{{Use mdy dates|date=April 2018}} {{infobox musical artist | name = Soriah | image = Soriahhand1.jpg | birth_name = Enrique Ugalde | alias = Uger Khan | birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1971|4|1}} | birth_place = San Bernardino, California, U.S. | origin = | death_date = | death_place = | genre = {{hlist|Experimental|world|folk|overtone singing|ambient|noise|sganabuc}} | occupation = Singer, musician, performance artist | instrument = Vocals, guitar, organ, igil, doshpuluur, byzaanchy, shoor, doumbek, kengergee | years_active = 1999–present | label = Projekt, Beta-lactam Ring Records, Ruido Horrible | associated_acts = Ashkelon Sain, Pan/Zen, Chirgilchin, Liberation Movement, SORNE, David J, Peter Murphy, Modest Mouse, cEvin Key, Terry Riley, Download, Thor Harris, Hans-Joachim Roedelius, Noah Mickens, Everyone Orchestra, Sumerland | website = {{URL|soriahmusic.com}} }}
'''Soriah''' (born '''Enrique Ugalde'''; April 1, 1971) is an American overtone singer, performance artist, multi-instrumentalist, and shamanic ritualist headquartered in Portland, Oregon and the Tuvan Republic. His music is a synthesis of traditional forms such as Tuvan throat singing, Shamanic music, Raga, and pre-Columbian Mexica music and language; with avant garde musical styles like Industrial, Ambient, Noise, and Goth. Likewise, his live performance is a fusion of costume and ritual from Tuva, Mexico, North American Native cultures, and Western Ceremonial Magic traditions; as well as chaos magic, butoh, and modern primitive movements of the 20th century.<ref name="Oregon Music News Soriah">{{cite web |last=Mickens |first=Noah |url=http://oregonmusicnews.com/blog/2009/11/14/soriah-post-world-shaman/ |title=Soriah Post-world shaman |publisher=Oregon Music News |access-date=March 5, 2018 |url-status=bot: unknown |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091130182946/http://oregonmusicnews.com/blog/2009/11/14/soriah-post-world-shaman/ |archive-date=November 30, 2009 |df=mdy-all }}</ref> His lyrics, when there are any, are often written in the Nahuatl or traditional Tuvan languages.<ref name="Oregon Music News Soriah" /> He won the title of "Best Foreigner" at the 2008 Ustuu-Khuree Festival in Chadanaa Tuva,<ref name="Overtone Music Network">{{cite web|url=http://www.overtone.cc/profile/SoRIAH |title=Overtone Music Network: Soriah|access-date=March 5, 2018}}</ref> and in that same year placed as "Third Laureate" at The International Throat Singing Symposium, which remains the highest award given to a non-Tuvan in the history of the Symposium.<ref name="WW Soriah May 5th">{{cite web|url=http://www.wweek.com/portland/article-20569-soriah-sunday-may-5.html|title=Soriah Sunday May 5th|date=May 2013 |access-date=March 15, 2018}}</ref> He also won 2nd Place in the Tuvan Nation Kargyraa Competition in 2014, was given a special award as "Great innovator of the art of Tuvan Throat Singing" in 2016,<ref name="Overtone Music Network" /> and won Best Kargyraa Performance at the Khoomei in the Center of Asia Festival 2019.<ref name="Scaremeister">{{cite web |last1=Key |first1=cEvin |title=Sunday Live Chat with Soriah and cEvin Key |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ERwNDEZusD0 |website=YouTube |date=July 12, 2020 |publisher=Scaremeister |access-date=19 July 2020}}</ref> As a solo artist, and with various collaborators and musical ensembles, Soriah has toured throughout the United States, Europe,<ref name="WW Soriah May 5th" /> Asia, and Mexico.<ref name="Oregon Music News Soriah" /> He is considered the highest-ranked non-native practitioner of Tuvan throat singing.<ref name="WW Soriah May 5th" />
