Joshua Ballance
15th May 2020
What piece have you chosen? Stay On It by Julius Eastman. What’s special about this piece for you? As
Each month we ask a musician to share a piece they love and tell us why
I have chosen an album – Jar by KMRU
Given the instability of this year, I’ve increasingly found myself being drawn to music that feels grounding. I can get this feeling from a lot of different kinds of music, but I’ve been especially drawn to organic-sounding, textural electronic music recently. One artist whose work I’ve been listening to a lot is KMRU (Joseph Kamaru), a Kenyan sound artist who ties together field recordings, found sounds, acoustic instruments and synthesisers into thoughtful, brooding compositions. A prolific artist, KMRU has released a wealth of great music in recent years; I’ve chosen Jar, a full-length project released in September via Seil Records.
Listen out for the detailed sounds that are tucked in between the rich layers of music. KMRU’s well considered use of field recordings and found sounds give his music an organic and full feel. If you listen closely, you can find new layers with each listen.
Favourite track: ulmma
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Hayley Suviste is a sound artist and composer who works with archival recordings, field recordings, electronic hardware and live instrumentation to create long-form pieces, sonic installations, and multimedia art projects. From her background in Electroacoustic Composition, Hayley has established a unique sound art practice through which she explores topics of community, cultural identity, and heritage. Inspired by the rich tradition of oral history, she creates intimate sonic explorations of voice and space which animate broader sociohistorical themes.
Her latest work Edgeland, commissioned by Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, will be premiered on 22nd November at 3pm as part of the festival and aired on BBC Radio 3’s New Music Show. The work is an exploration of Manchester’s shared green spaces and shines a light on the activists, academics, and local people who have taken up the daunting fight against corporate interests in the city in the name of biodiversity, urban ecology and community wellbeing.
What piece have you chosen? Stay On It by Julius Eastman. What’s special about this piece for you? As
What piece have you chosen? Drawings for Meyoko by Angélica Negrón. What’s special about this piece for you? I
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