Mario Marzidovšek is one of
the key figures of the Yugoslav 1980s underground: an old-school industrial
musician, cassette culture pioneer, versatile artist, scene organizer and a
unique personality from Slovenska Bistrica (SR Slovenia). Even though he had
been engaged with audio experimentation since the beginning of the 1980s, Mario
Marzidovšek started releasing tapes only in early 1984. 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 exploits were two solo cassettes published for two Dutch
experimental music titans – a studio recording titled Suicide In America & Bavarian Aquarels (Staalplaat-Amsterdam, 1987)
and a rare live show titled the other Live
on the air (Art & Noise Editions-Nijmegen, 1987) – as well as several
appearances on various nowadays-legendary cassette compilations like Thee Book (Graf Haufen Tapes-Berlin,
1984) or Insane Music for Insane People vol.
23 (Insane Music-Trazegnies, 1988).
As was often the case with
1980s hometapers, Mario Marzidovšek started out as a member of the mail-art
network involved in xerox art, collages, concrete poetry, etc. As an artist, as
well as a musician, he was strongly influenced by a variety of contemporary
ideas, especially conceptualism. In that sense, Mario Marzidovšek perfected a
whole array of Cagean stunts for extracting sounds with non-musical objects
that he used in his performances. He even used to ‘make sounds’ in Laibach
shows for a period of time. 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.
In 1988 or 1989, Mario
Marzidovšek aborted all his artistic activities, quit his day job as a
technician in the chemical plant in Rače (SR Slovenia) and moved to Netherlands and later Germany. Not much known about his
whereabouts in Western Europe, apart from the
fact that he rarely performed there. Eventually, in 1990 or 1991, Mario
Marzidovšek returned to his native Poljčane, a hamlet near Slovenska Bistrica,
where he removed himself from public life.
___________
Rajko Muršič’s excellent 1996 essay On the relationship of Global and Local Music Production: Mario
Marzidovšek and his Independent Label Marzidovshekminimalaboratorium presented here is without question the single-most important resource on Mario Marzidovšek available to researchers. Hope I'll soon have some of his publications that I could share. Meanwhile, I'll post some of his tapes.
Table of contents:
IV – Impact of the MML, "the first private independent label/production company" in the former Yugoslavia
Sedanji čas vnaša šizofreničen nemir v naše napumpane
duše.
/Present time is bringing schizophrenic unrest in our
pumped souls./
Mario Marzidovšek
(From a fanzine with a
cassette Steyer comp.)
In the times when the world
record industry is concentrated in 5 or 6 major multinational companies[1][2], when "growing
internationalisation of the sound"[3]
is evident, reminding on a short period of existence of a small,
"local" part of the world independent cassette scene in the 1980's
may seem peculiar. But it shouldn't be, because small, independent and local
productions are of enormous importance in establishing of the "local"
scenes and their unique ways of appropriation and adaptation to the
"global" challenges. Local productions reflect very close and direct
interference between producers and consumers. They are mostly obscured by
amounts of global, national and regional music sales and, moreover, they are
almost never incorporated in statistic data. Who cares about 10 or 50
cassettes, sent by mail directly from the producer (tax free, of course) to
consumer on whatever address?
After the introduction of
the cassettes in the late 1960s, the third major recording revolution started[4]. The production of the CD's and LP's is
still technologically too expensive and too sophisticated to produce and
distribute them in small numbers of copies, while the cassettes may be released
(or taped at home), as necessary, in a few copies or in enormous number of
copies. It makes no essential difference. Cassettes are cheaper than any other
sound carrier, therefore the cassette production is still the most democratic
way of music distribution[note 1].
Cassette production is the
most important part of local and regional music productions. In Africa, Asia, Indonesia and other parts of the so called Third World, cassette recordings predominates[5] and the ways of music distribution are
pretty different from those in West countries[6].
Therefore, there exist many independent local and regional productions of a
large scale. Cassette production itself is in fact only exceptionally of small
scale and non-commercial. In non-Western countries, there are large local and
regional cassette markets (beside illegal tape recordings of the western
popular music). At the local and regional levels the sale of local and regional
music may compete the sales of the major international pop stars, because local
and regional popular music is nowadays, as a rule, the most important part of
the use of music in everyday life. From the aspect of the use of music it is
essential in what degree the music is "employed in human action"[7]. Cassette recordings are the most usable
way of spreading and everyday use of different kinds of ethno pop, because the
cassettes may be listen to in virtually any occasion. For listening to LP and
CD records one have to buy the more expensive and massive equipment that is
usually placed in the living rooms, while the cheapest cassette recorders are
essentially mobile and may be used practically in any occasion, including the working
place.
