Sharon Knight is a San Francisco-based neopagan composer, singer, and multi-instrumentalist known for writing, recording, and performing Celtic fusion

Celtic Fusion

Celtic fusion is an umbrella term for modern music which incorporates influences considered "Celtic," or Celtic music which incorporates modern music. It is a syncretic musical tradition which borrows freely from the perceived "Celtic" musical traditions of all the Celtic nations, as well as from...

 music. She also records and performs harder edged music with Middle Eastern

Middle Eastern music

The music of Western Asia and North Africa spans across a vast region, from Morocco to Afghanistan, and its influences can be felt even further afield. Middle Eastern music influenced the music of India, as well as Central Asia, Spain, Southern Italy, the Caucasus and the Balkans, as in chalga...

 themes as the frontperson of the Pagan rock

Pagan rock

Pagan rock is music created by adherents of one of the many Neopagan and occult traditions that emerged in the middle to late 20th century. In some cases this definition is stretched to include bands embraced by modern Pagans and occult practitioners...

/Folk Metal

Folk metal

Folk metal is a sub-genre of heavy metal music that developed in Europe during the 1990s. As the name suggests, the genre is a fusion of heavy metal with traditional folk music...

 group Pandemonaeon. Knight is the co-owner of Trance Jam Records.

Biography

Sharon Elizabeth Knight was born on January 8, 1966 and was raised in Redwood City, California

Redwood City, California

Redwood City is a California charter city located on the San Francisco Peninsula in Northern California, approximately 27 miles south of San Francisco, and 24 miles north of San Jose. Redwood City's history spans from its earliest inhabitation by the Ohlone people, to its tradition as a port for...

. She studied in the Feri tradition of witchcraft

Witchcraft

Witchcraft, in historical, anthropological, religious, and mythological contexts, is the alleged use of supernatural or magical powers. A witch is a practitioner of witchcraft...

 with Gabriel Carrillo  and has also studied Thelema

Thelema

Thelema is a religious philosophy that was established, defined and developed by the early 20th century British writer and ceremonial magician, Aleister Crowley. He believed himself to be the prophet of a new age, the Æon of Horus, based upon a religious experience that he had in Egypt in 1904...

 and Tibetan Buddhism

Tibetan Buddhism

Tibetan Buddhism is the body of Buddhist religious doctrine and institutions characteristic of Tibet and certain regions of the Himalayas, including northern Nepal, Bhutan, and India . It is the state religion of Bhutan...

. In 1994, she married the German musician Winter, who has been her musical collaborator since.

Career

Sharon's first album, Incantation, was released in 1996, followed by the self-titled Pandemonaeon debut (2001), Temple of Dreams-Live! (2003), and her second solo album, Song of the Sea (2004), which features two duets with Shay Black of the Black Family

The Black Family (band)

The Black Family are a Celtic music ensemble, composed of Mary and Frances Black and their siblings, Shay, Michael, and Martin. The family has been called "one of the most important musical clans in Ireland"....

. Two of Knight's songs from Song of the Sea, "May Morning Dew" and "Song of the Sea", also appear on Sequoia Records' Celtic Lounge I (2006) and Celtic Lounge II (2007). The latter also contains a music video for "Song of the Sea". Knight has also collaborated with electronica artist Hands Upon Black Earth (Hands Upon Black Earth, 2004; Translucent, 2009), pagan author T. Thorn Coyle

T. Thorn Coyle

T. Thorn Coyle is a San Francisco-based author and teacher who began in the Feri Tradition and the Reclaiming tradition, but now works and teaches within her own "Morningstar" practice and ....

(Songs for the Waning Year: A Collection of Chants to Celebrate the Dark Time of the Year, 2008; Songs for the Strengthening Sun: A Collection of Chants to Celebrate the Return of the Sun, 2009), and on Raven's 345-S (2008). Her third Pandemonaeon album, Dangerous Beauty, was released in 2010.

Genre and Work

Sharon Knight's solo work has generally been classified as Celtic

Celtic music

Celtic music is a term utilised by artists, record companies, music stores and music magazines to describe a broad grouping of musical genres that evolved out of the folk musical traditions of the Celtic people of Western Europe...

  / New Age

New Age music

New Age music is music of various styles intended to create artistic inspiration, relaxation, and optimism. It is used by listeners for yoga, massage, meditation, and reading as a method of stress management or to create a peaceful atmosphere in their home or other environments, and is often...

  even though there are many more cross-cultural elements involved in her music. The same is true for her rock/folk metal band, Pandemonaeon, which due to its Middle Eastern and Goth

Gothic rock

Gothic rock is a musical subgenre of post-punk and alternative rock that formed during the late 1970s. Gothic rock bands grew from the strong ties they had to the English punk rock and emerging post-punk scenes...

 influence, she describes as "music for bellydancers in combat boots." In her Celtic work, Sharon Knight is most often compared to Loreena McKennitt

Loreena McKennitt

Loreena Isabel Irene McKennitt, CM, OM, is a Canadian singer, composer, harpist, accordionist and pianist who writes, records and performs world music with Celtic and Middle Eastern themes. McKennitt is known for her refined, clear soprano vocals...

 and Stevie Nicks

Stevie Nicks

Stephanie Lynn "Stevie" Nicks is an American singer-songwriter, best known for her work with Fleetwood Mac and an extensive solo career, which collectively have produced over forty Top 50 hits and sold over 140 million albums...

.
Sharon co-writes & co-produces most of her music with her partner, Winter.

Discography

Flowinglass Music

First of May, For Earth and Her People (1986)

Morrigan Records

Various Artists, Fire & Stone: Pagan Rock Volume 1 (1999)

Trance Jam Records

Sharon Knight, Incantation (1996)

Pandemonaeon, Pandemonaeon (2001)

Pandemonaeon, Temple of Dreams - Live! (2003)

Sharon Knight, Siren Songs (2004)

Sharon Knight, Song of the Sea (2004)

Sharon Knight & T. Thorn Coyle, Songs for the Waning Year: A Collection of Chants to Celebrate the Dark Time of the Year, (2008)

Sharon Knight & T. Thorn Coyle, Songs for the Strengthening Sun: A Collection of Chants to Celebrate the Return of the Sun, (2009)

Pandemonaeon, Dangerous Beauty (2010)

Seqouia Records

Various Artists, Celtic Lounge I (2006)

Various Artists, Celtic Lounge II (2007)

Cyberset Music

Hands Upon Black Earth, Hands Upon Black Earth (2004)

Hrair Tanielian

Raven, 345-S (2008)

Asizazoon Music

Hands Upon Black Earth, Translucent (2009)

Videos

Song of the Sea (El Mundo Bueno Studios, 2007)

Stretched on Your Grave (El Mundo Bueno Studios, 2009)

Other

Cry For the Forest (Earthfilms, 1998, a short film about Julia Butterfly

Julia Butterfly Hill

Julia Butterfly Hill is an American activist and environmentalist. Hill is best known for living in a -tall, roughly 1500-year-old California Redwood tree for 738 days between December 10, 1997 and December 18, 1999...

's Luna tree-sit, soundtrack use)

Dark Imaginations (Anaar, 2008, bellydance instructional DVD, soundtrack contribution)

Beatific Vision (Sountru, 2008, feature film, DVD, soundtrack contribution)

The Commune (Elisabeth Fies, 2009, feature film, DVD, soundtrack contribution)

External links

• http://www.SharonKnight.net
• http://www.Pandemonaeon.net