Marcus Pal

Marcus Pal is a sound artist, composer, and theorist working with harmonic sound. Their work focuses on the phenomenology of intensity, clarity, and possibility as it manifests in the perception of tones, chords, harmony, and other forms of harmonicity. Marcus is interested in how our ways of conceptualizing harmonic sound, and perceptual experience more generally, limit and shape the possibility space of listening. In their theoretical work, they are drawing on tenth- and eleventh-century Buddhist and Pratyabhijña Śaiva epistemology and philosophy of mind. As a composer, Marcus works extensively with just intonation harmony and composes for both acoustic instruments and digital sound synthesis. In 2013 and 2014, Marcus studied with La Monte Young and Marian Zazeela while living in the Church Street Dream House in New York. Since 2014, they have worked regularly with Catherine Christer Hennix. They also have a long-standing collaboration with Ellen Arkbro.