KMRU ★★★★ Logue INJAZERO. DL/LP

Catch-all comp of Nairobibased sound artist’s elusive self-releases circa 2017-19.

Joseph Kamaru’s decision to start interweaving his phone’s field recordings into his house and techno DJ sets was the beginning of an ongoing voyage of discovery. The grandson of Kenya’s late king of Kikuyu Benga was soon creating meditative yet neverstatic compositions, free of overly dramatic gestures, but rich in intimate detail. There’s a healing, sedate quality to Jinja Encounters’ descending harp refrain, A Meditation Of Listening’s chirping high frequencies and, less typically, Argon’s dramatic wash of sci-fi synths and bleeped refrains that feels like a salve for frayed times. As with Stars Of The Lid, Tim Hecker or William Basinski, KMRU’s spacious drones and long loops allow for slow evocation, yet his thrifty use of found sounds establishes the point of difference – granting his unimposing music a vivid narrative otherness. Andy Cowan