Kara Kaire

on grief, hauntology and improvised sound art

Malagola (2025)

Kaire. Kara. I didn’t mean to use language, but somehow, syllables came to visit.
Kaire, to rejoice.
In the language of my ancestors, both a hello and a goodbye. a welcome and a farewell.
Kara, the head, the “seat of the soul” they say, the loved one.

It may be my ancestors
whispering.



Unstructured.strings. slowed and inconsistent. about to stop
   anytime.      
a voice that breathes and breaks.
As I sing, I see a living saying goodbye to the dead.
Or the dead saying goodbye to the living.
Or a musician comforting both, cause this is what music

does. It stitches back the space that separates us.



I experiment with recording the reverberation of the improv in the empty room. 
As I listen back, I hear the sound of a ferry, a farewell.
And I know it is not, and I know it is me attaching meanings to sounds and syllables, but if I
am to be in this meaningless machine, let it be on my terms, let it be through music.

Methodology_improvisation with voice and space; manipulation of sound reflections, absorption and reverberation; experimental concrete writing.



References
Adorno, T.W. (1998) Music and language.  London: Verso.
Cox, C. (2009) Sound art and the sonic unconscious. In: Cox, C. and Wamer, D. (eds.) Audio culture. New York: Continuum.
Kirkegaard, J. (2006). Four Rooms.
Schlesier, R. (1990). Greek funeral laments: A study in comparative and cultural perspective. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag.