Harpaul Alberto Kohli (better known as Ori Uplift) — the owner and CEO of Abora Recordings and host of the weekly Uplifting Only radio podcast on DI.fm, iTunes, & Spotify — was born in Washington, DC, in 1980, to a father from India and a mother from Ecuador. In 2010 he started up a trance project called Trance Tehillim. In part through that he became friends with the then-owner of Abora Recordings, who ended up giving him the entire Abora label in the summer of 2012. Ori took over and became owner and CEO.

Upon taking over ownership, Ori’s goal was to grow the orchestral/emotional uplifting genre, create another scene for it outside the club world, and bring it to a large and growing audience across the globe. He focused on recruiting talented staff, finding orchestral uplifting artists with much potential, and to have the staff and ‘talent coaches’ help develop the artists’ skills so that they could become top producers.

Since then, Abora has blossomed into the world’s top label for orchestral emotional uplifting trance, and has sprouted successful sublabels in many other trance genres, now totaling 13 labels/sublabels, including Edge EDM, Driftmoon Audio, Silent Shore Records, Levitated Music, and more. It was rated the world’s #8 trance label in the Trance Podium 2014 Awards and was listed as one of the 6 best trance labels by Trance for Infinity.

Abora has enjoyed success in the broader EDM music world too: Since 2012, Abora has won the Future Favorite on Armin van Buuren’s A State of Trance 13 times, more than any label except Armin’s Armada itself.

Meanwhile, Ori’s weekly Uplifting Only radio podcast, which aims to be the definitive and leading show for the orchestral uplifting genre, has developed a devoted and passionate fan base.

Further, Uplifting Only was rated the #8 “Best Radioshow/Podcast/Cloudcast” in the Trance Podium 2014 Awards, and was ranked one of the top five trance podcasts for working out by Trance Hub (ranking first for yoga and pilates).

Ori’s success has now started extending to live gigs: He has closed for Aly & Fila, has performed with vocalists Caro Sosa and Erika Faries, and was the “Main Headliner” at the 2015 Trancervatory festival in Ecuador.

Ori has also ranked well on the Beatport charts. Two of his mixcompilations based on his Uplifting Only show reached the #1 spot on the Beatport release charts (trance and chillout), and two more have reached #2 on the trance charts. A total of 7 of his mixcomps or mixes have reached the top 5 on the Beatport charts.

It’s no surprise that Trance Hub named him one of six “Artists to watchout for”. You’ll be seeing more and more of him as he focuses on uplifting the general public with beautiful euphoric uplifting melodies and sounds!