Mourning the loss of two Latino goth musicians found dead at downtown L.A. loft

Jose “Luis” Vasquez, known for his post punk and goth/synth project The Soft Moon, has died, according to media reports and his Facebook account.

Vasquez was found at a downtown Los Angeles loft along with John “Juan” Mendez, a DJ known as Silent Servant and Simone Ling, both dead, according to the L.A. Times. 

The Soft Moon performed at last year’s Cruel World festival with Souxie, Iggy Pop, Love and Rockets, Echo and the Bunnymen, Adam Ant and more post-punk, new wave and goth artists. 

"My beautiful husband Luis, the light of my life, has gone. I do not have the strength to tell you about the million reasons why I love him. Everything hurts. I came here to thank you for the love and support you are showing us,” Vasquez’s wife Marion posted on Facebook. 

The Times reported that the deaths are being investigated as possible fentanyl overdose. 

Crack Magazine editor Rachel Grace Almeida posted on X (formerly Twitter): “Devastated to hear about the passing of Juan, Silent Servant + Luis, Soft Moon. Two Latino artists whose legacies and contributions to techno, darkwave + industrial were [synthesized] by this very fact. Mourning their losses today, and every day.”

Langdon Hickman reviewed The Soft Moon’s last album “Exister,” for Treble Magazine, writing  that Vasquez “evolved from being a mere prodigy of contemporary gothic music to a kaleidoscopic talent, able to shape shift seamlessly from avant-garde soundscape to progressive suites to throbbing dance floor pieces to foreboding and forbidding cavernous macabre spells.”