Today we’re listening to KMRU, a Kenyan electronic musician from Nairobi. We’ve recommended his music three times before. The project is from Joseph Kamaru, who began his professional music career as a house/techno DJ before getting into field recordings and ambient. Since 2020 he’s put out around a dozen ambient LPs, of which we’re playing two today. forge is his latest record, released in November; it consists of curious synth loops and pedal manipulations. We’re also revisiting his 2020 record Peel, which has been on rotation since it came out. A brief conversation with Joseph follows the streaming links.
forge - KMRU (37m, basically no vocals)
Spotify / Apple Music / YouTube Music / Amazon Music / Bandcamp / Tidal
Peel - KMRU (75m, no vocals)
Spotify / Apple Music / YouTube Music / Amazon Music / Bandcamp / Tidal
What's your earliest memory of music?
Possibly listening and playing with cassettes of my grandfather's music + singing in choir in pre school.
When did you start getting into field recordings, and what is it about them that appeals to you?
I started Field Recording nine years ago. What was appealing was the idea of having a sound from the environment into a piece of music. Then I didn’t own a recorder but I was recording sounds on my iPod, although my practice with recording sounds of place has changed a lot.
Which artists/records most inspired your own sound?
My grandfather, Slikback and Editions Mego catalog… amongst others.
Also Aho Ssan’s Simulacrum record.
Walk us through how a KMRU track is built, from nothing to tracks recorded, to the finished product.
This varies based on projects. In context to Seil releases, the tracks are mostly improvised and recorded on pedals and synths. I mostly find loops which I develop on or use as beds for composition of tracks. Other times I'd begin with a field recording and build a track around it. It's usually mostly synths: lyra 8, Korg Minilogue, Sidrax for these releases and pairing with pedals like the MOOD, OTO, Hologram pedals..etc
What hardware/software did you use to make forge?
It’s one of those releases which I can't remember how I made the tracks, but I used this software called Ppooll to record lots of sounds. There's lots of Chase Bliss pedals running waveforms and field recorded material. Also I think I used the mini freak alot for this release.
How do you find new music these days?
Bandcamp, NTS, and been using cosine.club to discover some great old similar records! Highly recommended tool.
Name an underrated artist from the past 50 years.
I feel there's so much amazing music coming out from the continent (Africa) and its diaspora… Some artists worth checking out at the moment- Ng'at Maler, Nabalayo. Also check out Nexcyia!
What are you working on next?
Some new sound experiments and more unusual collaborations on the way :)
Fantastic. Big fan of KMRU