TRANSMISSION ART ARCHIVE
Variations [Radiophonic]
Joseph Kamaru (who styles his artist name as KMRU) is based in Nairobi and Berlin. In Variations, we hear field recordings from both these cities as well as from St. Petersburg. Voice announcements and mechanical sounds locate us clearly in airports and train stations across the three settings, but as the piece unfolds the sounds grow more rhythmic and less easy to place. “Variations” shares its name with Kamaru’s monthly music radio show and also with an installation work that spatializes this set of field recordings. In the radiophonic iteration of the work, a type of distance unique to broadcasting interacts with Kamaru’s compositional touch to shuttle us through the cities’ atmospheres and through our ideas of transit itself. - Described by Wave Farm Radio Artist Fellow 2021/2022, Andy Stuhl.