KMRU (Joseph Kamaru) is a Nairobi-born sound artist and producer currently based in Berlin. In his introspective and emotionally resonant music, KMRU intricately weaves together diverse sonic elements—from indigenous sounds to field recordings and studio synthesis—to craft atmospheric soundscapes that are locally defined and experimentally global. This work reflects the interconnectedness of spaces and experiences, emphasizing the continuous exchange and dialogue of diasporic communities.

KMRU's compositions are characterized by their melancholic quality, blending field recordings with atmospheric techno influences to create cinematic soundscapes. His music develops through a deep lethargy yet it remains uniquely imbued with his East African heritage. For example, 2023’s Stupor, released by the Helsinki-based label Other Power, is comprised of long-form tracks that integrate field recordings with subtle techno influences. The tracks, as the liner notes explain “are speculative notes to social architectures and environments the artist has traversed.” In 2022, during his studies at Universität der Künste Berlin, KMRU collaborated with fellow students Mariana Carvalho, Varoujan Chetirian and Zach Hart for the radio work “Tell us where you’re listening from.” In the piece, listeners are encourage to call in, adding their voices and sounds to the mesh of improvisatory play of the student artists; the four performers collect, redistribute, and perform space and distance with the incoming and outgoing transmissions, creating “a raw encounter in a complex collection of open, re-modelled perspectives both fleshy and ungraspable.”

For KMRU, sound serves as a sensorial medium through which he explores social, material, and conceptual dimensions. Drawing from a rich repository of listening experiences in Nairobi and beyond, he expands his sonic practice to bring a heightened awareness of his surroundings through creative compositions, installations, and performances. He has left an international mark with performances and releases at venues and festivals such as the Barbican, Berlin Atonal, and Présences électronique. His music, released on labels including Dagoretti Records, Subtext, and Seil Records, reflects an engagement with and deep love of ambient and experimental musics, blending them with a distinctive diasporic African cultural perspective. -Described by Wave Farm Radio Art Fellow 2024, Austin T. Richey