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Soriah (with Ashkelon Sain)

Atlan

2009 | Projekt | PRO00232

Cd

Regular Price: $16.98
Online Sale Price! $13.98

Tracks:
  1. Yoallicuicatl
  2. Cehui | MP3 Clip
  3. Tonacayotica | MP3 Clip | youTube video
  4. Temictli Atlan
  5. Citlalpol
  6. Xopancuicatl | MP3 Clip
  7. Atlan
  8. Morguul
  9. Borbak | MP3 Clip
  10. Tona Atoyaatl
  11. Amo Cahuit | MP3 Clip
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Atlan has its roots in the ceremonial: ritualism, shamanism, butoh. Master Tuvan throat singer Soriah teams up with prolific soundscaper Ashkelon Sain to create a totally breathtaking album. Soriah conjures up a haunting sonic otherworld, drifting, dreamy, a rumbling, whirring ambient dronescape, thick with natural timbre and dense with subtle overtones. The eleven tracks employ a host of Central Asian ethnic stringed instruments alongside atmospheric synths and hypnotic hand percussion to form a simmering backdrop for Soriah's mesmerizing vocals intoned in the ancient Aztec language of Nahuatl.

Detailed album description
Aquarius Records:
"Totally breathtaking. Soriah conjures up a haunting sonic otherworld, drifting, dreamy, menacing and malefic, a rumbling, whirring dark ambient dronescape, thick with natural timbre and dense with subtle overtones. A deft mash up 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."

Atlan has its roots in the ceremonial: ritualism, shamanism, butoh. Master Tuvan throat singer Soriah has teamed with prolific soundscaper Ashkelon Sain to create a masterwork of epic celestial elegance. The eleven tracks employ a host of Central Asian ethnic stringed instruments alongside atmospheric synths and hypnotic hand percussion to form a simmering backdrop for Soriah's mesmerizing vocals.

Soriah has extensively trained in traditional Tuvan throat 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 underpinnings of Soriah's music reach back to Central Asia, he traces his cultural roots to his father's homeland of Mexico. Soriah's explorations of Mexico's cities, wilderness, and eclectic indigenous traditions - as well as his extensive Tuvan travels and musical studies there - have deeply influenced his pan-cultural ethos. Soriah's interest in contemporary expression through animism and shamanism, and particular fascination with the Aztec mysteries has all substantially informed the material found on Atlan. Of the album's lyric tracks, five are intoned in the ancient Aztec language of Nahuatl, while two others are interpretations of traditional Tuvan chants.

Producer/instrumentalist Ashkelon has crafted the album's sound with a seamless, ambient quality, harkening equally to the symphonic and the etherealesque. Arranged in spellbinding tempo, the tracks vary in structure from linear, North Indian styled ragas to rhythmic, esoteric songs to multilayered walls of ambient beauty, all the while retaining an unwavering sense of spiritualism and timelessness.

Atlan is a ritualistic sound adventure. You emerge from a listen with your head swaddled in a pre-linguistic fever dream. Vocals 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. With closed eyes, envision vast steppes illuminated by firelight, or rain falling in deep space, or vanished civilizations - ancient and mysterious yet curiously modern.

:::Soriah:::
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 electro-acoustics, noise, butoh, and free improvisation. 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 previous recorded works of Soriah include numerous limited edition hand made CDs, as well as two full length albums released by Beta-Lactam Ring Records entitled Chao-Organica in A Minor and Ofrendas De Luz A Los Muertos. Atlan is Soriah's third retail release.

::: Ashkelon Sain in his own words :::
I am a consummate recording artist, music producer and composer. From 1993-2001 I led the critically acclaimed Darkwave band Trance to the Sun, and more recently I performed as a member of the Portland psych-goth group Submarine Fleet. Through the past two decades I have participated in extensive collaborations with other artists I deem unique and intriguing, among them Scarlet Slipping, Cinema Strange, Dead Fly Ensemble, Claire Voyant, and most recently, Soriah.

My interest lies in creating high-quality musical recordings that echo landmasses, oceans, rivers and phormations. Through the use of soaring melodies, hypnotic rhythms, and chilling chords, I strive to render music that transcends the space and time of its creation: a music that succeeds in exuding a feeling of insistent otherworldliness.

The most recent releases to feature my work have been:
Trance to the Sun: Spiders, Aether & Rain (Projekt Records, 2007)
Submarine Fleet: A Very Strange Sight in the Distance (BSL Recordings, 2007)
Deadfly Ensemble: An Entire Wardrobe of Doubt and Uncertainty (Trisol Music, 2006)


