MUSIC PRESS KIT
Ariana Saraha’s music feels less like performance and more like invocation – primal, intimate, and alive with breath and drum. She creates whole worlds of sound that draw listeners into a shared, felt landscape.
Official Bios
ARIANA SARAHA
Ariana doesn’t just sing about the wild, she breathes and becomes it. Her voice carries the howl of wind through canyons, the hush of snowfall on earth. She is a vocalist, composer, and ritual artist whose work rises from deep devotion to this living, aching planet.
For her first album, Maiden of Midnight, she shot the album cover in the whipping February winds of the rugged Oregon coast while living in a one-room shack nearby, warmed by firewood she cut, replenished by pure springwater straight from the land.
The original, unedited cover photo for From the Wild was shot in a 14°F blizzard outdoors in the mountains of Colorado. Most of the album's vocals were recorded in a studio she built inside her Sprinter van.
"The Last Days" music video was also shot in the month of February, this time in the Mojave Desert, at the seam where burned and still-standing Joshua trees meet – the edge between death and the fragile life so easily erased by human caprice. The winds also tore there, chilling the entire skeleton crew – but even through scathing winds and another snowstorm, they spent three full days shooting. Finally, on their last night, the winds slowed enough to allow them to shoot the firelight scene. Still, some of the best footage happened while the wind washed Ariana with so many sparks that she had to close her eyes. She kept singing.
This is Ariana’s dedication to the wild and the beautiful. This is her dedication to our home: this planet, but more specifically, these lands – the very lands we set our aching feet upon, the very lands we ravage with our industry and consumption, the very lands that provide every bit of sustenance and shelter and story from the beginning of time.
Musically, Ariana would be the wind, if she could – caressing, swirling, penetrating. She would be a thunderstorm, the rain pelting down, an occasional peal of lightning. And in her quiet moments, she would bathe us in comforting song, something akin to a murmuring stream (which happens to be her favorite sound on the planet).
To accompany Ariana's wild song, one would have to search the far corners of the earth. Fortunately, she's been given the opportunity to learn and perform music from traditions as varied as Turkish art rock, Persian and Armenian laments, Lebanese pop, Egyptian classical music, Bulgarian folk harmonies, Indian ragas, Greek and Sephardic love songs, and Peruvian icaros. She also has had the profound honor to play with some of the most creative and skilled musicians in the West, most notably her drummer and musical partner, Fernando Medina.
Through all the storms, Ariana will keep singing...
“I am utterly unprepared for her wild, mystical soul and music that transports me to faraway realms and ages.” — L.R. Heartsong, Author
“Like the voice of my ancestors calling.”
FLIGHT BEHAVIOR (band)
Collaboration between Ariana and Fernando Medina
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A stark, starlit night.
Evergreen boughs paint the sky.
Sound of raven wings.
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In the windswept reaches, that is where you will find Ariana Saraha & Fernando Medina, aka FLIGHT BEHAVIOR.
Ariana Saraha (vocals, percussion) and Fernando Medina (drums, percussion) met in the wind-torn and rain-soaked rainforests of the Pacific Northwest. After getting swallowed by the tangled, wet, dark winter wood, they narrowly escaped to keep wandering... They've since found themselves lost on snow-crested peaks, serenaded by cacophonies of birdsong, and resting deep in the quiet desert heat...
Destined, it seems, for the difficult but beautiful, all along the muse whispers, "Here, in these reaching leaves. Here, in these sun-bleached bones. Here, in the flutter of this wing. Here, in the sound of water over stones..."
Musically, these two follow in the footsteps of bands such as The Creatures and Dead Can Dance in their capacity to create whole sonic worlds with primarily the voice and rhythm.
They have released two albums as Flight Behavior: Songs of Christmas (2020), and From the Wild (2022), an homage to the untamed earth that flows even in our veins. Before founding Flight Behavior with Fernando, Ariana also released two solo albums, Live at Immersive Studios (2011) and Maiden of Midnight (2015). But she counts the Flight Behavior albums as her best, thanks in no small part to Fernando's drums and co-production. They are working on another, Weaver of Stars.
