PRAYS

"Judy Kang, a Canadian violinist and most likely the only musician to have worked with both Pierre Boulez and Lady Gaga, was featured in Brahms’s Violin Concerto. Ms. Kang, who drew whoops from the audience before playing a single note, offered a lean, focused sound, pinpoint intonation and expressively molded phrasing. Every line seemed to mean something personal in what amounted to an amorous serenade."  - The New York Times

"Violinist Judy Kang, who played with assurance and imagination, became the wizardly master of an entire sound environment. Young people whose only experience of electronic music comes from deafening rock clubs should have heard this performance." - The New York Times

"This self-titled new album defies easy definition, drawing upon classical, electronica, hiphop and rock elements. She frames her imaginative compositions with vocals suggestive of a more restrained Bjork. Tracks go from the yin of the rhythmic "You" to the yang of ambient soundscapes and breathy vocals on "Dream" and atmospheric instrumental "Electric Sun". An exciting introduction." -Kerry Doole (New Canadian Music)

"I’ve been listening to this album for quite a while and it has grown on me, so much so that I’m searching for it in my playlist these days. It covers such a variety of sound imagery that I find my mood has to be right in order to grasp the depths in her offerings, but Judy Kang knows her music and she knows her experimentalism, so that makes for a fine listen in my book." - Lisa Thatcher 

"Moving from Juilliard to Lady Gaga as easily as she moves from ambient to a Stradivarius, Kang blows open the stereotypical tiger mom progeny being a hot chick that masters classical violin before puberty. For all the pop chops she has under her young belt, this is a shining example of a wonderful record that many will not know what to make of. The Zappa influence can be felt from her work with Boulez. The far east stuff, that's a given. Ambient, jazz, classical? It's all here, often at once. Perhaps it's best to call it head music for the new age. Her chops are impeccable and it might just be that she has so many of them they are all fighting to get out at once. Not out there in the sense of Sun Ra, but out there anyway, if you want something out of the normal that'll blow your mind, maybe like Wendy Carlos did way back, this is the place. Think YMO (another the stops along her way) and you'll have a feel for the kind of out there this is. Wild stuff throughout." - MidWest Record

"diverse, unbelievably beautiful, and eclectic." Bob Boilen, host NPR All Songs Considered  

PRAYS is the re-birth of world renowned violinist, vocalist, songwriter, composer, producer, and collaborator Judy Kang; an uneasily defined and non quintessential project that ties the elegance of classical music with the energy of electronic pop and everything in-between. As a classical musician, Kang understands the rules and theories of music. As a pop musician, she understands rules are created to be broken to form something new.  

The music of PRAYS carries the accessibility of Purity Ring, but brings a complicated aesthetic equal parts melancholy and peaceful. Contradiction fuels her art: lonely, yet fulfilled; somber, yet energetic; still, yet dancing; dark bass beat, ethereal vocals, borderline schizophrenic. 

Kang is best known in the classical realm as a world-class violinist. A former child prodigy, she has performed on MTV, CNN, HBO and on albums by both Pierre Boulez and Academy-Award winning movie composer, Ryuichi Sakamoto (The Last Emperor). While many classical musicians shy away from popular music, Kang embraces it. She tours with Lady Gaga as the singer’s solo violinist and has collaborated with artists from Lenny Kravitz to Portugal.The Man and Olafur Arnalds and performed at festivals including Lollapalooza and Festival Internacional Jazz Barcelona, to name a few. She has appeared on CNN and MTV as well as in print publications including a feature in Chatelaine magazine's 80 women to watch. Her release of two critically acclaimed CDs have been nominated for the Opus award and the Gemini award in her native Canada. 

PRAYS takes the musician through an experiment to express herself in songwriting and production beyond the violin. Her roots in classical music are present where necessary, but often merge with her love for catchy pop 40s hooks and dark, ambiance. These are songs that fall somewhere between the unchanging rules of classical music and the ever-changing world of electronic music. The results are matchless. This is a musical offering thoughtfully composed for today’s audience, with the past in mind and the unknown ahead.