KMRU

As a child, Kamaru played the guitar and sang in a choir.^[1] He first discovered electronic music in high school, after finding a copy of FL Studio on the school's computers.^[1]

Kamaru is known for being prolific;^[2][3] he published almost twenty releases on Bandcamp between 2017 and 2021.^[3]

Kamaru was part of an Ableton Live ad in 2019, in which he recorded field recordings from a broken piano.^[4] His 2019 extended play Erased used piano, field recordings, and synthesized drums.^[3] In 2020, Kamaru released the albums Saal, Peel, Opaquer and Jar.^[4][3] Released on Editions Mego, Peel was created in 48 hours and blended organic and synthetic textures.^[3] In 2022, Kamaru toured with Big Thief.^[5] The same year, he released a collaborative album, Limen, with Aho Ssan.^[5] In 2023, Pitchfork described Kamaru as a "widely referenced figure in contemporary electronic music".^[2]

In 2023, he released Dissolution Grip, which represented a sonic shift away from field recordings.^[6] The album received critical acclaim from the publications Loud and Quiet and Pitchfork.^[2][6]

His grandfather, also named Joseph Kamaru, was a well-known benga musician.^[7] After his death in 2018, the younger Kamaru reissued some of his albums, attempting to introduce a new audience to his music.^[1][3]

Kamaru was born in Nairobi, Kenya.^[3] He later moved to Berlin, Germany, in October 2020.^[3][1] He moved to begin attending Universität der Künste for a Master's program of Sound Studies and Sonic Arts.^[1]