Mario Marzidovšek
From Unearthing The Music
Mario Marzidovšek (b. Poljčane, 21.10.1961 – d. Poljčane, 20.9.2011) was one of the pioneers of the Yugoslavian/Slovenian industrial/noise scene.
He began releasing tapes in 1984 (although he had already recorded some music a bit earlier), having previously been a productive member of the mail art network, involved in xerox art, collages, concrete poetry, etc.
In the international casette network of the late 1980s he was a relatively familiar name, having contributed to around 120 international cassette compilations (by his own account). Among his best known works were two solo cassettes published for two Dutch experimental music labels – a studio recording titled "Suicide In America & Bavarian Aquarels" (Staalplaat-Amsterdam, 1987) and a rare live show titled "Live on the air" (Art & Noise Editions-Nijmegen, 1987) – as well as several appearances on various cassette compilations like Thee Book (Graf Haufen Tapes-Berlin, 1984) or Insane Music for Insane People vol. 23 (Insane Music-Trazegnies, 1988).
As an artist, as well as a musician, he was strongly influenced by a variety of contemporary ideas, especially conceptualism. He perfected many techniques for extracting sounds with non-musical objects that he used in his performances.
From 1984 to 1988, Mario Marzidovšek ran his legendary Marzidovshekminimallaboratorium (or MML) label which was responsible for more than 80 tapes in total. Mario Marzidovšek’s MML proved to be crucial in connecting and solidifying diverse scenes within former Yugoslavia – from punk and hometaping communities to people engaged in mail art and sound poetry, as well as serving as the only link of Yugoslavian hometapers to the worldwide network of hometapers and vice versa. He was also the author of the fanzine Štajerski poročevalec, in which he published his essays on music and art.
Around 1988/1989 he ceased all his activities and moved to the Netherlands and later Germany, where he even performed a couple of times, finally returning in 1991 to Slovenska Bistrica, where he remained silent.
References
- https://ahogonsindustrialguide.blogspot.com/2007/11/mario-marzidovsek-tapes.html
- https://www.discogs.com/artist/76959-Mario-Marzidovsek