Weaving spells from the very fibers of life—starlight, storm and stone—Flight Behavior incants the songs and paints the rhythms of the unheard earth and the forgotten ancients.
FOR FANS OF
Dead Can Dance / Lisa Gerrard, Heilung, Myrkur, Wardruna, Anilah, Azam Ali, Eivor, Loreena McKennitt, Tori Amos, Ofra Haza
GENRES
Dark Folk / World / Alternative / Pagan / Ethereal / Ambient / Middle Eastern / Celtic
FERNANDO MEDINA
More than just a drummer, Fernando Medina is a composer and arranger with orchestral and cinematic sensibilities on top of his rock background (everything from prog to pop to metal), jazz sensibilities, and Panamanian Latin roots. As a drummer, Medina is a “rhythm painter” who weaves lyricism and landscapes out of percussion.
Medina has toured with bands with such warm, fuzzy names as Christian Death and After The Crash, shared the stage with immensely contrasting acts such as Jah Wobble and Eddie Money, and played the SXSW Festival, Panama Jazz Fest, and others between and beyond. www.fernandodrums.com
"...the drums take a central stance...expressively textured, also charismatic and jaunty...he [Fernando Medina] weaves spells."
— Claudia Black, (CD review: From The Wild by Flight Behavior), Reflections of Darkness, London (Apr 27, 2022)
"Fernando has the technical skills of a professional classical musician, the creativity of a free jazz player, and the emotional capacity of a singer-songwriter. It's a powerful combination." — Robert Filippo, Strezo, Atlanta, GA
Accolades for From the Wild
“Elements here remind me of Diamanda Galas crossed with Lisa Gerrard / Dead Can Dance crossed with Sheila Chandra and Pink Floyd. This is great stuff. If you’re into earthy soundscapes that sharpen the mind and hone the imagination, and do not overload you with pretentious sugary shit, then I recommend this as an addition to your cd shelf!”
“Shivers!!!! SO danceable! I’m so excited to listen to this album on repeat for days…”
“Epic and dramatic. WOW! All of the songs I’ve heard are so well done – super artistic, intelligent, emotional… Awesome work! The world needs talent like this. This is serious music created by people who are the real deal.”
Accolades for Maiden of Midnight
“This evening is the first time I have listened to Ariana Saraha’s “Maiden of Midnight,” and I am utterly unprepared for her wild, mystical soul and music that transports me to faraway realms and ages. Frankly, I am blown away. I feel as if I have stumbled unknowingly upon a gypsy caravan and stepped into the circle of dancing firelight and music. It seems the perfect soundtrack for a foggy, coastal night at the edge of the continent, here at the threshold of earth, sea and sky.
“At times there is a Sarah Brightman quality to Saraha’s soprano voice, though the music is less symphonic and more Old World — which is actually part of its allure. Less sleekly produced, more authentic. Most of the songs are at least 6-minutes long, well over the typical 3-minute pop composition. Indeed, there is nothing commercial here or geared to court a mainstream audience. In the very best way, “Maiden of Midnight” strikes me as unapologetic — true to the essence of Ariana’s wild, gypsy soul.”
“WOW, [Maiden of Midnight] is an absolutely amazing album. So much more versatility than anything like it I’ve heard. I listen to Loreena McKennitt, Enya, Clannad, etc. and often after about three or four songs I’m feeling like it all sounds the same. NOT the case with your wonderful album. Not only do you weave a delightful mix of musicians together throughout the album, but your voice also shifts and changes like a chameleon angel. You have surpassed my greatest expectations and I’m delighted to have this music to add to my collection.”
“Ariana’s voice is a soaring, beautiful thing. Wrapped around expertly-played instruments of the Middle East, Persia, and India, her song very much takes flight. You follow it like a bird into the blue or a diver into the depths. Where Dead Can Dance brought us into the Labyrinth, Ariana Saraha offers to meet us in the Silence.”