Wide spread myth is that
consumption of music is one way process, lead by production of the major
multinational record companies. The consumption may, in the case of local or
underground markets, take on opposition, liberation signifiers (as in the case
of black music as noticed by Paul Gilroy)[8][9].
Local music production reflects "a range of social, economic, and
political factors peculiar to the city"[10],
town or an area or any other "localised" place (in opposition to the
"non-place", characterised by mass media, people's mobility and the
flows of the "supermodernity"[11]).
Only heterogeneous music production may satisfy all the basic people's musical
needs. It seems unlikely that music would ever evolve towards one and only
global "pattern". In the era of technical reproduction of the work of
art[12], the "tension between
cultural homogenization and cultural heterogenization"[13] became "accompanied by a
localisation of cultural identity and claims to authenticity"[14]. Empirical studies at local levels, for
example ethnographic researches in Liverpool or in rural Slovenia, indicate "various
ways in which people create an image or sense of place in the production and
consumption of music"[15][16].
Marzidovshekminimalaboratorium
(MML) may be seen as a case of entering the local scene into international,
and, vice versa, reflecting of the independent international scene within the
local context. The most important is that autonomous local productions, tied to
global trends, whether "underground" or "dominant",
provides the frames of constantly creating and recreating identities of
participants, both producers and consumers by negotiating their place in the
contemporary "mediascapes" and "ideoscapes"[17].
Although the first jazz band
in Slovenia appeared in Ljubljana in 1922
(Original Jazz Nagode)[18] and the
first rock bands appeared in the first part of the 1960s[19], the punk "movement" developed
the first authentic domestic rock scene[20][21].
In the early eighties, the first wave of Slovene punk came to the end. At the
time, the initiative impulses have been successfully spreading from Ljubljana to other
Slovenian towns and villages. The result was a peculiar situation at the
beginning of the eighties, when more alternative and punk bands were active
outside of Ljubljana.
Several very interesting and successful groups appeared in Trbovlje (Laibach),
Metlika (Indust bag), Idrija (S.O.R., Kuzle), Žalec and Celje (Lokalna
televizija, Strelnikoff), Maribor
(Masaker), and the villages of Trate (CZD) and Cerklje (Demolition Group).
In the period between 1984
and 1988 Mario Marzidovšek and his label MML became a kind of a catalyst of the
local or regional scene in the northeast region of Slovenia[note 2]. I will try to define its position
and its impact within micro-local, local, regional, national and (even)
international underground music production, distribution and consumption. My
starting claim is that the most important and apparent impact may be noticed in
micro-local and local contexts, less so in regional and national contexts, and
merely conditionally noticeable at the global or international (underground)
context, although the cassettes were distributed all around the world.
The northeast Slovenian
alternative scene may be considered as a local scene with particular
characteristics. It was autonomous, concerning individual differences, and open
towards new, unorthodox and interesting musical ideas. Undoubtedly, recording
and reproduction quality of MML recordings significantly
contributed to a unique
sound of that scene. Although there may be put several objections to
superficially used definitions of regional or local sounds, as for example
Detroit, San Francisco, Seattle, Liverpool or Manchester sound within some
dominant streams of rock production[22][23][24][25],
there is no doubt that particular production have their own characteristics
concerning production, sound, style and locality.
A very important compilation
cassette was released in 1985 with two punk bands (Masaker, CZD) and a hardcore
band (P.U.J.S.) from Maribor,
plus Mario Marzidovšek himself. It determined (and documented) the local
alternative scene and gave it a strong impulse[note 3]. Although some of the
bands have soon disappeared, the influence of the initiative alternative scene
in Maribor remained resulting in establishing of a student radio station MARŠ
in 1990, a rock club MKC in 1988 and occupation of an empty barracks in Maribor
in 1994.
The bands, especially from
the northeast Slovenia,
weren't active for a long time. With the exception of the Center za
dehumanizacijo (CZD) none of them is active anymore. Mario Marzidovšek was
concern that all the bands will disappear and his label would have no meaning
if there will be no bands to produce. He once said that only himself personally
would survive, not his label.
