Kutiman

Kutiman
Birth name	Ophir Kutiel
Born	1982 (age 28–29)
Origin	Jerusalem, Israel
Genres	Alternative rock, funk, reggae, jazz, electronica, experimental, afro beat, psychedelic, reggae
Occupations	musician, producer, video artist, animator
Years active	2006–present
Labels	Indie
Website	www.youtube.com/kutiman

Ophir Kutiel (born 1982), professionally known as Kutiman, is a musician, composer, producer and animator from Israel. He is best known for creating the online music video project ThruYOU, as well as his self-titled album and collaboration with many artists including Maroon 5.

Background

Ophir Kutiel was born in Jerusalem and grew up in Zichron Yaacov. He studied piano since the age of six, then learned to play drums and guitar at age 14. When Kutiel was 18, he moved to Tel Aviv to study Jazz at Rimon Music College.^[1]

While working at a local convenience store in Tel Aviv, Kutiel discovered a college radio station that was playing music much different from the Classical-Jazz he had been used to hearing. Following this, Kutiman met Sabbo, another Israeli artist and current music partner, who introduced him to Afrobeat and Funk music. This introduction included the sounds of James Brown and Fela Kuti, among many others. As his taste for music altered from his traditional training, in 2003 Kutiman embarked on a journey to Jamaica where he researched Reggae and had the opportunity to work with Stephen and Damien Marley.^[2]

Music career

Kutiman was signed to Melting Pot Music, based in Cologne in 2006. Soon after, his first single "No Groove Where I Come From" was released, followed by the release of the hit song with Karolina of Habanot Nechama titled "Music is Ruling My World." His eponymous debut album - which received an 8.2 rating from Pitchfork Media^[3] and a 7 out of 10 from PopMatters^[4] - was released in the fall of 2007. Under the Radar picked Kutiman as one of the "Artists to Watch in 2008," along with Glasvegas and MGMT.^[5] He has also won the 2010 ACUM award for producing Karolina's album "What Will I Do Now?" ^[6]

In the summer of 2010, Kutiman co-billed with DJ Shadow in Tel Aviv and perform with his live band, The Kutiman Orchestra.

ThruYOU

In 2009 Kutiman released "ThruYOU," an online music video project mixed from samples of YouTube videos, which has received more than 10 million views in just a couple of weeks. Time Magazine named it one of the 50 Best Inventions of 2009.^[7] Due to the success of Thru-YOU, in October 2010 Kutiman was invited by YouTube to perform at the "YouTube Play" grand opening at Guggenheim in New York City.^[8]

Two years after the release of Thru-You, Kutiman created a new Thru-You like video titled "My Favorite Color" that caught the attention of numerous publications including Wired,^[9] Fader,^[10] and Mashable's Video of the Day.^[11]

In an Internet radio interview from June 2009, Kutiman described how the idea of ThruYOU first came to him:

At first I took some drummers - before I had the idea about ThruYOU I took some drummers from YouTube and I played on top of them - just for fun, you know. And then one day, just before I plugged my guitar to play on top of the drummer from YouTube, I thought to myself, you know - maybe I can find a bass and guitar and other players on YouTube to play with this drummer...^[12]

Working on ThruYOU project took two months, and Kutiman described it as quite intense:

It took me two months, but it was really intense. I barely ate, I just worked on a computer and went to sleep...day and night, and night and day...didn't see any friends, no family...not even the sun.^[12]

After disclosing his work to just twenty friends, Kutiman's project spread virally across the web, racking up more than one million views in less than a week.^[13] After viewing ThruYOU, open source advocate Lawrence Lessig praised the project as a pioneer of a new, less regulated form of media, saying "If you come to the Net armed with the idea that the old system of copyright is going to work just fine here, this more than anything is going to get you to recognize: you need some new ideas."^[14]

