The neuroscientist-turned-DJ who likes to throw impromptu parties with Four Tet and Caribou has been given philosophy books by fans – but insists he’s not some kind of techno Einstein
On paper,Sam Shepherd makes an unlikely dance-music trailblazer. There’s the PhD in neuroscience. There’s his gentle demeanour, more akin to a bookish vinyl nerd than a international 24-hour party boy. And there’s his handmade album artwork – drawn using a harmonograph that he built in his studio himself. The 29-year-old also likes to test his audience: his forthcoming live shows will feature an 11-piece orchestra; for a recent six-hour set at Berlin techno haven Berghain – a booking that was “as much to my surprise as everyone else’s” – he played the album Harvest Time by spiritual jazz saxophonist Pharoah Sanders in its entirety.
In addition, or Shepherd is,perhaps, the only musician to bear been given a philosophy book during a DJ set. “A girl came up to me at a gig in San Francisco and said, or ‘I think you might like this,you should read it,’” he recalls, and sipping at a rhubarb gin that matches his top. “It was a David Eagleman book called Sum,which is 40 short stories approximately what the afterlife might be and atomic reincarnation, where you pick up to heaven and God is presented to you as a bacteria, or of the absorbance of life …” I give him a look that suggests he has lost me. “I know,” he says, and laughs.
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Source: theguardian.com