Press

THE COAST - HALIFAX, NS - 07/09/09

EXCLAIM! - 04/01/09
LIVE REVIEW - Valery Gore - CMW Showcase
Toronto ON, March 11 to 14
By Scott A. Gray

Quite a fawning crowd has grown for Valery Gore since the release of her wonderful Avalanche for a Wandering Bear. She delighted a packed house with an almost flawless set of material from that album. An ensemble of horns, a percussion/electronics guy and a devastatingly smooth rhythm section helped Gore recreate the ambitious arrangements of her songs amazingly accurately while overcoming a few minor sound issues. Casual and charming on stage when not astounding with her involving piano work and vocals, Gore thankfully gave the band and the audience some extra jazz-fusion bombast at the climax of show stopper “Scared.”

NOW MAGAZINE - 03/19/09
LIVE REVIEW - CMF Picks - Valery Gore NNNN

Toronto’s Valery Gore turned in a charming set of quirky jazz-influenced piano pop, winning over the crowded and sweaty Supermarket. Turns out you can still rock a crowd while sitting behind a keyboard, although it helps to have punchy horns and a tight rhythm section. Accessible enough for radio, and clever enough for critics. 

EXCLAIM MAGAZINE - DECEMEBER 2008 / JANUARY 2009 ISSUE
Read the full online article here.

NOW MAGAZINE - TORONTO - 11/20/08

THE SUN - 01/07/09

SPILLMAGAZINE.COM
Avalanche to Wandering Bear - Valery Gore
Do Right Music

This sophomore outing from Toronto treasure Valery Gore is a fresh, any season of the year type of album that feels just like home. This will warm any bitter cold evening, and I’m sure come summer, will cool down any sweltering day. Gore’s breathy delivery, along with the lighter jazz feeling much of the record has, is bound to remind people of Leslie Feist. There is something a bit more playful, natural, almost magical at work here though. With a full band behind her for much of the album, Gore’s ambitions tend to lean towards a more bombastic sound. These arrangements are extremely sophisticated and one cannot help but be excited to see where she goes from here. Full of triumphant horn work and upbeat pianos, “Worried Head,” for instance, is catchy from the first listen. When the ambitious productions and creative piano playing do take a back seat to the vocal at the song’s centre, like on “Strange Way,” we feel the bittersweet inspiration that has driven the whole album, and realize that there is a great variety of emotion, depth and innocence at it’s core.

- Daniel Demois

VUE WEEKLY - EDMONTON - 12/04/08
Valery Gore
Avalanche To Wandering Bear
(Do Right Music)

There’s no shortage of Tori Amos-esque singer/songwriters out there tickling the ivories these days, but Toronto’s Valery Gore’s latest, the self-produced Avalanche To Wandering Bear, is just unique enough to rise above the rest. The combination of Gore’s jazz-influenced piano, sweetly soothing voice and honestly quirky lyrics that don’t get too navel-gazey combine to make an eminently listenable album. Thankfully, there’s enough variety here to keep the album interesting without seeming scattered, from the jaunty opener “Shoes of Glass” to the horns of “Worried Head” and the jazzy electronic piano of “Scared.” All together, it’s a strong and enjoyable sophomore offering from a talented musician who’s only getting better with time.

EYE MAGAZINE, TORONTO - 11/20/08
Valery Gore
Avalanche To Wandering Bear

On an album whose dominant instruments are a piano and a soothing voice, it’s refreshing to hear Valery Gore avoiding the ubiquitous and tired cycle of laboured and introspective songs saturated in sombre minor chords. Gore’s first release on the genre-bending Do Right label incorporates a suitably diverse mix of the idiosyncratic and the meditative. Jazz-inflected piano stomps such as “Worried Head” and “Shoes Of Glass,” with their wayward key changes and sprightly ivory manipulations, do manage to challenge the more pedestrian conventions of the piano-led ballad or pop song, but her quirky approach also keeps her in the same company as the other kooky jazz-flavoured female pianists who came before.
- By Christian Martius

TVGUIDE.SYMPATICO.MSN.CA - 01/14/09
Valery Gore – Avalanche to Wandering Bear (Do Right!)

Toronto jazz pianist Valery Gore takes an unconventional approach to her captivating melodies on this sophomore effort. Like singers before her, such as Jolie Holland and Regina Spektor, Gore’s vintage unique style of warbling, slurring and hiccuping her words along with her impressive jazz-fused arrangements on this self-produced album makes her a rarity these days and an absolute joy to listen to.
Recommended if you dig … Feist.

THE COAST, HALIFAX - 11/6/08
Valery Gore
Avalanche To Wandering Bear
(Do Right!)
Fans of Jenn Grant and The Heavy Blinkers will fall for pop-pianist Valery Gore. Like Grant, there’s that sweet voice, and both write big songs that journey along with unexpected turns. Catchy “Shoes of Glass” should satisfy anyone missing the Blinkers’ summery pop. During her experiment with jazz-fusion on “Scared,” a tribute to singer Karen Krog, Gore sounds closer aligned with LA’s The Bird and the Bee’s music than anything recorded under the shadow of the CN Tower. It’s not all sweetness though: “Worried” juxtaposes horns with pretty subversive lyrics like “Without that beautifully worried head, there’d just be a bleeding neck.”

NOW MAGAZINE - TORONTO - 10/30/08

EXCLAIM.CA - 12/29/08

ANNEX GLEANER - 12/08