Kutiman’s opening single Copasavana has dropped ahead of his fourth studio album – and it’s a masterful psychedelic soundscape of outernational wonder. Ophir ‘Kutiman’ Kutiel is a multi-instrumentalist and producer, as well as a filmmaker, who is now earning global fame from his home in the western Negev desert in Israel.

Wachaga is the title of the new LP for Siyal Music – the Wachaga (a.k.a Wachagga/Chaga/Chagga) are Bantu speakers and are the third largest ethnic group in Tanzania.

The material on this latest album was collected on a trip to Tanzania in 2014. Kutiman rocked up to a Wachaga community in the foothills of Mount Kilimanjaro and recorded sounds, including school children from the city of Arusha playing drums and dancers who wore bells on their shoes.

Kutiman is also internet-famous thanks to his million+ viewed ThuYou series (“Top 50 Inventions of 2009” by Time Magazine), which edited together samples of bedroom YouTube videos from around the world and his Mix The City platform.

He’s also critically acclaimed for his 2007 eponymous debut, 2016’s 6am and 2018’s Don’t Hold Onto The Clouds, alongside co-signs by the likes of Maribou State who featured one of his tracks on the most recent Fabric Live mix. Kutiman also made a modern classical solo album for Greenpeace last year. This year, a limited edition of 500 7” records, featuring Saluf and Badawee, was released in February on Siyal Music.

Psychedelic jazz-funk EP Layla was released last month.

Copasavana is the first release of a number planned, which will transport listeners through a variety of genres. Don’t miss Wachaga in July – check Kutiman’s Bandcamp.