Bear with me—the river Styx flowed through Homer’s Iliad, Virgil’s Aeneid, and Dante’s Inferno and in each case it flowed deep underground and formed a boundary between this world and some other much less pleasant place.
As is the case with many a historical horror whether fictional or factual, some great paintings were made to illustrate the river Styx so that even the illiterates could get a get a good fright at their potential fate. Boo!
I was reminded of this subterranean flow while listening to Kin by Nairobi-born, Berlin-based sound artist Joseph Kamaru who records as KMRU. His music is often classified as Ambient and while I understand why, Kin flows much deeper. After repeated listenings I find that the sound world KMRU creates feels as if its inside me as opposed to me experiencing some atmospheric soundscape around me. A subtle but important distinction.
The music itself is deeply layered and complex as if layer upon layer of sounds flow according to their own laws of nature which when ingested creates a kind of addictive inner turmoil that throws the notion of a concrete “this world” into question.
Unsettlingly settling if you can go with the flows.