The records industry is,
after all, the constant hegemonising factor in popular music, especially if we
consider that five or six major labels nowadays control more than 80 % of
recordings' production in the world. However, there is important output of
independent, small and non profit labels, and home-made productions of cheap
cassettes, distributed in special private canals by mail. Protest singer and
improviser Eugene Chadbourne, for example, used to record and copy many
cassettes and personally distribute them all around the world. That kind of
activities may be treated as home-made music and we may find many similarities
between certain aspects of production, reproduction and use of popular music and
certain aspects of functioning of traditional music[26]. Not only that the opposition between the
"global" and the "local" becomes relativised because of
home productions, the very central issue of the impact of particular product
may be seen as the questioning of the "universal" effects of the
particular popular music hits. It is difficult to put "global" and
"dominant" music production as exclusively or crucially relevant for
local music productions. It may be the opposite: is not every music in fact
"local"?
In his mail catalogues Mario
Marzidovšek wrote:
“MARZIDOVSHEKMINIMALABORATORIUM
was registered abroad as the first private non-profit label for cassette
production in Yugoslavia
with extended activities in different areas of the youth subculture in
Štajerska (Slovenian for “Slovene Styria”)” (facsimile in Štajerski poročevalec, p.2).
Marzidovshekminimalaboratorium[note 4] was started in 1984 when Mario
Marzidovšek released first 6 cassettes of his music. A year later he began to
produce compilation cassettes with the groups from northeast Slovenia and, simultaneously, release the
compilations and collaborations with experimental musicians from the former Yugoslavia and from all around the world,
predominately from Europe and America.
He managed to release at least ten compilation cassettes with new music.
Marzidovšek's label MML was
a unique phenomenon from many aspects. In the former Yugoslavia, some sectors of economy
were following market rules long before the fall of socialism. Record industry
was one of them. There were 7 major government-founded (in fact public or,
literally, "social") labels, PGP RTV Ljubljana and Helidon in Slovenia, Jugoton and Suzy in Croatia, PGP RTB and Diskos in Serbia and Diskoton in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Their
interests were strictly market oriented, their policy was profitable and only
small percentages of releases were non-commercial[27].
That means that there were only a few jazz, avant-garde and non-commercial rock
music releases.
The first independent label
in the former Yugoslavia was
established in 1973 in Ljubljana
by the Student organisation governed label, ŠKUC (Student Cultural and Art
Centre). Unfortunately, during the 1970s, ŠKUC was in position to release only
very few records and cassettes. At the beginning of the 1980s, Galerija ŠKUC
izdaja (The Gallery of ŠKUC Edition) began to produce cassettes with live
recordings of punk and alternative bands that were performing in Ljubljana. At the
beginning of the eighties, two newly established labels released several jazz
and rock records: Dokumentarna from Ljubljana
and Slovenija from Koper. Both were established by associations of cultural
activists. The label Slovenija released several records with local groups and
some Italian bands. Later in the 1980s, some other independent labels appeared:
the most important are ŠKUC-R.O.P.O.T., the label FV, which has been derived
from the Galerija ŠKUC Izdaja, Front Rock and Druga godba. Except for the
latter, all of them have started to release LP records and, finally, in the
1990s, all of them started to release CD records.
At the beginning of the
eighties, the label Galerija ŠKUC Izdaja released 14 cassettes, the successive
label FV released several more cassettes, while in the period between 1984 and
1988 Mario Marzidovšek (MML) released more than 80 titles! Marzidovšek started
his label, distribution and studio Marzidovshekminimalaboratorium in 1984.
Although it is difficult to figure out the exact number of cassettes released
by MML, we may find more than 80 titles in his mail order catalogue from 1988. MML
production was not limited or oriented to Slovene area or to the area of the
former Yugoslavia.
The MML editions were distributed all around the world. Many of Marzidovšek's
releases were reviewed in international music magazines (Option Magazine, Sound Choice,
Maximum Rock 'n' Roll, NME, etc.) and were put in several
alternative mail distributions. Mario Marzidovšek wrote in a letter sent to the
author of the present paper in April 1988 that his label plus the label FV from
Ljubljana – of European orientation and quality –
and Slovenija from Koper were the three major independent labels at the time in
the former Yugoslavia.
In 1988 he divided his label
in two major parts, MML International,
and MML Yugoslavia (East Music Service).
MML International followed the
production policy of the MML from the very beginning, that means to prefer more
complex and experimental music, and releasing of more interesting groups and
international compilations, released on more quality CrO2 tapes. Within the
heterogeneous territory of Yugoslavia he was searching for new and experimental
groups outside Slovenia
(e.g., Grešnici, Hermitage, Larynx from Požarevac,
Serbia, Autopsia from Serbia, Fast Deadboy and Karcinom desne dojke
from Zagreb, Croatia,
Diskretni šarm buržoazije from Croatia,
etc.) and distributed releases of the Yugoslav punk music[hogon’s note 1].
