There are experiences so profound that they reshape a person’s entire understanding of existence, moments that reveal a truth so fundamental that everything afterward is lived in its light. Karen Salicath Jamali underwent such an experience following a traumatic head injury in 2012, a near-death experience during which she describes leaving her body and arriving at an overwhelming awareness of love and unity and universal consciousness, and a single central truth, that only in love are we truly alive. Now, more than a decade later, she has attempted to carry that understanding into sound, and Only In Love We Are, released June 14, 2026, is her most direct and human expression of that profound epiphany, a deeply personal song that distills a glimpse beyond the veil into a message of love and remembrance.
The origin of the song in Jamali’s near-death experience gives it a genuine spiritual weight that few songs possess. During that experience, she came to understand that only love truly exists, that everything else fades away, that in love we are alive and connected and part of the greater consciousness of creation. This is the central truth that the song attempts to share, the conviction that love is the fundamental reality, the only thing that genuinely endures, the essence of what it means to be truly alive. Only In Love We Are is Jamali’s attempt to translate this profound understanding into music, to share through sound the awareness she gained in that moment beyond the body, the song being a vehicle for a truth that came to her in the most extraordinary of circumstances.
The central message that only in love are we truly alive is rendered with genuine conviction and beauty. This is not a casual sentiment but a hard-won truth, the understanding gained through a near-death experience and carried for over a decade before finding its expression in this song. The conviction that love is what makes us alive, that everything else fades while love endures, offers listeners a profound reorientation toward what matters most, the reminder that beneath the noise and distraction of daily life lies the fundamental reality of love and connection. Jamali offers this message as an invitation into reflection and healing and remembrance of what truly matters, the song functioning as a gentle call to remember the truth that her extraordinary experience revealed.
The musical approach of Only In Love We Are reflects a deliberate move toward directness and humanity. The composition centers on three elements, acoustic guitar and vocals and drums, given space to breathe rather than layered for effect. This stripped-back approach is significant, the restraint allowing the essential message to come through with clarity, the three elements each given room to resonate without being crowded by unnecessary production. Where Jamali’s meditative solo piano compositions, which have placed her on the Carnegie Hall stage eight times, demonstrate her classical compositional voice, Only In Love We Are moves in a more direct and human direction, the simplicity and the spaciousness creating an intimacy appropriate to the profoundly personal message.
The prayer-like quality of Jamali’s vocals is central to the song’s spiritual atmosphere. Her vocals carry the cadence of a prayer, the delivery having the quality of devotion and reverence appropriate to the sacred truth the song conveys. This prayerful quality reflects the spiritual nature of the song’s origin and message, the near-death experience having revealed a truth that belongs to the realm of the sacred, and the prayer-like vocals honoring that sacredness. The voice becomes the vehicle for the epiphany, the prayerful cadence carrying the listener into the reflective, reverent space that the song creates.
The choice of acoustic guitar as the song’s central instrument carries personal significance for Jamali. She began studying classical guitar at age eight and continued for more than fifteen years before shifting her focus to visual art, and decades passed between that discipline and this recording. It was the only instrument that could carry this particular piece, the guitar’s clean and unhurried quality providing the appropriate foundation for the song’s message. This return to the guitar after decades reflects the personal nature of the recording, the instrument of her youth being summoned to carry the most profound truth she has known, the clean and unhurried playing creating the contemplative space that the message requires.
The combination of guitar and drums and voice resonates with a deep awareness, evoking the epiphany at the song’s heart and the discovery of the musical melodies embedded within us. This sense of awareness and epiphany is what the song aims to convey, the music itself becoming a vehicle for the awakening to love that Jamali experienced, the elements combining to create a feeling of profound recognition. The song invites listeners to discover their own embedded melodies, the music suggesting that the truth of love is something already within us, waiting to be remembered and awakened.
Jamali’s background as a multi-award-winning composer and pianist and visual artist gives the song its context within a distinguished artistic career. Already recognized internationally for her meditative and healing compositions, Jamali brings genuine artistry to this vocal single, and the release marks a significant evolution in her work, with voice now at the center of her expression. The mastering by renowned sound engineer Maria Triana, whose career includes collaborations with iconic musicians, reflects the quality of the production, the careful attention to sound serving the song’s intimate and spiritual message.
Only In Love We Are represents Jamali’s message in its most direct form yet. Following her vocal single Seeds of God and her meditative piano composition Angel Ariel, this song brings her healing message into the most human and accessible form, the voice and guitar and drums delivering the truth of love with directness and warmth. This artistic evolution toward vocal expression allows Jamali to communicate her message more directly than instrumental composition alone could achieve, the words and the prayerful voice carrying the epiphany to listeners with genuine clarity.
Only In Love We Are is the sound of an epiphany carried into music, a deeply personal song that distills a glimpse beyond the veil into a message of love and connection. Karen Salicath Jamali has translated the profound truth of her near-death experience into sound, the clean guitar and prayerful voice and gentle drums combining into an invitation to remember what truly matters.
Only in love are we truly alive, and everything else fades away. Karen Salicath Jamali has made a song that carries this hard-won truth into the world, and its prayerful beauty offers a gentle reminder of the love that lies beneath all the noise, waiting to be remembered.
