Ray Laurèl

“Being an artist means we have to express the truths the rest of the world can’t. ” says Ray Laurél, the world-weary soothsayer. Since their emergence in early 2022, Ray has existed as a locus of communal exchange, where listeners find solace and security in tales centring an identity in flux; stories of unbridled desire and forbidden love, of home, belonging, and chosen family.

Born in London, as an Indian, Ray was stifled by a culture that didn’t foster their creativity. As a teenager, they channelled their latent angst into self-expression, gradually discovering the transformative power of storytelling. It was during the stillness of lockdown that Ray began leaning into radical honesty as a creative compass, allowing truth-telling to shape their artistic and personal ethos.

Now 24, Ray is forging a path that fuses their creative identity with a deepening spiritual journey. In tandem with their artistic work, Ray is training to be a Shamanic practitioner. Shamanism and Art are, for Ray, synonymous disciplines — a means of exchanging and releasing energy. Invoking the piety their ancestors relied on to navigate hardship, Ray has never been more intentional about unpacking ancestral trauma within both their spiritual and creative practice: “I’m reconnecting to the the spirit of nature and to my ancestors, harbouring that connection is important for my next phase of life. In a way this feels like a homecoming.” Be braced for Ray Laurél and their new frontier.