He never started to produce
LP records, not only because of much higher costs, but because it was much more
difficult to manage distribution of vinyl releases. And, according to the starting
costs, it is much more risky to release a record of the unknown bands. Cassette
production was then, and still is, the most democratic way of production and
distribution of non-commercial music.
One of his most important
projects was a cassette compilation Third
Generation New Music. In his promotion material, Marzidovšek announced a
concurs for the recent tapes. He has gotten much interesting material. Musical
experimenters from all around the world sent him their recordings. Naturally,
the position of MML was marginal in the sense of commercial effect, however,
MML was relatively important part of international underground production of
new music. Similar underground connections and networks are very difficult to
be noticed, although it is the sphere where the most interesting new things are
going on.
Mario Marzidovšek was born
in Celje in 1961, living in Poljčane, a very small town in the northeast Slovenia. In
the early eighties, he has married and moved to a nearby town of Slovenska Bistrica, where
he started with art activities and established the label MML. In 1988 (or 1989)
he left Slovenska Bistrica and went to the Netherlands
and Germany.
When he came back home in 1990/1991, he removed back to Poljčane, but since
that time he has disappeared from public life. As far as I know he isn't
involved in any kind of music and art activities anymore. It is difficult to
find out what is he doing now, because he doesn't have any contacts with his
former colleagues any more[note 5].
Mario Marzidovšek is indeed
a very peculiar person. He managed to be engaged in numerous activities and,
nevertheless, he always walked around with enormous surplus of energy. At least
for some time, he succeeded skillfully to control and canalise his extreme
personal and creative energy into sound and visual production. He is important
for the northeast alternative scene in Slovenia as an organiser and as a
producer. As far as organisation is concerned, only he was able to connect the
alternative musicians and artists from Maribor
and Celje regions. It happened in the year 1985.
He was a true volcano of
alternatives. While he was employed as a chemical technician in a chemical
factory in Rače, he was involved in numerous activities. At the first place, he
was working on minimal-industrial, electronic and experimental music. He wasn't
only recording his music, he frequently performed live. Furthermore, he was a
painter, although he didn't have any art education. His artistic development
was very specific and eruptive. As a non-professional painter, Mario
Marzidovšek became a member of the Society of Visual Arts in Slovenska
Bistrica. Anyone who knows how difficult is to become a member of the society,
if the candidate didn't finish art academy, would know that Marzidovšek's
membership was one of the exceptions.
As an artist, Mario Marzidovšek
was inspired – according to his claims – by (traditional) cubism, futurism,
dynamism, constructivism, expressionism, surrealism (Dalism), spontanism, experimental techniques, and new image (nova podoba). Basically, he was
fascinated by the conceptual art, dada and, especially, futurism from the
beginning of the century. He was also involved in other graphic activities:
making collages, photographs, visual and industrial design, posters and
emblems, working on xerox and minimal art (mail art, book art), collage,
photo-techniques, applicable arts. Some of his experiments were also connected
with kinetic art. He was also very productive in literature. He wrote visual,
concrete and dada poetry[note 6]. And, finally, he wrote several articles and
essays on music and avant-garde arts. Hardly to believe that he didn't have any
art training and almost no school training in the humanities! Without any
irony, we could take his work as a work of an industrial naive artist.
Beside all the mentioned
creative activities and successfully started non-profit cassette label, Mario
Marzidovšek decided to publish fanzines (Slovenski
poročevalec) and the anthologies of his poetry and essays in limited number
of copies, as he said, for internal use only (that means for his friends). And,
finally, he was enthusiastic performance artist, he was involved in numerous
(spontaneous) street happenings, ambients,
actions and interventions, as he called his often provocative activities. Let
me give you an example. When he got an idea to make a photograph from within a
police car, he simply organised spontaneous street performance in Ljubljana in 1981. He
lied down in the centre of the crossroads near the railway station and a
colleague of him took the photographs. When police came, both were put in the
police truck, so Mario was able to take some photos from within the police
truck – those photographs were one of the most important for his visual
material used in different contexts[note 7].
Mario Marzidovšek kept up a
very extensive correspondence. He wrote more than 600 letters a year to his
correspondents from all around the world. At the beginning, his correspondence
was predominately oriented in mail art activities. Later, a large part of his
correspondence was connected with his label. Besides, he maintained enormous
private correspondence[note 8].
