SINGER-SONGWRITER SORA HAS GREAT VOICE AND MYTHOLOGICAL LYRICS

The extraordinary vocalist and songwriter Sora, who titled her new album Scorpion Moon, believes artists need to show both sides of life -- the light and the dark, joy and sorrow, urban versus nature, birth/rebirth but also death, ancient and modern, this physical realm as well as otherworldly places.

 

Sora is known for her strong, pure voice -- powerful and commanding one moment, then soft, caressing and reassuring the next.  Her vocals have operatic qualities, yet are as accessible as a folk-singer.  Her singing is noble, reverent, passionate and confident.  Her music is melodic and genre-crossing with elements of new age, modern-classical, Celtic, world-fusion, folk and pop.

 

Her original poetic lyrics tell timeless stories inspired by ancient myths, children’s fairytales, nature’s wonders and modern conflicts.  Her sound is primarily acoustic with occasional electronic shading; and it gets its classical influences from piano, cello, violin and flute; its folk background from acoustic guitar and mandolin; and its world flavors from the Celtic harp, erhu, bamboo flute, dizi, pennywhistle, charango and various ethnic percussion instruments.

 

“My music doesn’t easily fit into any single category,” Sora says.  “That started throughout my teenage years when I was performing on violin in a prominent youth orchestra, and at the same time I was playing in an actively-touring fiddle group.  I was always bouncing back and forth between strict, traditional, classicism and rootsy, folk, home-spun sounds.”

 

Sora’s music can be found at a variety of online stores such as CDbaby and Amazon, as well as many digital download sales sites including iTunes, eMusic, Rhapsody and others.  For more information on Sora, visit her website (www.soramusic.ca).

 

“I titled my new album Scorpion Moon not only because I liked the natural-world imagery,” explains Sora, “but because it represents the meshing of opposing synergies – the shadow in light, the complexity of contradictory truths within our emotional landscapes along with the ongoing struggle to discern the roots of what moves and shapes us.   There are many threads leading to every emotion, and some are opposing, like a shiver of sadness within a feeling of happiness, or unexpected consequences when loving someone.”

 

Sora, who has a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Psychology, has a deep interest in mythology, fairytales, archetypes, feminism, society’s collective consciousness, and narratives that illuminate our life passage.  “It’s always my goal to understand the heart of the myth, rather than to simply re-tell a story,” she says.  “I’m far more interested in discovering why that myth is still meaningful today.  In a song, whether it encapsulates a myth or tells a contemporary tale, the narrative can connect us to a more expansive humanity.  We are all facing similar experiences, and that connection can be helpful or comforting.”

 

In addition to Scorpion Moon, Sora has released three previous recordings -- Winds of Change (traditional folk songs from the British Isles), Light (a four-song EP featuring her first original songs) and Heartwood (a Top 20 album on the international Zone Music Reporter chart, featuring all-original material including several tunes inspired by children’s stories and ancient legends).

 

The songs on Scorpion Moon follow a similar path.  Some come from ancient myths.  The tune “Scheherazade” (named for the female narrator of the legendary age-old tales “One-Thousand-and-One Arabian Nights”) is told from the point of view of the king, who listens to these stories and longs for true love.  Sora’s tune “The Tower” is based on the legend of Rapunzel, who was locked in a tower, but with a twist,  “Young girls often feel locked inside of themselves, but they need to learn they can become a strong, secure woman without having a prince come to save them.”

 

Other compositions on Scorpion Moon have their origins in children’s stories.  “Proof of Life” was inspired by “The Velveteen Rabbit” and addresses the question of who and what makes a life real.  “Mermaid’s Song” derives from the “The Little Mermaid” story by Hans Christian Anderson (“the mermaid’s love led to her ultimate sacrifice”).  The cautionary tale of children following a flute-player provides the basis of “Piper” which is about “a person who leads you to beyond your limited view into worlds unknown.”

 

Sora includes songs about archetypes.  “Hero” points out that “heroes and villains are sometimes only differentiated by perspective,” explains Sora.  “Savage” is about “strong emotion and animalistic desire, pain and pleasure linked, even ecstasy in sacrificial death among the ancient cults.”  “Hiraeth” is an old Welsh word encompassing “a longing for what the soul once knew, homesickness, nostalgia, a place or feeling from long ago.”  “Moving On” -- used on the soundtrack of a short film by that name written by Sora’s husband, Bryan P. Hunt -- is written from the perspective of the spirit of a recently dead woman speaking to her still-living husband.  The lyrics of “Hold” show someone loving and holding a person with deep depression.  Sora’s “City” encapsulates “the hum, pulse and heartbeat of a large city.”

 

Sora mostly heard classical music when she was growing up in Calgary, Canada.  She began piano and violin lessons as a child.  “Music was a strong focus in my life.  I got up at six and practiced, went to school, practiced after school, and rehearsed with both the orchestra and the fiddle group every week.  The youth orchestra performed several times a year and toured every two years, including Europe.  The fiddle group played hundreds of shows each year.  I also taught music after school.”

 

Sora says, “According to my mother I was singing as a child before I could talk, and I remember singing myself to sleep.  But I had only sung informally, never professionally before an audience, until I was an adult and started my recording career in the early 2000s.”

 

Sora’s early musical influences were in the classical field -- Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, “The Pearl Fishers” tenor duet by Bizet, and violin concertos by Mendelssohn and Bruck.  Through her fiddle group she was introduced to traditional folk, bluegrass and Celtic music (“all the Canadiana and Americana music that came from Europe with the early settlers”).  In later years, Sora was inspired by singer-songwriters Loreena McKennitt, Enya, Sarah McLachlan, Tori Amos, Jewel and Amy Lee (of Evanescence).

 

On Scorpion Moon Sora works with top Canadian musicians -- her producer Douglas Romanow (piano and keyboards), Sharlene Wallace (pedal harp and Celtic harp), Jason Fowler (acoustic guitar, mandolin, charango), Ron Korb (bass flute, bamboo flute, dizi), Ana Uceda (cello), Wendy Solomon (cello), Lenny Solomon (violin), Xiaoqiu Lin (erhu), Ernie Toller (flute) and Ray Dillard (ethnic percussion).

 

In addition to being a recording artist, Sora also performs concerts.  Primarily a singer, she also often plays some piano and violin.  “In between the music, I like to tell stories about the songs,” she states.

 

“I am not trying to re-create something from the past, but I feel it is important to explore classic traditions and tales, to hold them up and see why these stories have been passed down for generations, and study what makes them meaningful now.  These are stories of what it means to be human, and often they hold secret keys that can open doors in our lives.  I am trying to bridge many worlds and examine the interconnections that hold it all together.  I want to present truths that transcend time, place and worlds.”