SORIAH

Bio:

The NEW ALBUM "ATALN" is available through the link belooow! The Portland musician and ritual artist known as Soriah (a.k.a. Enrique Ugalde) first came into being more than 10 years ago. His unique vision has evolved to draw equally from performance and musical traditions both modern and ancient–raga, shamanism, the revisionist arts of electroacoustics, noise, butoh, and free improvisation. One element which pervasively informs his work, is traditional Tuvan throat singing. Soriah has extensively trained in, and received recognition for his achievements with, this style of overtone singing. Most recently, he was honored as the Third Place winner in the International Symposium of Khoomei Competition, and "Best Foreigner" in the 2008 Ustuu-Khooree World Music Festival in Tuva, where the form originated. As much as the complex musical underpinnings of Soriah's music reach back to Central Asia, he traces his roots back to his father’s homeland of Mexico. His explorations of the cities and wilderness of Mexico and considerable research into the Aztec mysteries, as well as the present-day animism of Tuvan Shamanism, have deeply influenced his pan-cultural ethos. Through costume, movement and meditation Soriah evokes an otherworld of profound mystical import. Though the settings for his performances have ranged from arenas, concert halls and churches, to swamps, caves, tree tops and even an abandoned nuclear reactor, his project carries its own sense of place and time, which transcend the concrete world. The newest official recording, "ATLAN"--- in collaboration with Ashkelon Sain (Trance to the Sun, Submarine Fleet) is recently available from Projekt Records...projekt.com The previous recorded works of Soriah are available from Beta-Lactam Ring Records; along with compilation appearances on URCK's "Post-Asiatic" series, Sonick Sorcery's "Visions From The Garden", and Mobilization's "How To Destroy the Universe Part 5". Other credits include live and recorded guest appearances with Blixa Bargeld, Perry Ferrel, The Master Musicians of Jajouka, The Legendary Pink Dots, Jarboe, Master Tuvan Throat Singers Chirgilchin, Psychic TV, The Church, Chrome, GWAR, The Polyphonic Spree, and The Dresden Dolls, as well many others.. My Third Place "Award" in the 5th International Khoomei Symposium and my Best Foreigner Award from the Ustuu-Khoree World Music Festival in Chadanaa, Tuva .. ...............XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Member Since:

November 28, 2005

Members:

..

I edited my profile with Thomas’ Myspace Editor V3.6!

Influences:

...of Environment and Magick: XAOS, my immediate environment from the planetary to the galactic, SORIAH translates to "Milky Way" in Sufi, SYNCHRONICITY, Chemical interaction in the brain, ANCESTORS, Spirits, the Sun, the mOOn, negative space, LIGHT, potential energies, love, fear, who or what so ever calls from the other side of this trance,-->YOU<--, mankind's NATURAL self distruction, evolution, shamanistic conversations with other sides and with plant, animal, stone.... my ANAMIST world! XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXCultural: Tuvan folk, Butoh, Indian Kirana RAGA, Huichol peyote ceremony, Kinetic and Cyber Industrial, Western Occult, Indigeonous American, Classic pre-colonial Meso-American ie.. Aztec, Zapotec, Mayan,as well as, Thelema, Balinese shadow theater and dance, Amazonian Wai-Wai, Aborigine, Vodoun cultures Haitian, African and American Urban. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxMusical: Igor Koshkendy, Aldar Tamdyn, Ondar Monguun-ool, BOWIE, Tom Waits, Pandit Prahn Nath, Diamanda Galas, Screaming Jay Hawkins, Michael Sterling, ohGr, Jarboe, Nusrat Feteh Ali Khan, Lisa Gerrard, Ouidupa Vladimir Oiun, Yma Sumac, Elizabth Frazier, Pre-Christian guilt ridden PRINCE, Skinny Puppy, Carl McCoy and Fields of the Nephilim, Blixa Bargeld, YOKO, Nurse With Wound, Muslim Gauze, Steve Roach, System of a Down, Daniel Menche, Human Rights, Wesley Willis, Bauhaus, Psychic TV, Sumerland, Ronnie James Dio, Rozz Williams, COIL, Crash Worship, Lustmord, SWANS, Hedwig, B'eirth, Nick Cave, Jesus Christ Superstar, Download, Let's Go Outside, Power Circus, LYCIA, Submanrine Fleet, Mr. Pacman, Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, Sonic Youth, New Model Army, Ravi Shankar, Residents, Scot Jenerik, Slayer, Love and Rockets, The cure :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::SORIAH DISCOGRAPHY ..........................NOW AVAILABLE AT PROJEKT.COM.................................. "Atlan" review posted by Thomas Jones of Crossroads Records Category: Dreams and the Supernatural A secret truth revealed: Beauty and the Beast are the same thing. Soriah’s chimera fusion with Ashkelon Sain has produced a sprawling entity, darkly cloaked in groaning atmospheres, yet emanating an ascending light of inestimable beauty. Atlan is a deeply organic experience. Crisp hand percussion palpitates rising drones in a cellular blood-rush of life. Long, open expanses of slowly shifting tones hang like low clouds in a frosted mountain range. And when the Quetzalcoatl Kundalini of Soriah’s lyrical throat singing fires down the spine, everything goes astral. Quivering strings and chimes offer allusions to Arabo-Andaleusian textures which run rivulet alongside Tuvan strains throughout the dreamscape. Dead CAN dance to such music, because this is the music of the underworld; the music of hidden places visited by beings beyond the corporeal. Both artists have long pedigrees; some 40 years of live and recorded musical experience between them. Soriah has existed under that name for over a decade, having released several albums and known for performing all places mystical, including trees, churches, caves. He has also been recognized, through international competition, as one of the top 5 throat singers in the world. Ashkelon Sain’s Trance To The Sun project is legendary. And his composition skills have been honed razor sharp with his more recent Submarine Fleet. The collaboration is a match made in Omeyocan (the highest Aztec Heaven). Each of Atlan’s 11 tracks is a unique, carefully carved sound-mosque. Like minded soul miners Terry Riley, Huun Huur Tu, SPK’(Zamia Lehmanni)and Robert Rich are good touchstones for what’s in store, but trying to aptly describe the sonic majesty of Atlan may require divine intervention. Music available at betalactamringrecords.com OFRENDAS DE LUZ A LOS MUERTOS A review by Kieth Boyd...........................................I recently read a line of truth that hit me like a pile of bricks. I can't remember if it was an album title, a chapter in a Buddhist book or what but given that truisms can come from the mouths of saints as well as scoundrels I suppose it hardly matters. The line that affected me so was this, "Bliss and Void Insperable".I read these words and at first blush dismissed them. At a distance they don't appear to have much to do with each other. But still the phrase stuck in my mind and didn't seem to want to let go. Bliss and void, bliss and void. It cycled through my thoughts at odd moments. I'd be watching ocean waves ebbing and flowing across golden flecked sand and after trancing on the beauty of this for awhile I'd flash on that phrase. It revealed itself to me slowly and made me see both its surface and hidden face. This slow unfolding now gave way and the weight of truth flooded in rapidly. We experience bliss in a fairly specific manner. Bliss is not necessarily pleasure. It is the charge we experience when our nervous system is firing off on all cylinders. It's the end-point of all fiery extremes and at its heart lies the self-consuming void. From deep in the midst of bliss all identity is cancelled out. Every boundary of body and mind gives way and we connect with interbeing. I suppose sexual ecstasy is one of the more frequent times we experience the Bliss/Void state. Other instances might include deep meditation or exhaustion or the effects of certain drugs. The ultimate meeting place of Bliss and Void however id death. Religion has always held to this as a part of its final mystery. Soriah, Portland-Oregon musician, performance artist, shaman, understands this well. He's reaching out to wrap his fingers around Death's ribcage and give it a shake. On his new disc, "Offrendas De Luz A Los Muertos" (Bllr-Records) he's using his art as a bridge towards understanding. We are all going to die. Death is our home. It is the ultimate