==Early life and career== Enrique Ugalde was born in San Bernardino, California and moved to Oakland at a young age. His father was the drummer for a popular rock and roll band in Mexico called Los Sputniks. As a child, he was exposed to traditional Mesoamerican cultures on frequent family trips to Mexico City with his father, and by his Mexican grandmother. He describes himself as having sung and played guitar in a church choir as a child, begun his study of opera and other Western classical singing shortly thereafter, and being inducted into the State of California Honors Chorus in his high school years.<ref name="New Oregon Arts and Letters">{{cite web|last=Brown|first=Tiffany|url=http://www.2gq.org/2009/08/soriah-reveals-a-new-sound-and-two-international-awards.html|title=SORIAH REVEALS A NEW SOUND, AND TWO INTERNATIONAL AWARDS|publisher=2GQ|access-date=March 24, 2018|url-status=bot: unknown|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091103072415/http://www.2gq.org/2009/08/soriah-reveals-a-new-sound-and-two-international-awards.html|archive-date=November 3, 2009|df=mdy-all}}</ref> His interest in the "goth" subculture led him to music like Bauhaus, Einsturzende Neubauten, Crash Worship, and Psychic TV; which influenced his shift from classical music to a more experimental and industrial direction.<ref name="New Oregon Arts and Letters" /> He studied vocal performance at California State University, Long Beach in 1990<ref name="WW Soriah May 5th" /> before moving first to Berkeley, then to Oakland. It was in Oakland that he made his first recordings of looped vocals and ambient electronics, which he regards as the roots of the Soriah project.<ref name="Oregon Music News Soriah" /> He first invented the name Soriah in early 1995 for the title of a song, "The Course of Soriah." This is the name he gave to his "timeless essence outside the body."<ref name="Oregon Music News Coffee Shop Conversations">{{cite web|last=D'Antoni|first=Tom |url=https://www.oregonmusicnews.com/article?articleTitle=enique-ugalde-(soriah)-coffeeshop-conversations-%2340-portland-s-own-tuvan-throat--1445040743--110--cat-podcast|title=Coffee Shop Conversation with Enrique Ugalde |publisher=Oregon Music News |access-date=March 13, 2018}}</ref> In Oakland, he performed with various industrial and experimental music projects, and was known for hosting illegal "Trespass Parties" in abandoned factories and shipyards.<ref name="New Oregon Arts and Letters" />
Ugalde relocated to Portland, Oregon in 1996. There he met and studied the Kirana style of raga<ref name="New Oregon Arts and Letters" /> with famed instructor Michael Stirling,<ref name="Oregon Music News Soriah" /> and encountered throat singing for the first time in recordings and a subsequent live show by Huun Huur Tu.<ref name="Oregon Music News Coffee Shop Conversations" /> He provided percussion, guitar, and vocals for numerous music and performance projects during the late 90s in Portland included Sumerland, Big Milk Bath, Black Orchid, Feral, PANDrogynous Ad Nauseum, Flail, Mesmer; and the collective known alternately as 2Gyrlz and Pan/Zen.<ref name="Oregon Music News Soriah" />
==Early Soriah years== The first public Soriah performances took place in 1999 in Portland, and he quickly achieved renown in the underground arts and music scene. He describes his circle of friends and artists at that time as "neo-tribal."<ref name="WW Soriah May 5th" /> In addition to nightclubs and theaters, early Soriah performances often took place in unconventional locations; such as the underground "shanghai tunnels" of Portland's Oldtown neighborhood, the ruins of the Sutro Baths in San Francisco, in the midst of a citywide protest against George W. Bush in 2005, buried up to his waist in the earth, and half-submerged in a swamp full of frogs on the campus of Reed College.<ref name="New Oregon Arts and Letters" /> His costumes vary; but often include white make-up or clay accentuated with black lines and fields of color on the face, large headdresses and wide-brimmed hats, ritual robes, and white tulle that obscures facial and bodily features.
