Joseph Kamaru, better known as KMRU, will release a new album to launch his own OFNOT imprint.

Dissolution Grip emerged from Kamaru’s studies at Berlin’s Universität der Künste.

The Kenyan composer and sound artist is best known for his field recording work, and as he traveled across Europe and the wider world for regular live performances, he made a point to snapshot each city.

But the more he studied and the more he examined his practice, the more Kamaru began to wonder what the purpose of these recordings were. Simultaneously, he’d begun to dive more wholeheartedly into the world of synthesis, and he started to wonder not just how he could harness these sounds but how he might be able to more dynamically combine them with field recordings.

Guided by Jasmine Guffond at UDK, Kamaru looked at waveforms—the visual representation of sound itself—and embarked on a process where he would write scores from the shapes, gradually turning the scores into raw synth sounds. Instead of using environmental recordings as an aesthetic marker, he would use these captured moments to guide the waveforms. So each sound is birthed from a field recording, but none of those recordings are audible in their original form.

On the digital bonus track called “Along A Wall,” for example, KMRU recorded in an old shack on his family’s compound in Nairobi, where wind was shaking the building to its foundations. Listening to the finished piece, we can hear subtle electronic tones that rub and vibrate against each other, slowly saturating and mimicking the erratic motion of the wind. The original recording has been removed, but the feeling remains.

For more information on KMRU, check out his XLR8R podcast here and his Artist Tips feature here.

Tracklisting

01. Till Hurricane Bisect
02. Dissolution Grip
03. Along A Wall (digital bonus)

Dissolution Grip LP is scheduled for September 29 release. Meanwhile, you can stream “Along A Wall” in full via the player below and pre-order here.