He was famously open to the
world. His English language abilities were not perfect, but in spite of that he
answered virtually to anybody who wrote to him. The promotion material for the
label was made on xerox copies and was originally written on a type-machine.
His label was actually a home production with extremely low costs and equally
low benefits. Mario Marzidovšek had many contacts with similar labels and
individuals, interested in similar activities, who distributed his editions and
vice versa.
In his improvised studio,
Mario Marzidovšek succeed to prepare more than 35 recordings and sent them to
other labels. His music was supposedly included in many different home-made compilations
of experimental and electronic music from all around the world. Actually, as he
would claim, he appeared in more than 120 compilations throughout the world,
including several LP records.
He started with music
performances and recordings in 1984, although he began to play electronic music
some years before. When Marzidovšek appeared in public, one could have claimed
that he was influenced by Neue Slowenische Kunst and Laibach, but more likely
they all were influenced by the similar art and music starting points
(futurism, cubism and electronic music). Mario Marzidovšek had a marvellous
collection of new music (20th century classics), the so called German Kraut
Rock, electronic and minimal music. As far as I know he never went to any music
school. While experimenting he developed and learned several styles. In
personal contacts he was able to mention more than 30 styles he was supposed to
use[note 9]. In Marzidovšek's music, the process of
creating different "sounds" and "loops" by limited electronic
equipment has been very important, but more effective were rude anger and
energy in the heart of his brutal electronic music, very similar to punk or
hardcore. Although his live performances were pretty chaotic and noisy, he
actually never produced simple musical mess. Strengthen with his conceptual
artistic ideas, the clear compositional structure has always been the basis of
his "playing with sounds".
He began to explore
electronic music in the late 1970s, influenced with experimental approaches to electro-acoustic
avant-garde music by composers like Stockhausen and Schaefer. The new music of
the 20th century was the basic source of Mario Marzidovšek's inspiration:
Schönberg's dodecaphony and (later) serial school, Italian bruitism (Luigi
Rusolo) and machine music, punctual music, he was influenced by the aleatoric
procedures of John Cage and by works of the minimal composers like Steve Reich,
Terry Riley and Philip Glass. The new music combined with the influences of
Frank Zappa, German (Kraut) Rock and British and German pop/industry chaos
(Throbbing Gristle, Test Department, Einstürzende Neubauten) led Mario
Marzidovšek towards various ways of developing of his authorial music at the
beginning of the 1980s. He was also in touch with alternative (experimental,
punk and hardcore) scenes at different parts of the former Yugoslavia (Maribor,
Ljubljana, Zagreb,
Belgrade,
Požarevac). After all, significant aspects of provocation and more or less
apparent opposition stance may be detected in his music production.
Mario Marzidovšek
synthesised various musical and artistic influences, however, in the first
place, he was conceptually radical performer. He managed to combine conceptual
and composed framework with impulsive and primordial sound explorations at the
stage. On the minimal repetitions and noisy patterns, the sound melismatics
became the most important. He invented some terms concerning his music: geometrical sound, the so called third stream, etc. His programme
concerning sound (written in 1979) was: "Complete new music and trends
prom the past – New social and technical disguise – Too fast tempo of
discovering the unknown spheres in music – Uncompleted – Back to the
traditional sources of /electronic/ sound" (see Štajerski poročevalec).
Mario Marzidovšek has always
performed solo. He didn't have many concerts, especially not in Ljubljana. He performed
in small clubs and several artistic occasions (art exhibitions), and,
predominately, with punk and hardcore bands at mini-festivals. At the beginning
he performed only in Slovenia.
It is difficult to find out how many times he performed in the other parts of
the former Yugoslavia.
In 1987 he went on a tour in Belgium
and Holland and, later, in 1988-90, stayed in
the Netherlands and Germany for a
longer period of time. He actually, as he told us, didn't perform much there.
Naturally, the Marzidovšek's
music didn't find many enthusiasts at home. Punks and other alternatives went
to his concerts but they wouldn't very enthusiastically accept his experimental
music. Improvised home-studio became the essential part of his music
creativity. From the very beginning he started to record his music and send the
tapes on different addresses of well known as well as independent newspapers
and to various mail distributions, labels and to musicians who were engaged in
similar music activities. In the times of growing post punk and developing of
European techno scene, his explorations were not so far away from the actual
industrial trends, especially when, in 1987 and 1988, he started to use more
electronic rhythms. As he wrote in his letter in 1988, he succeeded to
"materialise" his music, to give it "bullocks". His
concerts and releases in compilations (FV, Staal Plaat, V 2 Org.) in 1987/88
confirmed his position of eclectic mixing of contemporary styles. He wrote:
"Under the influences of industrial music, my music transformed in more
calmed phreny, difficult to describe otherwise than 'post-industrial phreny of
collective angsts before the nearby warfare ages'" (from the letter to the
author in April 1988). He knew!