During this period, he played with an alternating ensemble of drummers, percussionists, electronic musicians, and dancers including Lana Guerra (aka Power Circus), Stephen Schieberl (aka Let's Go Outside, aka LGO, aka Demogorgon), Ryan Olson, Noah Mickens, Jonathan Howitt, Daniel Henderson, Marshall Serna, Ashkelon Sain, Lucretia Renee, Barrett Clark (aka Sidereal Oscillations), and many others.<ref name="Discogs.com Soriah">{{cite web|url=https://www.discogs.com/artist/207654-Soriah|title=Soriah|website=Discogs |access-date=March 11, 2018}}</ref>
==Recordings== Soriah's solo show at The Old Church in Portland featured Soriah accompanying his own vocals on a 20-foot-tall antique pipe organ, and was captured for his first CD release ''Chao Organica in A Minor'' (2006, Beta-Lactam Ring Records.)<ref name="Discogs.com Chao Organiza in A Minor">{{cite web|url=https://www.discogs.com/Soriah-Chao-Organica-In-A-Minor/release/713224|title=Discogs.com: Chao Organica in A Minor|website=Discogs |access-date=March 11, 2018}}</ref> His 2007 follow up release on BLR, ''Offrendas de Luz a los Muertos'', is an extended duet with Lana Guerra playing homemade analog synthesizers<ref name="Discogs.com Offrendas De Luz A Los Muertos">{{cite web|url=https://www.discogs.com/Soriah-Ofrendas-De-Luz-A-Los-Muertos/master/1294046|title=Discogs.com: Offrenda de Luz de los Muertos|website=Discogs |access-date=March 11, 2018}}</ref> that he describes as being his most discordant and intense recording,<ref name="Oregon Music News Soriah" /> and also as a "sonic exorcism."<ref name="New Oregon Arts and Letters" /> A recording from Soriah's 2007 appearance on Bay Area radio station KFJC was released as ''Marakame'' on Mexican label Ruido Horrible the following year.<ref name="Discogs.com Soriah" />
In 2009, Soriah signed to Projekt Records and co-produced an album called ''Atlan'' with Ashkelon Sain of Trance to the Sun, assembling a group of musicians who would form the core of his live ensemble for the next several years (Jonathan Howitt, Daniel Henderson, and Marshall Serna.)<ref name="New Oregon Arts and Letters" /> He describes this as a return to his roots in both classical and gothic music, after the previous two noise-industrial oriented releases.<ref name="Oregon Music News Soriah" /> This ensemble has toured extensively, eventually releasing a second Soriah/Sain album called ''Eztica'' in 2011.
A number of Soriah recordings have been self-released in digital form since then; including ''Asterism'' with Barrett Clark (aka Sidereal Oscillations), ''Wonderful Disease – The Best of Soriah and LGO'', and several others.<ref name="Discogs.com Soriah" />
thumb|left|Soriah at Khöömei Ovaa, Aldan Bylak, Tuva
==Tuva and Uger Khan== Ugalde first trained with Tuvan masters Chirgilchin at an intensive camp in Sebastapol, California in 2005. They invited him to attend the first International Throat Singing Camp in Tuva in 2007;<ref name="Oregon Music News Coffee Shop Conversations" /> and he returned in 2008 to participate in the Ustuu-Khuree Festival, where he was awarded the title of "Best Foreigner." He is the only non-Tuvan to have ever placed in the overall competition.<ref name="Vice Magazine Soriah">{{cite web|last=Alex |url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/the-deepest-throat-in-america/|title=The Deepest Throat in America|date=November 23, 2009 |publisher=Vice Magazine|access-date=March 26, 2018}}</ref>
From that point onward, he would split his time as much as possible between Tuva and the US. He has appeared on Tuvan television, taught at a youth music school in the city of Kyzyl, and performed traditional music throughout the country. Aldar Tamdyn, the Tuvan Minister of Culture, granted him the name "Uger Khan," which translates roughly as "Milky Way King." He released an album of traditional Tuvan music under this name in 2013 on Khai-Aat Music, called "Tergiinner Yryzy" or "Songs of the Masters."<ref name="Discogs.com Tergiinner Yryzy">{{cite web|url=https://www.discogs.com/Uger-Khan-Tergiinner-Yryzy/release/11361992|title=Discogs.com: Terglinner Yryzy|website=Discogs |date=January 2013 |access-date=March 11, 2018}}</ref> Since then, he uses Uger Khan to denote his strictly traditional concerts and recordings; and Soriah for his more experimental world fusion music.