Kutiman does not often travel to promote his project. On the 19th of June 2009, he visited Wrocław, Poland, responding to an invitation made by an Internet radio station. In an interview, he described the interest of various media in the ThruYOU project, and his willingness to focus on his work:

I got a lot of offers, you know, for gigs and for DJing and for just interviews, but I really do my best, you know. I don't really like it, honestly - but you're so nice and kind, so I'm having a great time.^[15]

At this point, Kutiman has been reluctant to comment on the future of the project. During an interview, he indicated that his ideas and future plans might revolve around "social things" in the future, but did not specify these plans:

All the feedback from other people really inspired me to keep on doing things, you know, like with a lot of people, and kind of social things. I have a lot of ideas, but I haven't started making anything just yet.^[15]

His song "Babylon Band" received play on 89.3 WNUR - Chicago's Sound Experiment.

Post- ThruYOU Videos

Kutiman Mixes Maroon 5

In early 2010, Maroon 5 approached Kutiman with some footage of each band member jamming by himself. Kutiman mixed the footage to create "Kutiman Mixes Maroon 5", an original audiovisual piece combining all of the separate footage into one clip.

My Favorite Color

The project "My Favorite Color" blends together a deeper, Jazz oriented sound that has gained numerous views and received praise from outlets such as Wired, CBS News and TechCrunch. The video maintains the Thru-You style of taking footage from various YouTube videos and mixing them together into one compilation, but this time the sound is more complex and dreamlike. "My favorite Color" has a very eclectic feel, featuring many different clips, among those an organ playing mother, a young female vocalist singing in her London bedroom and an Omaha-based saxophonist doing a free improvisation. Kutiman unites the wide range of talent in all of the videos forming one big online music collective.

Thru Jerusalem

In June 2011, Kutiman was chosen as the "Artist of the Season" for "The Jerusalem Season of Culture" and he created the video “Thru Jerusalem". This piece differs from his past mixes because in this piece he himself approached and shot the musicians and as opposed to finding them on YouTube. However, though Kutiman filmed the musicians himself, he didn't give them any guidance as they played, and mixed the footage to create this piece.

My Favorite Band: A Tribute to "Black Dog" by Led Zeppelin

Paying tribute to one of the most influential bands in music history, Kutiman created his piece titled "My Favorite Band" which became the first user generated mashup video cover of Led Zeppelin’s “Black Dog”. Using unrelated YouTube videos posted by a variety of musicians performing “Black Dog,” he mixed the clips together making one of the most innovative covers. Kutiman's tribute to Led Zeppelin featuring dozens of unrelated YouTube covers of this classic song was screened at Flatpack Film Festival as part of Home Of Metal celebrations. The screening took place in Wolverhampton, not far from Led Zeppelin's old stomping ground.

This Is Real Democracy

In 2011 Kutiman released his video “This Is Real Democracy”. In this thought provoking video, the political focus is exercised to raise awareness using footage of people demonstrating in the streets, and world leaders (past and present), in Kutiman’s attempt to address and respond to the events that were broadcasted over other social media feeds.

These pictures are not adding “musical” elements to the composition, but rather give it the social and political context. Although some of the video sequences used were harvested from YouTube, they originate from the “old media”, official TV stations, which is another new element in Kutiman’s work. Kutiman’s work similarly reflects the influential and pioneering work by EBN (Emergency Broadcast Network) from the early 90s. Though Kutiman generally refrains from making overtly political statements, there were many speculations regarding the title of this piece, and if “This is Real Democracy” was referring Mubarak, Netanyahu, Cameron and Sarkozy, or if it was in reference to the unleashed power of the people, marching, protesting, revolting or rioting.

Music Videos

In addition to Kutiman's audiovisual collages, in which he composed the music, Kutiman also directed music videos.

