Orange Hour (2024)
One time I was eating an orange. When I was finished, I looked up at the clock and was perplexed to see that over an hour had passed since I started with the citrus. Had I really spent an hour eating an orange? What happened to that hour? Had it slipped through the cracks to another dimension?
I was in Korea then, spending time with my aunt whose body was being consumed by cancer and radiation, and it felt like the heavens were starting to open up to take her. I wondered if existing in that liminal space granted me access to the other side for the duration of the orange, allowing an hour of our linear time to slip into deep time.
Deep time is a concept I read about in “Falling Upward” by Richard Rohr, and I think that was what I had experienced during the orange hour. Thinking about deep time spurred me to read Carl Jung, and that inspired me to write these songs.
Life is a luminous pause between two great mysteries, which themselves are one. —C.G. Jung
Future History
Joyce Kwon: voice
Ross Garren: keyboards & harmonica
Brandon Bae: guitar
André de Santanna: bass
Gavin Salmon: drums
Music & lyrics by Joyce Kwon
Produced by Ross Garren & Joyce Kwon
Recorded & mixed by Keith Armstrong
Mastered by Andrew Garver
Spin
Joyce Kwon: voice
Nick DePinna: trombone
Hitomi Oba: tenor saxophone
Ross Garren: keyboards
Brandon Bae: guitar
André de Santanna: bass
Gavin Salmon: drums & percussion
Music & lyrics by Joyce Kwon
Horn arrangement by Nick DePinna
Produced by Ross Garren & Joyce Kwon
Recorded & mixed by Keith Armstrong
Mastered by Andrew Garver
A World Without You
I composed and recorded the music and lyrics for “A World Without You,” the end credits song of the epic massively multiplayer online role-playing game. I worked with the narrative team at Guild Wars 2 to go over the main storyline and developed the song to fit the arc of the game. The song was nominated for Best Original Song at the 2023 Game Audio Network Guild Awards.
Below is a music video I made with my frequent collaborator and director Jon Pears.
Dream of Home (2018)
Below are two music videos from my album “Dream of Home.” The music video for the title track to my album “Dream of Home” screened at Asian American film festivals and was awarded Best Music Video at the Asians on Film Festival in Los Angeles and the Houston Asian American Pacific Islander Film Festival. The album also inspired a family arts workshop at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts.
The dream of home can be a nightmare. It’s possible that it’s a place that never existed at all . . . Still, Joyce holds out hope that there’s space for her somewhere, if only in the collective imagination of those marginalized in their homeland.
Motherless Child
American Traditional sung by a choir of Joyces
Musical Arrangement: Joyce
Music Producer: Ross Garren
Lyrics: Korean lyrics by Joyce’s mom, additional English lyrics by Joyce
Video Producer/Editor: Joyce
Camera: Heesung Kim
Nililiya
Joyce Kwon, voice & gayageum
Hitomi Oba, tenor saxophone
Ross Garren, organ & rhodes
Brandon Bae, guitar
Erik Kertes, bass
Gavin Salmon, drums & percussion
Korean Traditional
Arranged by Joyce Kwon & Ross Garren
English translation by Joyce Kwon
Produced by Ross Garren
Recorded & mixed by Keith Armstrong
Mastered by Justin Shturtz, Sterling Sound
Eu Sei Que Vou Te Amar
A live performance of the Jobim classic at the Segerstrom in 2021
Joyce Kwon, voice
Marcel Camargo, guitar
André de Santanna, bass
Léo Costa, drums
Crescent the Chromatic Bear
“Crescent” is the name of the title track to one of John Coltrane’s seminal albums. I took Coltrane’s saxophone solo on “Crescent,” imagining a story about a crescent bear and his new friends and penned lyrics to the solo. The video is a recording of me singing over the recording, accompanied by some Microsoft Paint-esque doodles. Press the bear’s nose to play.