end road of all "selfness" and as such is perhaps not to be feared but rather embraced. So what does it sound like? Well if you are familiar with Soriah's last album, 'Chaos Organica in A Minor" you are in for some surprises. Whereas that album used layers of church organ as a sonic bed, this time out it is primarily a blend of voice, ritualistic percussion and long haunted tones of synthesizers that create the sound. One thing remains a constant from the last disc and that is atmosphere. This is some heady sound here. You emerge from a listen with your head swaddled in a pre-linguistic fever dream. Hoots and whispers collide and chase each other through the mix and just when you start to feel comfortable or certain of the terrain another movement begins and you're back in the mist. Comprised of two longish tracks, "Offrenda." is a wonderful and moving piece of ritualistic sound adventure. There is plenty of room within this music for your own visions and dreams. I find it even more pleasing than Soriah's last disc and that pleasure extends to the packaging. Wonderful Dias de Los Muertos designs festoon the heavy stock board cover. Inside are hand drawn sigils and signs of indeterminate meaning. The care that went into the look and sound of this disc is impressive. Several times during any listen as you are swept away in the clanking and organic soundscapes you will hear a small voice at the back of your awareness whispering, "Bliss and Void Inseparable". CHAO ORGANICA IN A MINOR.................................................. Review by Aquarius Records.................... After numerous, super limited, self published and hand made art editions, this is Soriah's first proper release, and it's totally breathtaking. Two lengthy pieces, for vocals, pipe organ and effects, Soriah conjures up a haunting sonic otherworld, drifting, dreamy, menacing and malefic, a rumbling, whirring dark ambient dronescape, thick with the natural timbre of the wheezing pipe organ, and dense with subtle overtones from the various vocals. A deft mash up of ancient classical musicks and modern experimental drone based minimalism, a heady blend of Messiaen, Mirror, Coleclough, Dead Can Dance, Jacula, Niblock, and Eastern ragas. A dusty old pipe organ, built in 1881, lays the groundwork, a rich, thick, multilayered bed, subtle overtones, rich swirling drones, notes and melodies shimmer and beat against each other, creating strange movements, a thick wash of chordal whir that pulses and breathes like it was alive. The organ is intertwined with various vocals, sometimes crooning, alien and operatic, but more often an impossibly low-end rumble, a dense and deep Tuvan style throat singing, buzzing and multilayered, more like some strange long stringed instrument than a human voice. Crumbling and corrosive, but at the same time soothing and ethereal. The vocals drifting through various effects, become smears and stretches that blend and blur into the overall droneworld. Definitely one of the darkest and dreamiest drone records in recent memory, and all the more compelling in that this is not just a simple tone or set of tones, slowly shifting, know this is a rich and vibrant live ritual, you can feel the organ vibrate, the vocals curl around you like some ripe exotic smoke, this music is alive, soft and inviting, but dangerous and dreamlike. A bit like SUNNO))) armed only with church organs, and accompanied by Huun-Huur-Tu, a massive physical drone, a huge deliriously suffocating wall of rumble, like laying at the bottom of a pit, eyes closed, and being buried alive by soft sound. So good. NEW NEW NEW Post Asiatic Compilation II The comp focuses on artist who dabble in Asian/Eastern influenced avant-garde art and offers a glimpse into the fierce beauty and embracing expressionism these artists are conveying. The compilation includes 156 minutes of music and field recordings from 25 artists with sound that travels from sitars & winding guitars to tribal animalistic percussion and gamelan music to the psychedelic Thai sounds of the Mekong and Tuvan throat singing to harmoniums, gamelan-esque free-spasm metal percussion and dreamy Chinese dulcimers. Not to mention field recordings from Burmese Puppet Shows and India. This post-cursor to the West Coast Post-Asiatic vinyl is a 2CD set packaged in a heavy cardboard "old style vinyl" gatefold cover. Artists include: Amps for Christ, Muslimgauze, Z'EV + Ramona Ponzini, Larry Thrasher, Forgotten Fish Memory Orchestra, Hop-Frog's Drum Jester Devotional, Volcanosis, Pyramids on Mars, Auto Da Fe, Sikhara, Nequaquam Vacuum, Aditi Tahiti, Bill Horist, C.O.T.A., F-Space, Venerable Showers of Beauty Gamelan, Neung Phak, Refrigerator Mothers, Charles Powne, The Hop-Frog Kollectiv, Jerry Lloyd, Kamilsky, Metal Rouge, Moe! Staiano, Sardonik Grin, Catastrophic Mermaids on Parade & Soriah. "The term Post Asiatic may come across as another ridiculous entry in the dictionary of contemporary sub-genre music but the name is the most appropriate encapsulation for what has easily become the most interesting musical movement in nearly twenty years. Due to space limitations the West Coast Post Asiatic compilation fails to include the majority of artists on the Western Coast of the US who focus on or dabble in Asian/Eastern influenced avant-garde art. However; it offers a glimpse into the fierce beauty and embracing expressionism these artists are conveying. The compilation includes work from Amps for Christ, Soriah, hop-frog’s drum jester devotional, Auto Da Fe, Sikhara & Refrigerator Mothers with sound that travels from electric sitars & winding guitars to tribal animalistic percussion, cyclic dron-e chanting, gamelan-esque free-spasm metal percussion to dreamy Chinese dulcimers and moon guitars. The marble vinyl is limited to 505 copies and varies in color.

Sounds Like:

water

Record Label:

Beta-Lactam Ring Records