A review from DarkRoom Magazine:
Grazie al passaggio alla corte della blasonata Projekt di Sam Rosenthal, il progetto Soriah, guidato dal musicista di Portland Enrique Ugalde, troverà sicuramente un'esposizione mediatica maggiore di quella avuta per le due precedenti uscite su Beta-Lactam e per il CDr dello scorso anno su Ruido Horrible. E l'artista americano merita sicuramente quel maggiore exposure che sicuramente gli garantirà anche la proficua collaborazione con Ashkelon Sain, musicista ben noto per le sue gesta negli indimenticati Trance To The Sun e, in tempi più recenti, per il lavoro svolto sotto il monicker Submarine Fleet. La peculiarità fondamentale di Soriah risiede nella vocalità di Enrique, il quale è un affermato esecutore (con tanto di riconoscimenti ufficiali a testimoniarlo) della tecnica dei 'tuvan throat singers', ovvero quel tipico canto armonico (o diplofonico) dal taglio gutturale che semplicisticamente qualcuno potrebbe etichettare - senza peraltro asserire qualcosa di errato - come 'tibetano', ma che nel caso specifico, partendo da un ceppo turco, affonda le sue radici nella Repubblica popolare di Tuva (o meglio, nelle sue antiche tradizioni), stato dell'ex-Unione Sovietica che si trova all'estremo sud della Siberia, al confine con la Mongolia. La collaborazione con Ashkelon Sain sposta inevitabilmente il baricentro sonoro rispetto alle criptiche release precedenti (decisamente più ostiche e smaccatamente rituali di quella in esame): il massiccio impiego di synth e percussioni (reali o campionate) si sposa bene sia con la suggestiva tecnica vocale di Enrique che con strumenti ricercati quali igil, byzaanchy, doshpuluur etc., oltre a flauti e campane, ed il risultato finale si rivela nettamente più arioso e musicale rispetto alle altre prove di Soriah. Soprattutto l'intreccio fra le morbide linee di synth, le percussioni ariose e l'ineccepibile tecnica vocale del Nostro (che trae ispirazione anche dalla tradizione azteca di quel Messico da cui la sua famiglia proviene, e che in passato ha già prestato i propri servigi a rinomati artisti quali Blixa Bargeld, Jarboe, Psychic TV e molti altri...) si dimostra vincente, manifestandosi al meglio nelle varie "Cehui", "Tonacayotica" e "Xopancuicatl"; talvolta la voce lascia il posto agli strumenti, come nel caso della meditativa "Citlalpol" o nella malinconica "Tona Atoyaatl", ma quel feeling sciamanico e quel tocco rituale, che permeano un lavoro attraversato dal soffio dell'anima e capace di evocare dimensioni raggiungibili solo dallo spirito, non vengono mai meno. Colpiscono soprattutto una title-track musicalmente più tenue e fragile, una "Morguul" le cui serene melodie non fanno perdere una sola oncia d'intensità, una "Borbak" quasi impalpabile nel suo sottile intreccio strumentale e soprattutto la conclusiva "Amo Cahuit", apoteosi spirituale fra sussurri, passaggi ambientali e crescendo sonori emotivamente ammirevoli. Quanto creato assieme dai due artisti, nonostante la lunghezza a tratti eccessiva dell'opera in esame, apre nuovi possibili scenari nella musica oscura, permettendo al pubblico mentalmente più aperto di apprezzare qualcosa di apparentemente lontano anni luce come il 'tuvan throath singing' in un contesto sonoro affascinante e permeato da una forte spiritualità: da scoprire, soprattutto per i cultori della musica (spi)rituale. - Roberto Alessandro Filippozzi. Rating : 7.5

You haven't heard half of what the vast realm of music has the potential to offer until you've heard 'Atlan'. Ritual performer and throat singer Soriah has teamed up with Ashkelon Sain (of Trance to the Sun) to create an album which fuses the soul with the synthesizer at last, making the mechanical and mystical one. Sweeping soundscapes guide the listener on a journey led by haunting vocals, and the result is honestly one-of-a-kind. Check out tracks "Tonacayotica", "Amo Cahuit", and the superbly haunting opener "Yoallicuicatl". (Jessika)

A review from Overtone Music Network:
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. - Thomas Jones (Crossroads Records, Portland)

A review from Psyche Van Het Folk:

Compared to the previous Soriah release, the approach has become somewhat different, and through its cooperation with dronescape musician Ashkelon Sain this new release despite its one element of darkwave/drone wave trance music sounds in fact lighter, while musically it is less intense, the concentration inside a shamanic atmosphere background is much more to the fore, and has impressive moments penetrating with the vocal ranges and effects and inner concentration into the listener’s direction, being able at certain points to reach his emotions and has certain effects on him too, especially on the title track, and specifically where the keyboards are not too much filling up spaces and moods along with a few acoustic instruments. The approach on this album can be compared to certain other shamanic singer releases, and I’m sure will also appeal to people with a more new age/alternative mood interest who do not want to have too difficult new experiences that still refers to something beyond their usual perspectives.

In the meanwhile, Soriah in 2008 had participated as a Tuvan singer from Portland in an International Symposium of Khoomei Competition, where he was awarded a third place, while travelling to Tuva he there also received the 2008 Ustuu-Khorree World Music Festival award for “Best Foreigner.” In this album five tracks were sung in the ancient Aztec language of Nahuatl, while two others are interpretations of traditional Tuvan chants. Traditional violin/picking instruments and such (Soriah) were combined with acoustic trance rhythms and darker dronewaves on keyboards, which last element works like a carpet for a semi-dream state. The songs are real and have their inner powers and they express themselves in an environment where the listener can easily adapts himself into it.

I hope one day I will be able to experience the voice with backgrounds live one day. Soriah also has a good eye for fitting suitable impressive costumes.


A review from Slug Mag:
This third release by Soriah is an unsettling, esoteria gumbo of central Asian throat singing, Mesoamerican tradition and darkwave stylings. Soriah, a.k.a. Enrique Ugalde, intones dark, otherwordly meditations over Ashlelon Sain's (Trance to the Sun) ambient layers of sound and rhythm. No dabbler in Tuvan-style throat singing, Ugalde was recently named "Best Foreigner" in an Ustuu-Khuree festival competition. The seven Nahuatl (Aztec) language songs, two traditional Tuvan chants and two instrumental tracks would be equally at home in a horror film or as the aural background for a romantic evening (the part after dinner, when something earthy and not-too-distracting sets the mood for, uh, "romance"). The title track and"Xopancuicatl" are the most contemporary, with beats and expressive dancer could catch and release bats to, but don't expect to hear this disc at the club, and don't add it to your "Driving All Night" playlist. - Madelyn Boudreaux.

Other Albums by This Artist
  1. Chao Organica in A Minor CD (Beta-lactam Ring, 2006)
  2. Ofrendas de Luz a Los Muertos CD (Beta-lactam Ring, 2008)
Merchandise by This Artist None at this time.