Using of the term industrial
was derived from personal experience. When he started to explore art and music,
Mario Marzidovšek was employed in a chemical factory. He was also fascinated
with industry in the town of Maribor, one of the
major industrial towns in the former Yugoslavia. In the late phase of
his work, his music became much closer to other European post-industrial works
with apparent dance connotations "high technology on one hand and
alter-dance on the other"[28].
Mario Marzidovšek has named that phase as "more melted industrial sampling
tech".
It is not a coincidence that
the most mature work of Mario Marzidovšek was a cassette entitled Marburg (a
German name for Maribor).
On that tape he successfully combined industrial electronic music with
occasional techno or electro funk (dancy) elements. Scott Lewis wrote about
that tape in Option (August 1987) as follows: "Retained industrial
electronics with simple rhythms in the center. It's pretty good. I must admit
that I would presumably be enthusiastic about it if it would be released some
seven years ago. Some things are too similar to others, released in last years
(though, supposedly, in Yugoslavia
they didn't hear them). Some tunes, especially on the side B, have something
rather original. Something industrial is within, occasionally, they are nice
and joyful – almost as an industrial polka! I couldn't say I've heard anything
similar to that music so far." (Facsimile in Štajerski poročevalec).
Mario Marzidovšek's work was
minimal in two senses. It was inspired by American minimal music and the
principle of repetition. More obvious, his music was minimal according to
technology used for its production. Minimalism is suitable for dilettantes, but
Marzidovšek was all but a dilettante. The work of Mario Marzidovšek was,
essentially, achieving of the important artistic effects by using of the
minimal technical means. His work may be characterised as a work with minimally
developed structures and traits and maximal sound effects.
He was extremely sensitive
and was able to detect social disturbances long before any other. He was very
well aware of the power of music and its dangerous elements. He used music as a
form of exploring and, simultaneously, provocation. His experiments with sound,
grounded on very limited material possibilities, were unique. He used old
Farfisa organ, and several home-made electronic devices or devices taken from
improvised electronic laboratory. His sound explorations were extremely
personal. He was quite aware of his music messages. Many times he said (in
personal conversations) that he would explode if he wouldn't work as an artist.
His energy was indeed extraordinary.
IV – Impact
of the MML, "the first private independent label/production company" in the former Yugoslavia
Mario Marzidovšek worked
alone – not only musically, he was an extreme individualist – but that doesn't
mean that as a producer and leader of a label he had an ambition to become a
kind of tutor, censor or selector. His credo was to produce anything worth to
produce within alternative scene. Creative idea was favoured, not technical
equipment and skill. In fact he was extremely tolerant and was able to
establish connections between very different persons. It was the only way to
drive forwards very different music activities in northeast Slovenia in
1985 and 1986. Music was as diverse as punk, hardcore, industrial rock,
improvised music, electronic music, acoustic and art music.
He never earned much money
with his label. If he did, he used it for his further production plans. Several
times he was prepared to pay costs of recordings in studio for bands. The
production of MML was both a small scale production of a kind of home
recordings, sold to fans and given to friends[29],
and alternative regional, national and international network distribution. His
"laboratory", Minimal Laboratorium, was in fact an improvised studio
with home made devices and some old instruments and very old tape recorders. He
had home made 4 channel mixing console and very cheap microphones, some of them
of Russian origin. The effective combination for noise!
MML was a non-commercial
underground label and it also became an important local distribution centre for
experimental and alternative music. Marzidovšek was involved in an extremely
wide spread mail distribution network with one of its centres at the Post
Office Box in Slovenska Bistrica. He received many records and cassettes in
exchange for his products, so he was selling them by mail throughout the former
Yugoslavia.
Among them, he also distributed some illegal cassette (live) recordings of
various new wave, punk and experimental groups, altogether approximately 50
titles. However it was not a one-way exchange. Marzidovšek's cassettes appeared
in several other similar alternative distributions and catalogues in Western
Europe and in the United States (for example: Graf Haufen/Mutant Music
Distribution, X-Kurzhen, Gog-Art/Afflict Records, BBI Records and Tapes,
Bloedvlag/Nihilistic Records, De Koude Oorlog, Global Music Distribution, Dark
Star Tapes, Used Records Mail Order, etc.). Furthermore, he distributed
independent cassettes and records from the whole territory of the former Yugoslavia
throughout the world.