Kutiman's first video was an animated music video created for his song, "Chaser" featured on his debut album. Kutiman's second animated music video was for Hadag Nahash's "Eze Kif".^[16][17]

In 2010 Kutiman worked with Karolina to create a music video for her hit song Smile 2 Me, which was shot in 150 different locations in Tel Aviv. The video has been put on display at Hammer Museum in Los Angeles, CA as a piece of the Flux Screening Series. Kutiman also received the Acum award for Karolina’s album “What shall I Do Now?” which he produced with Sabbo.

"Light Up" - Kutiman's video for Boom Pam, local surf rock heroes, was voted one of the 10 best video by City Mouse, one of the leading websites in Israel. Kutiman directed the clip utilizing video projections manipulated with various materials. The song embodies a semi-Moroccan-rhythm, 70’s metal, psych fuzz, tuba driven song with deep, amusing lyrics. This video was voted one of the best videos of 2010 by "City Mouse" (Achbar Ha'ir), Israel's leading Events website.

Collabrations

Sabbo and Kuti : Better Days

“Better Days” is a dynamic reggae album the two created while traveling in Jamaica in 2004. Featuring artists such as Turbulence. Norris Man, and Milton Blake, "Better Days" was released in May 2011. Sabbo is a member of the critically acclaimed DJ/production crew “Soulico” which released their first album “Exotic on the Speaker” on JDub records in 2009. The two took some time to produce this album as a side project to each of their independent careers. Sabbo and Kutiman also occasionally take some time to produce other local Israeli artists.

Discography

• No Groove Where I Come From 7" (Afro Kats) October 2006
• No Groove Where I Come From! 12" (MPM) November 2006
• No Reason For You 12" (MPM) March 2007
• Music Is Ruling My World (w/ remix by DJ Day) 12" (MPM) June 2007
• Kutiman CD/LP (MPM) November 2007

References

1. ^ Melting Pot Music
2. ^ Kutiman - Kutiman - Djouls.com - Music You Don't Hear On The Radio
3. ^ Pitchfork Magazine Review
4. ^ PopMatters review
5. ^ Under the Radar #20 summary^{[dead link]}
6. ^ Israelity
7. ^ "The 50 Best Inventions of 2009". Time. 2009-11-12. http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1934027_1934003_1933973,00.html. Retrieved 13 November 2009. 
8. ^ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KDvXvuvAwo8
9. ^ "Kutiman Returns With Hot New YouTube Remix". Wired. 2011-03-21. http://www.wired.com/underwire/2011/03/kutiman-my-favorite-color/. Retrieved 21 March 2011. 
10. ^ "Video: Kutiman, "My Favorite Color"". Fader. 2011-03-22. http://www.thefader.com/2011/03/22/video-kutiman-my-favorite-color/. Retrieved 22 March 2011. 
11. ^ "YouTube Video of the Day: Musician Mashes Up Vids To Create Gorgeous, New Song". Mashable. 2011-03-28. http://mashable.com/2011/03/28/kutiman-color/. Retrieved 28 March 2011. 
12. ^ ^{a b} "Kutiman in Wroclove, p.2" - an interview for radiowroclove.com, June 19, 2009:[1]
13. ^ The Future Begins Thru You
14. ^ REMIX: Buy the Remix
15. ^ ^{a b} "Kutiman Wroclove 3" - an interview for radiowroclove.com, June 19, 2009:[2]
16. ^ Ear to Sound Blog
17. ^ Video of Eze Kif

External links

• ThruYOU website
• Documentary face-to-face Interview with Kutiman
• Wax Poetics article on Kutiman by David Ma
• Researching thruYOU, annotated mirror
• Copyright v Artistic Voice and the Great Kutiman - MP3 Newswire article on the reaction to Kutiman ThruYou videos
• Frere-Jones, Sasha (30 March 2009). "Heavy Sifting: An Interview With Kutiman". The New Yorker. http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/sashafrerejones/2009/03/heavy-sifting-a-1.html. Retrieved 8 April 2009. 

Persondata
Name	Kutiman
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1982
Place of birth
Date of death
Place of death