Kutiman in Wrocław in 2009: a presentation of the online music project ThruYOU

At the invitation of RadioWrocLove.com and LIONSTAGE Management, Kutiman, creator of the extraordinary online music project ThruYOU, came to Wrocław.

Kutiman visited Wrocław from 18 to 20 June 2009. He gave an interview, took part in an event presenting his project ThruYOU and explored the city.

Biography:

Ophir Kutiel was born in Jerusalem and grew up in Zichron Yaacov. He began learning piano at six and guitar and drums at fourteen. At 18, he moved to Tel Aviv to study jazz at Rimon Music College.

While working in a neighbourhood shop in Tel Aviv, Kutiel began listening to a college radio station playing music completely different from his usual classical jazz. Soon afterwards, Saabo, another Israeli artist and Kutiel’s musical partner at the time, introduced him to Afrobeat and funk, including James Brown and Fela Kuti. His fascination with Fela Kuti and the similarity of their surnames inspired his stage name, Kutiman. He also travelled to Jamaica to explore reggae and Afrobeat more deeply and work with Stephen and Damian Marley.

In 2006, Kutiman began working with Cologne’s Melting Pot Music. Soon came his first single, “No Groove Where I Come From”, and first hit, “Music is Ruling My World”, recorded with Karolina from Habanot Nechama. His debut album appeared in 2007, earning very high ratings on music websites. Under The Radar listed Kutiman among Artists to Watch in 2008 alongside Glasvegas and MGMT.

Kutiman has worked with many Israeli artists and is currently working on compositions and arrangements for Karolina's solo album. He also created animated videos for his own “Chaser” and Hadag Nahash's “Eze Kf”.

In 2009, Kutiman released “ThruYOU”, an online music project made by mixing samples from amateur YouTube videos. Speaking on internet radio in June 2009, he described how the idea for ThruYOU came about:

“At first, I took a few recordings of drummers. Even before the idea for ThruYOU came along, I took some videos of drummers from YouTube and played along with them myself, just for fun, you know. And one day, just before plugging in my guitar to play with the YouTube drummers again, I thought, you know, why not find a bassist, a guitarist and other musicians on YouTube and combine them with the drummers’ recordings?”

Work on ThruYOU took two months, which Kutiman describes as quite intensive:

It took me two months, but it was really intense. I barely ate; I just worked on the computer and slept… day and night, night and day… I saw no friends, no family, not even the sun.

After Kutiman showed his work to twelve friends, the project spread rapidly online and received more than a million views in less than a week.

Kutiman rarely travels to promote his project. On 19 June 2009, he visited Wrocław at the invitation of Polish music promoters and an online radio station. In an interview, he discussed media interest in ThruYOU and his desire simply to concentrate on his work: I receive many offers, you know, for events, DJ appearances and interviews, and I really do what I can. You know, I do not really like it, but you are so kind, and I genuinely feel great here.

So far, Kutiman has been reluctant to discuss the future of his project. During an interview, he indicated that his ideas and future plans might revolve around “social issues”, but did not spell those plans out:

All the information coming to me from different places and people really inspires me to keep doing different things, you know, with lots of people, social things. I have plenty of ideas, but I haven't started doing anything yet.

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