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KMRU's New Album: A Sonic Descent into Overdrive
21 Feb
Summary
- KMRU's new album 'Kin' revisits the complex sound of his 2020 breakout.
- The record features gravelly, overdriven textures and unstable vibrations.
- Peter Rehberg's death influenced the creation and completion of 'Kin'.
Kenyan artist KMRU, also known as Joseph Kamaru, has released his latest album, 'Kin.' This new work is considered a companion to his breakout 2020 album, 'Peel,' and delves into complex sonic territories with gravelly, overdriven textures and unstable vibrations.
'Peel' was initially recorded in Nairobi during the April 2020 lockdown and was embraced by Peter Rehberg of Editions Mego as a soundtrack for quarantine. While 'Peel' offered a calm surface masking underlying unease, 'Kin' largely adopts the distortion and feedback reminiscent of 'Peel's' outlier track, "Klang."
Kamaru began developing 'Kin' in early 2021, but the project was put on hold following Peter Rehberg's death in July of that year. Kamaru eventually completed the album the following year, with 'Kin' marking his return to the Mego label. The album explores ambient music as a matrix of overlapping vibrations, proving both meditative and galvanizing, featuring collaborations such as "Blurred" with Fennesz.
