Jolene Khor - Soaring Dragon Leaping Tiger
Jolene Khor is an award-winning composer, known for her whimsical and aesthetics driven compositions. Khor’s music reflects her love for Japanese and Chinese aesthetics which allows her to create a distinctive and enjoyable blend of East and West. Today we are excited to share our thoughts on Jolene Khor’s release, Soaring Dragon Leaping Tiger!
We start with “Soaring Dragon Leaping Tiger” which shares its name with the overall work. The percussion in this song is brilliant, setting the stage for what I imagine to be elegant fighting scenes from a movie or show, though upon first listen I was reminded of the fluid 3D animation of Kung Fu Panda; Khor’s ability to set a scene comes through brilliantly in this song. “Great Cold” follows and I love its ambiance. Though the melodies within this song are subdued, through the melodic experience this song provides, I found myself experiencing feelings of overcoming and conquering, expressing the willpower to overcome a literal or metaphorical “great cold”.
“Omoide” is third and it a brilliant composition, featuring some of Jolene Khor’s best layering/texturing work that I have heard so far. This song captures the spirit of adventure in a unique way; it reminds me of the end-credits of a long, story-driven JRPG where images of your experiences in the game play along with the song. It truly has a strong feeling of recollection. “Mother’s Love” is up next and the more I listen to this song, the more I enjoy it. Baked within this song are deep emotions, feelings of nostalgia and even a hint of the whimsy that Khor is known so well for. I can imagine this song playing during a reunion or recollective scene where the a character meets up with someone they had not seen in a long time - or a scene where the character is remember someone they have lost in a fond way. This one has a lot of emotional weight behind it and it really is something special. The aptly titled “Kung Fu” closes out this brilliant work and all I could say at first is - wow. This song captures the fighting spirit in an epic way; the song has a buildup that feels like it is setting the scene for a final battle, only for it to evolve into epic scenes from that battle, bringing everything to its resolution. I love how triumphant this piece is and I feel energized each time I listen to it.
I tend to see Soaring Dragon Leaping Tiger as a five-part story of a fictional character’s triumphant story; “Soaring Dragon Leaping Tiger” serves as a thrilling opening that starts an adventure, “Great Cold” serves as a darker and daunting moment on the journey, “Omoide” and “Mother’s Love” both have powerful feelings of recollection and possible reunification - essential moments from many heroes’ journeys - and “Kung Fu” is the epic conclusion to the story. I suggest listening to this complete work a few times all together, in order, before branching off and picking personal favorites - to me, it is best experienced as a complete work as you get a great feel both the emotional motifs as well as the brilliant artistic techniques Jolene Khor utilizes to make this music feel so powerful and meaningful. Check out Jolene Khor’s Linktree to keep up with what she is doing and to listen to her music. We have Soaring Dragon Leaping Tiger embedded below via Spotify - take a listen!
