
commissioned and premiered by Andrew Gentzsch, October 2015
recorded by Carmine Marcello Rizzi on Architectures (RMN Classical), 2016
Lexicon I, 2015 [fl elec] | score | video
commissioned and premiered by Emily Duncan, December 2015
Flare, 2014 [ob] | score | recording
commissioned and premiered by Allison Offerman, April 2014
Collaborative
GRIT, 2015 [fl ob cl pno perc vln vc] | video
premiered by GRIT Collaborative, February 2016
awarded Iowa Social Justice Grant and Arts Across Borders Grant
...not without breaking it..., 2015 [stereo fixed media] | video
premiered by GRIT Collaborative, December 2015
Spill, 2015 [tap dancer] | video
premiered by GRIT Collaborative, April 2015
Equate, 2015 [cl pno vln vc] | video
premiered by Ensemble 319/Brooke Robinson/Destiny Washington with Rebekah Chappell (choreographer), April 2015
Guitarra!, 2015 [guitar dancer] | video
premiered by Joshua Marquez, Regina Morones, and Hannah Weeks with Alvon Reed (choreographer), April 2015