AYO | SONR

SO(N)R is a multifaceted project that explores sound's materiality in remembering history. Moved by the illegibility of language and the potency of wails as agents of empathy and transformation in moments of grief, Ayo delves into the ceremonial practice of keening, drawing connections to her ancestry.

In her research, Ayo encountered a Luo wind instrument called Abu, traditionally made from round gourds bound together with beeswax and bark. Comparable in size to an average adult human, Abu was designed to be lightweight and portable, allowing it to be carried between villages to announce a death within the community. However, with no known recordings of Abu’s original sound, Ayo—together with master glassblower Gert Bullee in Leerdam—created a series of mouth-blown glass interpretations of the instrument.

Rather than view the absence of audio archives as a limitation, Ayo embraced it as an invitation to imagine. In collaboration with musician Yanik Soland, she composed a new sound for Abu, bridging past and present through sonic experimentation. The resulting sound and video installation, SO(N)R, incorporates amateur 8mm film footage from 1960s Uganda, Kenya, and Tanzania, 16mm studio close-ups of the sound-making process, and field recordings from Lofoten. Through these layered media, SO(N)R investigates sonic lamentations, allowing sound itself to become the narrator—a voice for memory, loss, and cultural continuity.

SO(N)R was originally commissioned by Kjersti Solbakken for Lofoten International Arts Festival 2024.