Kutiman - Dont Hold onto the Clouds '2018

Tracks list

In the era of the brand, Kutiman is an anomaly. A musician who’s a video
artist who’s a producer who’s an animator who’s also the
unwilling star of one of Israel’s most successful recent documentaries,
his every record contrasts with whatever it was that came before. But
that’s fundamental to his appeal: no one, not even him, really knows what
to expect next. Unsurprisingly, therefore, ‘Don’t Hold Onto The
Clouds’ is no different, which means it’s like nothing he’s
ever done. Most artists would acknowledge this by working under pseudonyms, but
Kutiman is – yes, you’ve guessed it – different again.
“If I changed my name every time I wanted to do something new,” he
laughs, “I think I’d have too many names!” 

Born Ophir Kutiel in 1982, Kutiman released his last album, ‘6AM’,
in 2016, and it found the Israel musician leaning upon the production style of
David Axelrod to create what The Guardian described as “a modern amalgam
of African flavoured psychedelic rock that nods historically to exotica, soul,
breakbeat and jazz while recalling the diverse likes of Cinematic Orchestra, Air
and Antibalas.” Inevitably, of course, ‘Don’t Hold Onto The
Clouds’ sounds nothing like this. Comprised of just four tracks –
the shortest of which, ‘Lucid Dream’, still clocks in at almost
eight minutes – it orbits within reach of, among other styles, Ambient,
Electronica, Minimal and New Age, but refuses to settle on merely one.
“For me, it’s just relaxing,” he says.“For the past few
years, this is the kind of music I’ve mostly listened to. I guess
I’m trying to relax. Or maybe just sleep better!” 

To be fair, Kutiman’s life has, for the last decade, verged on the
frantic. After being discovered during the Myspace era by a small German label,
he released his first, eponymous album in 2007, which, according to
Pitchfork’s 8.2 review, was “a psyched-up groove monster that cant
decide between vintage and modern and instead just has it both ways”.
Despite its international reception, however, the LP was soon overshadowed by
music he uploaded two years later onto another internet site, YouTube. For
‘Thru You’, as he called the project, he meticulously cut and
pasted together clips he found on the video platform of amateur solo musicians
to create seven, original, intricately arranged songs. These new videos swiftly
went viral, and so remarkable was the execution of his concept that it earned a
place in Time magazine’s list of ‘The Fifty Best Inventions of
2009’. 

Before long, Kutiman was fulfilling both video and music commissions in Tokyo
and Krakow, Hamburg and Istanbul. He performed live with his Kutiman Orchestra,
even co-headlining a Tel Aviv show with DJ Shadow, and, having received
invitations to remix other artist’s work – among them one from
Maroon 5, though the reclusive, self-taught musician had to ask who they were
– he invited others to remix Thru You’s songs as well. Finally, he
embarked on ‘Thru You Too’, and in 2015 uploaded the first of these
new videos, ‘Give It Up’. His working process was documented by
director Ido Haar, who followed Kutiman’s progress on the quiet kibbutz
where, most of the time, he lives. Haar, however, also travelled to the other
side of the world to meet the song’s talented but troubled young singer,
Samantha Montgomery aka Princess Shaw. He was with her in America when she
learned that one of her (until then) rarely viewed a cappella videos had been
sampled, and captured her subsequent joy as she watched ‘Give It
Up’’s hits rapidly multiply, providing the resulting documentary,
‘Presenting Princess Shaw’, with one of its most heart-warming
scenes. 

‘Give It Up’ has today been viewed well in excess of 3 million
times, while the film has won a number of prizes, including Best Documentary at
the 2016 Israeli Film Academy Awards, and, the same year, the Audience Award at
Sheffield’s International Documentary Festival. Given the simultaneous
acclaim provoked by 6AM, the success might have turned his head, but Kutiman
isn’t like other musicians. Despite the onslaught of publicity, he did
what he always did: kept a low profile and continued to write and record, barely
noticing the fuss. “I don’t really follow the press or any social
networks,” he says, “so I don’t really feel any change. I get
stopped on the street more often – which is sometimes nice, and sometimes
a bit awkward – but I live pretty far from any big city, so I still spend
most of my time just doing something creative.” 

‘Don’t Hold Onto The Clouds’ emerged from such time –
often lengthy periods of time – spent alone in his studio pursuing his
instincts. Those instincts, he’ll happily admit, are – to say the
least – capricious, and records are only finished when he’s
decided they’re finished, so his home is full of multiple hard drives
overflowing with fragments of ideas. This new record, however, is unusual, and
not just because it reveals his love for Terry Reilly, Moondog, Alice Coltrane
and William Basinski.“Sometimes music gets stuck,” he says quietly.
“I’ll move on to something else before coming back to it, sometimes
even a few years later. In fact, most of what I release is usually recorded a
few years before. But with ‘Don’t Hold Onto The Clouds’,
everything went pretty smoothly. I liked the music and the mixing and the cover,
so now it’s coming out.” 

Recorded live by Kutiman over the course of the last year, the album also draws
upon his growing love for Indian music, and, alongside extensive use of a Juno
6, features his first, unorthodox use of a tabla his mother once gave him.
“I had no clue how to even touch it,” he confesses, “so I just
hit it with a stick.” The approach may have been unconventional, but the
results justify the means: ‘Don’t Hold Onto The Clouds’ is
meditative and enigmatic, like nothing he’s done before, and like little
anyone else has done either. “I hope it will offer peace,” he
smiles, adding hurriedly, “not in a big global way, but just as a break
from reality. If anyone feels like head banging, I’ll be happy as well,
but it actually helps me fall asleep. I can’t say that about any other
record I’ve made.” 

As for what comes next, Kutiman’s got as little idea as ever. Maybe
he’ll return to film – he’s spent time recently working on
analogue video art – or perhaps he’ll complete the vocal project
he began some years ago in Africa. Possibly he’ll revisit the ‘Thru
You’ concept – in 2016 he released a YouTube album, ‘Off
Grid’, of free jazz and psychedelia – but he’s also been
spending time in India, where he’s finally started learning the tabla.
Whatever it is that follows, though, it will still be definitively Kutiman.
“All I really wish is to go wherever I want without fear,” he
concludes. “I might find myself writing an opera one day…!” 

And that’s Kutiman for you in a nutshell: same, same, but
different… 

Tracklist:
01. Kutiman - Behind the Noise
02. Kutiman - Unknown
03. Kutiman - Mineral
04. Kutiman - Lucid Dream

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