He started his distribution
in Slovenia, but
simultaneously made contacts with other regions of the former Yugoslavia and abroad. During the
first two years information about MML releases were published in the most
important Slovenian weekly of the time, Mladina,
but after 1987, when Mladina ceased
to write about new and alternative music, he oriented towards other regions of
the former Yugoslavia (so, the reviews of his cassettes were published in Student, Rock magazine, etc.).
Despite published
information about his label, Mario Marzidovšek was convinced that personal
communication, whether oral or by mail, is the most effective.
Marzidovšek's Minimal
Laboratorium was not important only because it was an efficient channel for
releasing and distribution of alternative music from northeast Slovenia
alternative scene. It was important because its position was both local and
global. Mail connections with similar alternative productions throughout the
world were essential for internationalisation of the local scene(s) and for
"localisation" of the "global" alternatives. Every process
of autochthonisation (or indigenisation, if I may use Appadurai's term) is in
fact the process of mediation between the adaptation strategies of individuals
(and small groups) within the changing context of everyday life in the
particular localities (and regions) and the challenges of the global trends.
In the contrary to major
regional commercial record labels in the former Yugoslavia, MML was not limited on
internal market. It was not limited in the range of any market at all. If the
local music production may well serve the needs of the majority of local
population (and their inherited musical taste), then some creative parts of
local scenes may be well interacting within the global network.
Local scenes may be
ephemeral or unimportant in the global exchange of products and ideas. However,
creating of the autonomous sphere of production and creating of the autonomous
network of communications does have effects. They are, mostly, limited on the
local contexts. Nevertheless, the very life is a matter of locality, so any
production is necessary local in its origins. The relationship between cultural
imperialism and its local appropriation is far from being simple, there is a
complex "tension between progress and restoration; between the eclectic,
syncretic forms of acculturated expression brought about by the meeting of
various musical techniques, technologies and traditions"[30].
"Local practices and
musical idiosyncrasies" are nowadays increasingly important, not just in
terms of providing expression for "often problematic notions of national
musical identity," but as agents of what Appudarai has called
'repatriation of difference'[31].
Although John Street concludes that "there is no clear or direct link
between music and locality, except as a rather nebulous indicator of identity
and difference"[32], it is
worth to check out the locality of the MML production according to the criteria
of the proposed six main indicators of (local) musical identity: industrial
base, social experience, aesthetic perspective, political experience, community
and scene[33]. In Marzidovšek's
work and his label MML there were significant traits or reflections of
industrial base (concerning both real industries in the area and local/regional
music industry) and the MML itself (cassette production, recordings,
distribution) was a kind of industrial base for Marzidovšek's music. By the
assistance in organising of the concerts and festivals in the area, Mario
Marzidovšek has actively participated in providing of the common social
experience for participant musicians and audience(s). In spite of diverse
aesthetic perspectives of the bands and musicians appearing on the label MML
and on the concerts, organised by Marzidovšek and other "activists"
in the northeast Slovenia,
the alternative attitude has been their common denominator. And, finally,
definable self- regarding scene has appeared (its expression was before
mentioned Incriminal Collective), in
opposition to the political reality of the time.
Let me, at the end, assess
the impact of the MML. On micro-local level it definitely had the most
important impact. At the time of continuous active working of the label,
several micro-local scenes developed and identified its existence with both
live concerts and recordings. We may define different micro-local scenes with
very various musical styles. In Žalec and Celje there were mostly by Laibach
and Rock in Opposition inspired bands (Sfinkter, Local Television and White
Noise), plus some interesting post-punk bands (for example Yoohoohoo Uncle
Vinko and Co. and Strelnikoff). In Maribor
and surrounding villages several hardcore, punk and experimental bands appeared
(Masaker, CZD, P.U.J.S., Soft and Simple, Avantkurent, Margine). In Slovenska
Bistrica, only Mario Marzidovšek himself has created literally one-man scene.
On a local level, northeast
bands and individuals cooperated, appeared at the same concerts, etc.,
although, mostly, they didn't have common projects and they didn't meet
otherwise than in concerts. As far as regional scene is concerned, that means Slovenia, because Slovenia was not independent at the
time (although its cultural production functioned, predominately, as national),
the impact was not expressed so much. The scene in northeastern Slovenia was a part of very dynamic alternative
production of the time and was never really recognised as equally important as
the scene in the centre, Ljubljana.
