In Conversation: Kutiman

Photo by Maayan Shahar.

Few artists in contemporary society are as comfortable in multiple mediums as Kutiman. Born Ophir Kutiel, the Israeli musician, composer, producer, animator and video artist is driven by a self-described “compulsion to create” that has lead to acclaimed YouTube series like “Thru the City” and ThruYou, six full-length releases and over 15 years worth of groove-tastic collaborations and singles.

Following the release of this third ambient album, Surface Currents, Kuti sat down with The Eisenberg Review for a brief conversation on his life and music.

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Congratulations on the release of Surface Currents, your third ambient album following 2018’s Don’t Hold Onto the Clouds and 2019’s Antarctica. You really capture an incredibly immersive atmosphere on this record. It’s gorgeous, a feat made all the more impressive in my mind by the fact that its the least groove-oriented of your projects yet. How did the creative process for Surface Currents unfold?

Thank you, first of all. I have a deep love for ambient music and Indian music. I also do animation and visual work, so a lot of the time when I work on visual stuff I like to just listen to something minimal in the background that will let me concentrate on the work. [Surface Currents] is my own version. With “Surface Currents,” I started with piano, playing this arpeggio. It’s a meditative process because there’s no looping or anything. The track is 17 minutes, so I play each take of every instrument and I have to relax and be in the atmosphere to do it.

And it comes through. Was it difficult to write an aquatic sweet in the middle of the Negev Desert, or is it not being around water necessarily that helps you think about it? How do you square that circle?

I don’t know… I don’t really write things, it’s very intuitive, I just start playing something and try whatever. I didn’t even think about water at the beginning. It came later from the animation and visuals that I started looking for, then I started trying to imagine associations.

Well that certainly speaks to the compulsion to create that you’ve described your creative process as like. Where does that compulsion to create come from?

Curiosity. A lot of the time, I like to jump from one thing to another, from one instrument to another or from one form of art to another. Sometimes music, sometimes visuals, sometimes this kind of music or that kind of music. I think it’s just curiosity. I was brought up to work, to wake up in the morning and go to work and do something. I can’t really sit. I don’t know how to relax. I like to work. Today, with the internet you can [learn] whatever you want… If you’re curious, it’s endless.

Absolutely. You’ve certainly taken advantage of that creativity on the internet. Your presence on YouTube is famed and a large part of your early success. Is your ability to bring in a lot of videos of buskers and those from cities around the world to create and synthesize something completely new part of your compulsion to create? Hearing different source material and piecing it together?

Not really. It’s funny, because I did the YouTube thing and I guess this is what I’m most famous for. I didn’t play a single note and I just sampled and combined different samples together. On my other projects, I don’t have a single sample, I don’t sample, I never sampled or did sample-based music. It’s not necessarily what drives me, sampling… It’s just curiosity… I just see something and I fall in love with it and my first reaction is “I want to do something like that.” I try, and sometimes its too hard and I leave it alone , but sometimes something comes up.

That’s a beautiful thing. I think there’s a purity of expression in that that lends itself to the quality of the work. My own love of music comes from a similar place of curiosity and desire to take in and understand. That resonates with me very deeply. Do you have a formative musical experience that made you want to create music?

I remember a couple of them. The first time we moved to a new place, we had a neighbor who played the piano. I was 6 and I heard him play the piano and something happened. I used to just ask my mom to go there and one time he let me touch the piano and that was the first time I fell in love with music. Then, I started to take piano lessons and I hated it. That’s been the story ever since. Later on, I went to music school and I hated it.

Then, when I was 8 or 10, I didn’t have any record shops and my parents didn’t listen to any music. They didn’t know who James Brown or Bob Marley was. Radio was really boring. But, then, when I was 10 there was [the song] “Yekeke” on the radio and that was the first time I think I hear something groovy. It just blew my mind, I went crazy as a child. I used to wait for it and when it played on the radio I went crazy. Today, I realize it’s because it’s so good and groovy.

That’s fantastic. Those memories have sparked quite a career for you. Returning to Surface Currents, you’ve said that this is the first of a number of projects that you’ll be releasing this year exploring different sides of your musical mind. What else can we look forward to this year?

I’ve been listening to a lot of techno and more electronic music. In general, I love all kinds of music, but in the past years, I’ve been listening to a lot of electronic music, so I did this project of dark electronica. Very different from the rest of my catalog. I’m looking forward to releasing it.

Also, I’ve been in to Indian music. I traveled to India for a few months to take some tabla lessons and I did my own take. It’s not really Indian music, but it’s got an Indian influence. I have a few things in that direction.

That’s incredibly exciting. In closing, I want to ask you the question we ask all artists we interview: what are three records you’d recommend to the audience?

Wow… I’m really bad at this. I don’t have a single record in my house. I’m not a collector. I just listen to music on the internet and I have no idea what it is. I just let it autoplay.

I don’t know… I can recommend artists that I’ve listened to a lot lately. Alice Coltrane, definitely.

I’ve been listening to Floating Points a lot lately. He’s got a new record… a beautiful record.

There’s one record that I love from Terry Riley… Persian Surgery Dervishes. I don’t even know what it means, but it’s a beautiful record that I keep coming back to.