From out of the fir-lined mists of the Pacific Northwest’s primordial musical soup is spawned the singular performance and sound sculptor Soriah. Spilling initially from a rock and roll womb, but building on years of intensive studies in Tuvan throat singing and classical Indian raga chanting, Soriah both subverts and elevates tradition by weaving the avant-garde into the ancient.
The musician and ritual artist known as Soriah (aka Enrique Ugalde of Portland, OR) first came into being more than 10 years ago. His unique vision draws equally from extensive training in the traditions of Tuvan throat singing, raga, and opera; and from the revisionist arts of electro-acoustics, noise, butoh, and free improvisation. Through costume, movement and meditation he evokes an otherworld of profound mystical import. Though the settings for his performances have included nightclubs, concert halls, churches, museums, swamps, lakes, caves, tree tops, warehouses, forests, deserts, streets, cemeteries, ruins, and an abandoned nuclear reactor; the Soriah project carries its own sense of place and time that transcends the concrete world. As much as the complex musical underpinnings of Soriah’s music reach back to Central Asia, the roots of his family are in Mexico. Frequent stays in the cities and wilderness of his Father’s home country, combined with considerable personal research into the Aztec mysteries and the present-day animism of the Huichol, have deeply informed his pan-cultural ethos.
The recorded works of Soriah are chiefly available from Beta-Lactam Ring Records; along with compilation appearances on URCK’s “Post-Asiatic” series, Sonick Sorcery’s “Visions From The Garden”, Mobilization’s “How To Destroy the Universe Part 5”, guest appearances with Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, Perry Ferrel, Mesmer, and Mandible Chatter; and self-released CD-Rs beyond number. The Next CD release, “NAUT” in collaboration with Ashkelon Sain is scheduled Fall 2009. The myriad of performers with whom Soriah has appeared live and on recording also includes Akira Kasai, Blixa Bargeld, Perry Ferrel,The Living Jarboe, Psychic TV, Scot Kelly, F-Space, Chrome, Waldteufel, GWAR,Extra-Action Marching Band, The Polyphonic Spree, March Forth Marching Band, Trance to the Sun, The Dresden Dolls, Societas Insomnia, P.A.N., Mizu Desierto, Alenka Loesch, Submarine Fleet, Tchkung!, To-Ka-Ge, Sardonik Grin, Solovox, Sumerland, Death Posture, Children of Paradise, Michael Sakamoto, Yakuza, Riververb, Hop-Frog, Legerdemain, Feral, The Moe!kestra!, Flail, Black Orchid, Degenerate Art Ensemble, Serpentine, The Red King, CoRE, Aixela, and Venerable Showers of Beauty Gamelan. |
