Biography Niko Skorpio

Niko Skorpio is a Finnish artist who works on both sides of the border between sound and visual art. Whether it's music, painting, sound art, photography or graphic design, he's interested in exploring unlikely unions of polar opposites. Fusions of contradictory elements create tension that questions what we perceive as familiar, comfortable and accepted, and attempts to reveal new dimensions of thought and perception. Inspired by all things unknown, forgotten, abandoned or obsolete, Skorpio's work often attempts to invoke the sensation of something breaking apart to reveal some underlying structures and ideas that make up the world as we perceive it. Abstract truths behind the illusory reality.

Skorpio began his artistic career as a teenager in the seminal metal band Thergothon (1990-1993), followed by another short-lived band that subsequently earned cult status, This Empty Flow (1994-1996). At the same time his interest in experimental and electronic music was taking over and soon he decided to leave behind the bands and focus entirely on his own creative work.

In 1997, Skorpio formed Some Place Else, an independent record label to produce and realize his creations, as well as work by like-minded artists from the experimental underground. Skorpio’s debut album was Grey Bloom [xero vol zero], released on Some Place Else in 1998. A rare live performance of this “power ambient” sound was held in Turku, Finland on Halloween that year.

A number of ep’s followed, Delta Amoeba e.p. (2000), ChAmber MooSick (2001) and Stainway to Heaven (2002), each of which experimented with the fusion of various diverse and sometimes contradictory sounds and ideas, while abusing the ‘pop song’ format underneath. This period reached its climax and conclusion with the album Escape from Heaven (2006), a hermetic fusion of diverse sample material varying from traditional music from India, Middle East and Western Africa to 80′s thrash metal, flavoured with a selection of field recordings, all welded in the alchemical furnace of post-industrial electronica. Thematically the album is a Manifesto of Liberation, a statement of personal independence from all authorities and the attainment of freedom over one’s destiny.

During this period, Skorpio also worked on more ambient and drone-based material, the results of which formed the album The Hidden Nameless (2005), and its early live presentation Book of Flies (revised edition) (2004).

Various other projects, collaborative and otherwise, seeded in this period. A\H (1998-2001) introduced “brut” aesthetics into minimal analog electronic sound. Rajapinta (2001-) is a collaboration with Ibrahim Terzic, improvisation, cut-ups, experiments with electronic devices etc. both in live and studio setting. Reptiljan (2002-) blends various extreme forms of sound (noise, grindcore, drill&bass etc.) to distill sonic energy in its purest form. Haeretici 7o74 (2004-) is a Ritual musick group co-formed with Ovro, experimenting with ideas and techniques from various esoteric traditions in the context of modern electronic and ambient music; mostly focusing on live performances, but studio recordings are being prepared as well.

Niko Skorpio was also involved in Helsinki Computer Orchestra (2003-2005), a real orchestra formed by over twenty computer musicians to perform selected avant-garde electroacoustic works, conducted by Shinji Kanki and Erkki Pirtola.

In 2007, Skorpio and creative partner Ovro relocated the Some Place Else headquarters from their long time homebase Turku to the Finnish countryside. The change in environment and reconfiguration of the studio inspired plenty of new recording sessions. A new album Archaeodermophagia by Reptiljan was recorded. Two new Niko Skorpio albums, Half Born in Half Light and Psilocybe Necrophila, as well as related eps, were completed in this period.

Half Born in Half Light (2008), a fusion of psychedelic ambient dronescapes, tribal rhythms and magickal vocal invocations, was composed and recorded quite spontaneously and intuitively. The album appears both as a resurfacing of atavistic elements as well as a purge of stagnant emotions.

Psilocybe Necrophila (2009) was conceived and constructed using Niko Skorpio’s old cassette tape collection from the 1980′s. Tapes were cut, mangled, eaten and torn apart by malfunctioning cassette players, and the captured sounds of dying tapes further processed by digital until a new form began to take shape.

Also a new project emerged. Metaorganism, an artificial audio meta-life-form based on a matrix of diverse devices, software and hardware, affecting each other to create continuous, ever mutating soundscapes. The first audio document, I:Baphomet was recorded during 2007. Further documents on the evolution of Metaorganism are being prepared for release.

In 2010, Niko Skorpio produced an exclusive audio piece Sentient Debris on commission for the Finnish Broadcast Company YLE, for the 20th anniversary of Avaruusromua (“Space Junk”), a radio show for electronic and experimental music.

Sound and visuals, as well as conceptual designs, are of equal importance in Niko Skorpio's work. Even his earliest band demo recordings were always presented with his artwork, designs, lyrics and themes. This practice has continued without exception throughout his music projects and releases, expanding to video and multimedia. Skorpio has also designed and illustrated dozens of album covers and related visuals for other bands and artists. He has also worked in new media, web design, animation, video etc. and had his paintings and installations on display in art galleries and happenings.

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