Inside the upcoming HEROINE 18, we spotlight four emerging electronic producers creating soundscapes for escapism. Here’s an exclusive advance preview – next in the series is KMRU.

Joseph Kamaru, known by his musical pseudonym KMRU, has a vast collection of sound recordings, mostly captured hanging out of windows, from his Berlin apartment to hotels he stays at while travelling. “These recordings are like sonic journals,” the Kenyan-born artist tells us: sometimes a particular, visceral noise piques his attention, other times it’s the subtle stillness of life we often take for granted.

Translating these field recordings, KMRU drops them into layers of sound to swirl and melt like drops of ink in water, creating ambient soundscapes you can visualise and feel. This aptitude for creating multi-sensory experiences can be traced back to the musician’s childhood, when he’d play hip-hop beats at full volume to experience the bass pulsing through his body. His 2020 album Peel was a defining work, recorded after briefly returning to Nairobi during lockdown, sounds of streets and nature take on greater meaning in a world frozen by constraint. A year later, KMRU followed this up with Logue, a curation of Bandcamp-released tracks produced between 2017 and 2019, outlining his evolving journey that progresses with every new sound.

Stay tuned for more from our HEROINE 18 series.

Follow KMRU on Instagram.