Almost A Dirty Dozen with KARITI – October 2025

Photo credit: Luka Bevk

According to a recent press release: “Purge” is the latest video / single from atmospheric sound alchemist KARITI. The track comes by way of KARITI’s latest full-length, Still Life, set for release on November 7th through Lay Bare Recordings. KARITI (карити) – meaning “to mourn the dead” in church Slavonic – is the emotional and creative outlet of Ekaterina, a Russian-born poet and songwriter based in Italy. KARITI’s 2020 debut Covered Mirrors, released by the cult Italian label Aural Music, represented a “cathartic peregrination through bereavement.” KARITI’s second offering, Dheghom, released in February 2024 by the forward-thinking Dutch label Lay Bare Recordings, saw a development in sound, songwriting, and instrumentation: apart from electric guitars, Ekaterina performed various synthesizers and the analogue piano. By September 2023, a self-titled, industrial / trip-hop / shoegaze EP was released under the moniker Néant – a collaboration between KARITI and Void of the anonymous Parisian industrial sludge collective Non Serviam. KARITI is frequently asked to compose vocal lines (and often lyrics) and to be a guest singer for extreme death / black metal bands, including 2024 releases by Bedsore (20 Buck Spin) and Limbes.” We get Kariti to discuss new music, influences, and more…

1. Tell us a little about your latest release. What might a fan or listener not grab the first or second time they listen through? Are there any hidden nuggets you put in the material or that only diehard fans might find?

Still Life came sort of unexpectedly, I never plan or sit down to write, but this one was even more spontaneous than others. It purged almost violently in a few week’s time as my brain was being galvanized into obsessing about what a fucked up world we live in and how we live in it. No hidden messages, no being cryptic, it’s all out there for anyone to interpret as they please or feel.

2. What got you into music, and can you tell us about the moment you realized you wanted to be a musician?

I am not a musician. I do make music, but being a musician is too important a label to bear. I am a poet though. I have been writing poetry since I can remember and I am planning to publish some of it sooner or later. When I was a kid growing up in the post-soviet Russia, my brother, who was an great guitar player showed be a few basic chords (I never built on it) and (thankfully) got me into rock and metal. AC/DC and Sepultura were my first two cassettes. After that I studied piano with all it entails (solfeggio and such), and I hated it so much I stopped playing the instrument for over a decade after graduating the music school. I taught myself to play guitar well enough to be able to compose music for my poetry that was piling up; I needed an emotional outlet and a space to deal with my daemons, and there she was, a half destroyed 60’s semi-acoustic Eco. Fast forward, friends convinced me to release my music, a label came forward, and another friend pushed me to play my first live show, during which I think died a little, but now I can’t stop, so here you go.

3. If you could call in any one collaborator to do a song with, who would it be, and why?

Dax Riggs and Dorthia, the latter has already happened. Both for their incredible voices, songwriting, depth, and emotions their music brings me. Also Nick Drake, but that’s never going to happen. Also, Radie Peat, she’s just incredible, sorry I am never good at choosing one.

4. What is your favorite activity when out of the studio and/or not on tour? What do you like to do to unwind?

Cats, anything that has to do with animals, nature, being alone or in a very intimate company of my family and closest friends.

5. How would you describe your music to someone who’d never listened to you before? What is the one comparison a reviewer or fan has made that made you cringe or you disagreed with?

It started as “mourning folk” as I was sort of forced to describe it. It still has a lot to do with grief, but it’s now much less about myself and adding all the stuff I added instrumentally since Covered Mirrors. It’s hardly just folk anymore, so I guess you’ll have to listen and tell me. I may disagree with some comparisons, but I always appreciate people putting their time and effort into writing about music. My favorite was ‘evil Enya.’

6. When your band is hanging out together, who cooks, who gets the drinks in, and who is first to crack out the acoustic guitars for a singalong?

I am my band haha, but since its start it evolved in this sort of situation with my best friend and husband Marco, who seems to enjoy experimenting with mellow stuff after playing sludge for over a decade. He’s Italian, so obviously, he cooks (mostly) and rather than singalongs we just start listening to countless songs till 5am in our kitchen drinking wine, smoking and having the best time.

7. When was the last time you were starstruck and who was it?

Radie Peat at Roadburn after their set. We had a very brief chat, I was fangirling hard and she was the sweetest being.

8. What is the best part of being a musician? If you could no longer be a musician for whatever reason, what would be your dream job?

Again, not a musician, but I love the process of composing and making songs into their final shape. Unrelated, I would have always wanted to do what Jane Goodall did, but with felines.

9. What is one question you have always wanted an interviewer to ask – and what is the answer? Conversely, what question are you tired of answering?

Every time someone asks to interview me, I am surprised and grateful, so I will answer almost any question, especially when it’s somewhat personalized and relevant.

10. Looking back over your career, is there a single moment or situation you feel was a misstep or you would like to have a “do over,” even if it didn’t change your current situation?

Calling it a career makes me cringe a little – haha – and no, because, as I said above, I do it because I really cannot not do it. Maybe could’ve played some songs a little slower, though.

11. If you could magically go back in time and be a part of the recording sessions for any one record in history, which would you choose – and what does that record mean to you?

Here, this is a question I don’t want to answer because it’s impossible to choose one, come on!! Unplugged by Alice in Chains, not for the record itself, although it’s amazing and I love it, but just to be there hanging out with them.

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Category: Interviews