thumb|Soriah performing with Liberation Movement at Lucidity Festival 2018
==Festival appearances== Soriah has had a presence on the West Coast festival scene for many years and in many forms, including many appearances with the project Liberation Movement. Soriah has performed at The Autonomous Mutant Festival, Burning Man, How to Destroy the Universe, Wave Gotik Treffen in Leipzig Germany 2013,<ref name="Willamette Week: Soriah Tour Diary">{{cite web|author=Enrique Ugalde |url=http://www.wweek.com/portland/blog-30239-soriah-tour-diary-stranded-at-home.html|title=Willamette Week: Soriah Tour Diary|date=May 24, 2013 |publisher=Willamette Week}}</ref> Oregon Eclipse Gathering 2017,<ref name="everfest.com">{{cite web|author=B. Getz |url=https://www.everfest.com/magazine/global-eclipse-gathering-music-2017 |title=The Standout Musical Performances of Global Eclipse Gathering |publisher=Everfest.com |date=August 31, 2017}}</ref> and The Symbiosis Gathering.<ref name="jambase.com">{{cite web|author=B. Getz |url=https://www.jambase.com/article/review-photos-symbiosis-gathering-2013-california |title=Review & Photos-Symbiosis Gathering 2013-California |publisher=jambase.com |date=October 3, 2013}}</ref>
==Collaborations== Throughout his career, Soriah has maintained a close relationship with the radical arts non-profit 2Gyrlz and the related Pan-Zen Konspiracy Nett-Wyrk. He performed in the 2Gyrlz-produced EnterActive Language Festival in every year of its existence from 2002 to 2005, and in their How to Destroy the Universe event in 2006; and dozens of other shows. Their collaboration has continued with shows in the United Kingdom in 2010, 2011, and 2013.<ref name="2Gyrlz Website">{{cite web|url=https://2gyrlz.org/eventstemp|title=2Gyrlz Events|access-date=March 5, 2018}}</ref>
In addition to those mentioned previously in this article, Soriah has performed or recorded with: Peter Murphy,<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Taylor |first1=Katherine Yeske |title=Soriah |journal=Stomp and Stammer |date=14 October 2019 |issue=October 2019 |url=https://stompandstammer.com/feature-stories/soriah/}}</ref> Liberation Movement, SORNE, Bad Unkl Sista;<ref name="everfest.com" /> David J, Dead Voices on Air, Lustmord, Thor & Friends;<ref name="Discogs.com Soriah" /> King Black Acid;<ref name="Discogs.com Enrique Ugalde">{{cite web|url=https://www.discogs.com/artist/863845-Enrique-Ugalde|title=Enrique Ugalde|website=Discogs |access-date=March 11, 2018}}</ref> Chirgilchin, Societas Insomnia, Bogville, Synchronicity Frequency;<ref name="Oregon Music News Soriah" /> cEvin Key, Modest Mouse, The Dandy Warhols, Nachyn and Shonchalai Choduu;<ref name="Oregon Music News Uger Khan">{{cite web |last=Mickens |first=Noah |url=http://oregonmusicnews.com/2013/12/06/soriah-noah/ |title=Soriah, aka Uger-Khan, Prepares to Move to Tuva |publisher=Oregon Music News |access-date=March 11, 2018 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140714134935/http://oregonmusicnews.com/2013/12/06/soriah-noah/ |archive-date=July 14, 2014 |df=mdy-all }}</ref> Terry Riley,<ref name="Scaremeister"/> Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, Perry Farrell, Mesmer, Mandible Chatter, Akira Kasai, Blixa Bargeld, The Living Jarboe, Psychic TV, Scott Kelly, F-Space, Chrome, Waldteufel, Gwar, Extra Action Marching Band, The Polyphonic Spree, MarchFourth Marching Band, Trance to the Sun, Huun Huur Tu, Chirgilchin, Alash, Yat-Kha, Download, The Dresden Dolls, Everyone Orchestra, P.A.N., Submarine Fleet, ¡Tchkung!, To-Ka-Ge, Sardonik Grin, Death Posture, Children of Paradise, Michael Sakamoto, Yakuza, Riververb, Hop-Frog, Legerdemain, The Moe!kestra!, Degenerate Art Ensemble, Serpentine, The Red King, CoRE, Aixela, Venerable Showers of Beauty Gamelan,<ref name="Discogs.com Soriah" /> and Hippie Death Cult.
He also appeared on a single episode of America's Got Talent Season 5, in 2010, and was eliminated in the first round.<ref name="Oregon Music News Coffee Shop Conversations" />
==Personal life== Enrique Ugalde has a son in Tuva, also named Enrique Ugalde, with a woman named Jamilya Oorzhak.<ref name="Oregon Music News Coffee Shop Conversations" /> He is a well-known public figure in Portland; where he has often won karaoke contests and awards for Most Popular Cab Driver. He drives for worker-owned local company Radio Cab. He sings and plays guitar in a David Bowie cover band called Blackstar Rising and played bass in a Cure cover band called theXplodingboys for 9 months in 2009. He occasionally performs as pirate character Captain Bootybeard.<ref name="Oregon Music News Uger Khan" />
==Discography== '''Albums''' * ''Chao Organica in A Minor'' (Beta-Lactam Ring Records, 2006) * ''Ofrendas de Luz a los Muertos'' (Beta-Lactam Ring Records, 2007) * ''Marakame'' (Ruido Horrible, 2008) * ''Atlan'' (with Ashkelon Sain) (Projekt Records, 2009) * ''Eztica'' (with Ashkelon Sain) (Projekt Records, 2011) * ''Gnostic'' (self-released, 2018) * ''Cathartes'' (self-released, 2021)
'''Compilations''' * ''Wonderful Disease – The Best of Soriah and LGO'' (self-released 2018)
'''Live Albums''' * ''Eztica Tour Collection'' (self-released, 2012) * ''Live at The Fez – Vernal Equinox'' (with Marian Star) (self-released, 2015) * ''Iluminacíon Del Escarabajo'' (self-released, 2017) * ''Charon'' (self-released, 2017) * ''Katabatik 2009'' (with Sidereal Oscillations) (self-released, 2017) * ''Abduction'' (self-released, 2018) * ''Asterism'' (with Sidereal Oscillations) (self-released, 2018) * ''A Dream Beyond Zarqa'' (self-released, 2018)
'''Guest appearances''' * ''Mandible Chatter: Of Foreign Lands and People,'' "A Sun to Lift Sleep From the Weary" and "Man Bites Spoon" (Relapse Records, 2003) * ''Dead Voices On Air: Michael and the Angels Fought,'' "Moon" (Lens Records, 2011) * ''The Dandy Warhols: This Machine'', "SETI vs The Wow! Signal" (The End Records, 2012) * ''Lustmord: The Word as Power'', "Grigori" (Blackest Ever Black, 2013) * ''Armchair Migraine Journey: Blood Coupling Magnet,'' "Rebirth Blood ΩM" (Beta-Lactam Ring Records, 2015) * ''Thor & Friends: The Subversive Nature of Kindness'' (LM Dupli-cation, 2017)
'''Compilation appearances''' * "Exit", ''How to Destroy the Universe Part 5'' (Mobilization Records, 2006) * "Star Send-Off", ''West Coast Post-Asiatic'' (URCK Records, 2006) * "Guerilla Live In St. Augustine Fl", "Pt. 3", and "Teotizque?", ''Power Circus: Swank Harder Phoenix'' (self-released, date unknown) * "Tehuan", ''Post-Asiatic: Lost War Dream Music'' (URCK Records, 2007) * "Untitled", ''Fall Into Darkness 2009'' (Fell Studios, 2010) * "XIUHCOATL", ''Live From the Devil's Triangle 13'' (KFJC, 2010) * "Tonacayotica (Remix)", ''Under the Weight of Light'' (Projekt Records, 2010) * "Chylandyk", ''The Lovecraft Bar Compilation Vol. 1'' (Lovecraft Bar self-released, 2012) * "Chylandyk" and "Xiuhcoatl", ''XiX'' (Projekt Records, 2013) * "Recuerdos de Luna", ''Possibilities of Circumstance'' (Projekt Records, 2013) * "Ehecatl", ''No Dead Seas: No Red Seas Vol 2'' (no label) * "Amo Cahuit", ''Victor Frankenstein (Music for a Dark Evening)'' (Projekt Records, 2015)
'''Mixes''' * "Star Send-Off", ''Leekid: Fugue'' (Bruits de Fond, 2012) * "Star Send-Off", ''DJ Psyko-Pal: Restructuration Industrielle'' (Bruits de Fond, 2015)
==References== <references />
== External links == * [https://soriah.wordpress.com/ Official Website] * [https://www.projekt.com/store/product-category/artists/soriah/ Projekt Records artist page]
Category:Living people Category:1971 births Category:Musicians from Portland, Oregon Category:Musicians from San Bernardino, California Category:California State University, Long Beach, alumni