CD – Touch

How does the dominance of technology spread and amplify and how does our perception of reality change as a result? This is perhaps the most significant question that artists, philosophers and thinkers have had to deal with in the midst of the postmodern era. For KMRU, a sound artist born in Nairobi before moving to Berlin, it doesn’t involve too many turns of phrase or contorted abstraction musings. In his homeland, an African metropolis characterised by numerous green areas and crossed by a large river with multiple tributaries – the buzzing of birds and insects is omnipresent, as is the chatter of passers-by, always absorbed in a thousand chores. Electrical smog is also a constant due to the cables that overlap each other in the streets and public spaces, together with the noises produced by the transformers of air conditioners. In Berlin, by contrast, everything is quieter, cleaner and more organised, the noise feels muzzled and hidden – visual observation confirms this uniformity of perception in Western life. For KMRU in Berlin, the night offers little contrast compared to the day, while in Kenya the differences are more marked and the body (the eyes and ears above all) must adapt rapidly to changing environmental conditions. This phenomenon of adaptation is the conceptual foundation of Natur, a meticulous project that takes the form of a long 52-minute track and a shorter extract (we imagine for radio use). ‘Nature is connected to technology, and we are so connected to nature that we adapt’ explains the artist, who critically uses field recordings made by alternating moments of suspension, juxtaposing mechanical aural emergencies with infinitesimal glitches and expansive drones. What we hear deals with imperceptible, synthetic and natural sound universes, mixtures that in each city take on different forms and where even electromagnetism seems to spread according to location-specific modalities. KMRU is a poet of ‘hum’ and his story becomes almost surreal and esoteric, acted out by soft voices, chirps, rustles and electric buzzing. For him, Natur is a catalogue to always refer to, which he updates methodically in each performance, a mutable and personal way of feeling the world, of underlining that ‘soundscapes reveal a lot about how people think and behave’.

 

KMRU – Natur