About
Sound

DYOLO? (2026)
      For Interactive Installation   

Even As I Am Silent, and Am Not Wont To Speak (2026)
      For Vocal Sextet and Electronics   

The Fallen Leave Falls (2025)
      For flute, bassoon, piano, live electronics and video   

Yesterday Yet To Come 2 (2025)
      For installation, cassette tapes, and live electronics   

When Clouds Are One Cloud Till The Horizon (2025)
      For Mixed String Ensemble   

They Have Only Existence (2025)
      For Solo Percussion, Live Electronics, and Generative Video Score   

The Poetics of Waiting… (2025)
      Installation for Interactive Animations and Spatialized Sound   

Shards of The Untraced (2025)
      For String Quartet and Spatialized Fixed Media   

Events And Results (2024)
      Video Game   

Unsupervised (2024)
      For Electric Guitar Quartet and Light   

Place Each Body Part on the Box And... (2023)
      For Wood, Resin, Print, Force Sensors and 6-channel Fixed Media   

inhere nowhere (2023)
      For Mixed Ensemble, Live-electronics, and Spatialization  

The Forgotten Ones (2020)
      For String Quartet and Fixed Media   

Clouds (2019)
      For Flute and Live Electronics   

Visual

Warp (2025)
      For 4-channel Fixed Media and Audio-reactive Video   

Photography

Cloud of Sound, Sound of Cloud  

B&W

Color

Unsupervised (2024)
For electric guitar quartet and light


20 minutes in one movement
Dedicated to and premiered by Dither Quartet, March 16, 2024, The DiMenna Center for Classical Music, New York, NY

While I was exhausted from trying to use the score to precisely and strictly 'control' the sound that I want in my works, I couldn’t help thinking about what this means to me. The restrictions not only exist in those works but also in life routines, social regulations, nature, and everywhere and every moment. Viewing a work as a potential small system formulated with infinite rules and restrictions, the piece 'Unsupervised' unfolds through the following stages: unconscious compulsiveness, realization of the restrictions, negotiation, obedience, and rebellion. The lighting design plays a vital role, serving as a guiding force for performers initially, along with the score. As the piece develops, the dominance gradually shifts, transitioning from a reliance on visual cues to a heightened emphasis on performers’ individual wills expressed through improvisation. Exploring the symbiotic relationship between what we hear and what we see, the piece seeks to shape perception by imbuing the auditory realm with the hues of visual imagery, and vice versa.



YANQI CHEN

last updated July 2026