This article looks at Bengaluru rock band Parvaaz’s new single 'Kauaʻi ʻōʻō,' inspired by the haunting 1987 recording of the last song of an extinct Hawaiian bird. Marking Parvaaz’s return after six years, the track continues their signature blend of progressive, psychedelic rock and poetic lyricism, serving as the melancholic prelude to their upcoming album Na Gul Na Gulistan, which is set to release December 5, 2025.
In 1987, researchers in Hawaii recorded the last known song of the Kauaʻi ʻōʻō — a lone male bird, The Last of his species that went extinct, calling for a mate that would never answer. The recording resurfaced nearly three decades later and first went viral on the internet around December 2016, through a Reddit post that gained significant traction. Shared and reshared across platforms, it became one of the web’s most haunting sound. And beneath every upload, one comment would always rise to the top: “Someone should sample this.” Now, years later, Bengaluru-based rock band Parvaaz finally did. Their new single, 'Kauaʻi ʻōʻō,' borrows that call and builds around it a requiem for love, grief, and irreversible loss.
Composed by Khalid Ahamed, Sachin Banandur, Fidel Dsouza, and Mir Kashif Iqbal, with additional composition by Bharath Kashyap, the track uses the original 1987 Kauaʻi ʻōʻō recording from the Macaulay Library at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, recorded by Thane Pratt. The result is a piece that is powered by a rich historical context and feels deeply elegiac — a lament that bridges the extinction of a species and the ache of losing someone.
The accompanying music video, directed by Afshan Hussain Shaikh and choreographed by Anusha Vishwanathan, visualises grief through movement. A lone dancer processes the death of a loved one, with her body tracing the emotional arc of mourning spanning across disbelief, negotiation, desperation, and rage. Her fluid physical expression mirrors the bird’s story: of one final song sent into a void, unanswered. The choreography is contemporary yet primal in its manifestation of something as volatile as grief.
Musically, 'Kauaʻi ʻōʻō' extends Parvaaz’s characteristic sound — expansive, emotionally charged rock underscored by atmospheric textures and an unmistakable sense of yearning. The band, known for blending progressive and psychedelic influences with Urdu, Kashmiri, and Hindi lyricism, has built a devoted following since their formation in 2010. Their last album, Kun (2019), was a study in patience and introspection; this new single which marks their return after 6 years, continues that lineage but with a starker emotional centre.
'Kauaʻi ʻōʻō' emotively captures the aftermath of loss, and the erratic ways in which one copes with the death. It stitches the sorrowful hope of the bird that still calls out to a friend to the denial that precedes acceptance in the spectrum of grief. The track is a melancholic opener to the band's upcoming album 'Na Gul Na Gulistan' translating to 'neither flower nor garden', slated for release on December 5, 2025.
Follow Parvaaz here and watch the music video at the top of the page.
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