Music is her attribute — Karen Mok

There are small details and moments in all people’s lives that seem irrelevant at the time, but which stay in one’s heart and evolve into a force that turns life’s journey into an outright voyage, opening up new vistas of adventure. In the case of Karen Mok, the small detail that had the biggest influence on her life was most likely jazz. One jazz album plants a seed Twenty years after beginning her career, Mok put out her first jazz album Somewhere I Belong. Mok reminisces about how she fell in love with jazz: “I bought an album of duets by Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong. It blew me away. After that, I fell in love with jazz.” According to Mok, the way jazz singers sing their songs is the only true way to really convey deep, inner feelings. Although there is a lot of emphasis put on skill when singing, if a singer only sings to become a sort of virtuoso, then a certain level of inherent feeling is lost. “Compared to this, jazz singers are really using their souls when they sing.” A blend of offbeat elements A major element in this album is the Chinese instruments that are used. On the album, Mok plays the guzheng, which she learned as a student, holding her own against the strumming of a guitar. “I feel like this kind of collision of styles is interesting. It’s also something you don’t see in jazz,” Mok said. Her guzheng was also connected to a guitar effects pedal to see what other sounds could be coaxed from the ancient Chinese instrument. Mok says they chose to record in Shanghai because of the city’s historical legacy of jazz: “Sometimes, to capture a certain feeling, you need the overall atmosphere to match the song, so choosing to record in Shanghai was an important decision.” Footsteps in the music world: to be continued Despite a background that includes four different nationalities, and a childhood and career that have endlessly taken her to different countries and cities, Mok was very clear about her own attributes: “It’s not a city or a place — in my opinion, attributes are a sort of state of mind, whatever helps me effortlessly express the true me. That is the thing I like to do most: sing, perform, and make music.” This is Karen Mok — from one city to another, you’ll always have the opportunity to see her. Just like from one music genre to the next, you’ll always have a chance to see her footprint.