As an artist, keyboard player, producer and composer living in London, Ski Oakenfull works in a wide range of genres, from electronic and house to jazz, soul and ambient. He is also Head of Education and Curriculum at Point Blank Music School, where he develops courses up to degree level and makes tutorial videos covering music production and compositional techniques.
Ski Oakenfull
- London United Kingdom
After starting his career with the band The K-Creative, who were signed to Gilles Peterson's Talkin' Loud label in 1991, Ski Oakenfull went on to release three solo albums, Life Changes, Rising Son and Short Circuits; play keyboards with bands and artists like Galliano, Raw Stylus, Two Banks of Four and Kylie Minogue; remix countless tracks; and work at Xenomania. He currently releases music on his own label, Primaudial Records, writes and produces with artists such as Incognito, Dave Lee, Duke Dumont and Valerie Etienne, and has an ambient electronic project called Ayota.
Ski has been an enthusiastic Ableton Live user for over 16 years (since version 5) and uses Live and Push regularly in all writing, performing and teaching situations. Alongside his career as an artist, Ski works as an educator and course developer at Point Blank Music School in London, where he currently holds the position of Head of Education and Curriculum. Alongside writing popular online courses such as ‘Electronic Music Composition’, Ski has created over 100 tutorial videos for Point Blank’s YouTube channel, accumulating over eight million views, as well as traveling the world to deliver live presentations at festivals including Sonar in Barcelona, Loop in Berlin, IMS in Malta, ADE in Amsterdam and LMC in London and BMC in Brighton.
Ski developed his trademark ‘deconstruction’ method to teach concepts such as composition, music theory, production, sound design, arrangement and mixing, and continues to use this technique to inspire students and demystify the music-making process. The aim is to help students realize their ideas and finish off their tracks. Ski’s mission is for music-making to be accessible to anyone from any background, and he sees Ableton products as being the perfect facilitator.
Point Blank Music School offers a wide range of Ableton-focused courses in production, mixing and electronic music performance, as well as full degree-level programmes such as the BA (Hons) Music Production & Sound Engineering, which can be taken on campus or online via Zoom.
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