“To transform an improvisation as minimal and impressionistic as its ‘once you see it’-cover art into something as tepid as a description seems to rather miss the point. But so does writing about music in general, so a trifle; ‘33’ came to me sounding like a kalimba in the remorseful guise of the piano its killed. The soft, discordant quality leaves room for a troublesome and melancholy uncertainty, with no resolution from the enigmatic title, the plea in its ambient silences, or the sentencing of the final…
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MANIFESTO
I WANT TO START A CULT
Kahlil “Kahlt” Visser is an independent music artist born in October 2001 and based in Cape Town, South Africa. Kahlt creates sonic worlds through their unique storytelling and crafty music production.
So far, Kahlt has released two albums: the a cappella debut album Homebody, released in late 2023, followed by its electronic remix counterpart Womb Room in 2024.
“Homebody was the first time I sat down by my iPad with the intention to produce a full album,” Kahlt explains. “I knew my name and I kind of knew what type of music I wanted to create but I didn’t know what a Kahlt was.” The artist's name originated after they watched a Netflix documentary about a cult devoted to its self-indulgent leader — they wanted to reimagine themself and their following in a similar light. “I think any type of cult leader is someone who’s super camp and gets to live in their own idealist fantasy they’ve created. It’s sort of admirable to believe so strongly in yourself and your importance that your confidence alone drives people to all-consuming commitment. Although I don’t necessarily condone the practice.”
“A cult is such a flexible concept, you get to bring your inner world into the space around you. You can inject your own wants into that world — building it from scratch, piece by piece.”
Kahlt plans on building unique cults around each album. “Each album has its own manifesto and sound palette. It’s a congregation that’s all about this thing so the music is about that thing and they present themselves in these specific clothes and it’s all manifested through the album and the artwork cover.” One can only imagine, given the boundless framework, what Kahlt will cook up over the next few years.
“I want to make every album as perfect and concise within its theme as I possibly can. The perfect cult.”
