Impakter Interview: Benjamin Skepper

Benjamin Skepper met up with Impakter during his tour of Europe. Benjamin is a multimedia artist, Cultural Ambassador to Russia, and violoncellist with a long career that has brought his music to the four corners of the world. In 2008 he embarked on an audacious creative journey to Japan. He launched his Tokyo based record label and creative think-tank contrapuntal, since releasing three solo albums on 12” vinyl record and CD, with his fourth album of field recordings released late last year. His extraordinary talent comes into its own in the realisation of his first record “eika 詠歌”. Here he explores the “looping” and “sampling” techniques that he has drawn from his extended experience with techno and hip-pop production.

Benjamin Skepper is not only a musician but also a creative thinker at 360°. In fact he has a well establish career in the field of contemporary art. He has presented performance art works and sound installations worldwide including most recently at the opening of Manifesta 10, the European Biennial of Contemporary Art in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Other projects include the Museo del Novecento (Milan), an artist-in-residence at the French Embassy Tokyo’s “No Mans Land”, sound art exhibition alongside Yoko Ono “Dirty, dirty! Sex sex!”(Tokyo), at “Rooms” Japan’s International Fashion and Design Trade Fair (Tokyo), “Culture Warriors”, Australia’s first Indigenous Art Triennial at the National Gallery of Australia (Canberra), “Sight and Sound” exhibition and composition commission from The Arts Centre (Victoria), and as a featured artist at Music at Night for Napoleon: Revolution to Empire at the National Gallery of Victoria in 2012.

A conversation with Benjamin Skepper is not just about art, fashion and music but very much about how a holistic approach to the creative process is the key to successfully deliver new ideas while keeping an eye on our roots.

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