Marzidovšek's production did have some impact on the national level, within the
former Yugoslavia,
but mostly with cassette releases and distribution of that releases, not with
organised concerts. Finally, on the international alternative scene, the most
important was the very appearance of the MML in alternative music press, but it
actually didn't have much impact, except for his appearance on some
compilations and his distant collaborations (by mail) with several American and
other musicians[note 10]. There were, it must be stressed, several
circles or ranges of its impact. MML had important impact in Italy, particularly in Trieste
with release of a cassette with Italian bands, mostly from Trieste, and organising of several events,
connected with anti-psychiatry movement. As mentioned before, the second range
was touching Germany, and
finally, USA.
The most important is that
those contacts enable Mario Marzidovšek to give information back. MML was
principally established as the underground two-ways traffic. No matter how
ephemeral it was, it was extremely important because it provided some non-local
basis of self-confidence to the authors and performers from the northeast Slovenia.
And it was a very efficient means of linking (or even integrating) the Slovene
production to the international context. The major national labels in the
former Yugoslavia
were not able to do that.
One of my friends in Maribor remembers that
Mario Marzidovšek took his work very seriously and was aware of danger he was
faced with. Mario made a remark that it is extremely difficult to hold all
parts together. He felt his activities as a kind of synthesis, mixing. In an interview
(made by Jože Kos for the weekly Mladina
in 1986) Mario Marzidovšek explained: "In fact, I experience it as pretty
dangerous, almost paranoid: sound is picture and vice versa". He would
also say that his music was so dangerous, that it could easily take his mind
away...
The author would like to
thank to Jože Kos and Milko Poštrak for material (personal letters, cassettes)
and suggestions, used in the article.
[note 1] - ^ I will ignore the important question of
copyright, because the subject of my interest in the present paper is the
cassette production and distribution by the author himself (or with authors'
informal permission).
[note 2] - ^ The similar "catalysis" process has
happened again almost the decade later, when, at the beginning of the 1990's,
an independent label Front Rock from Maribor successfully joined the forces of
the northeast Slovenian alternative scene in struggle for the rock clubs and
places for alternative cultural institutions in the emptied barracks in the
towns of Maribor and Ptuj[34].
[note 3] - ^ In 1984 the informal alternative association was
established in Maribor,
called The Incriminal Collective.
Musicians, writers, painters and other active underground people worked on a
programme put forward by Jože Kos. The main goals of the Collective were
solving of the problems with meeting place, club and the place for rehearsals,
the establishment and normal functioning of alternative press institutions (Kmečke & rockodelske novice, Katedra) and the constitution of an
independent youth radio (see: Inkriminalni
produkt; Brum inkriminalnih živcev;
Agonija Gustava).
[note 4] - ^ The essential programme goals of the MML were
(1) the cassette production of Marzidovšek's own music (MML Production), (2)
releasing of the cassettes and cooperating with groups and individuals, (3)
making contacts and mediating between independent productions from all around
the world and cooperating in the various music and art projects, (4)
distribution of the Yugoslav progressive music in Yugoslavia and abroad and (5)
exchange of ideas and opinions from all the areas of art.
[note 5] - ^ Some of his former acquaintances even claim that
he lives in London.
[note 6] - ^ In his mail catalogue from 1986 it was possible
to find the following "books" (they were in fact fanzine-style
photocopies): "Book", Conceptual and Art Projects: Marzidovšek
& Skrbinek + Mail-Book Art; Concrete
& Visual Poetry: Marzidovšek 1982-1985; Minimal Art: Marzidovšek 1982-1985; "Different Principle" 1: Atonal Xerox Art – Marzidovšek
1982-1985; Dada Poetry – Marzidovšek:
"Poems for Children From Tins".
[note 7] - ^ That was Marzidovšek's interpretation of the
event. His colleague who was with him at that occasion has told us another
story. They went to Ljubljana
by train to visit a concert of Siouxsie and The Banshees and were pretty drunk
when they arrived. The "happening" happened at the first crossroad
near the railway station and was more or less unintended, improvised and
chaotic.
[note 8] - ^ He numbered his letters. The number of the
invitation for a founding meeting of the informal association of the
"alternative activists" from Maribor
(Štajerska scena – Styria scene), sent to me in 1985, was
762/1985. The number of the last letter Marzidovšek has sent to me in 1988 was
4185/88!
[note 9] - ^ Megalomania was his trade mark. Concerning
musical styles, he was supposedly dealing with the long list as follows: musique concrete, serial / punctual music, /a/tonal
systems, dodekaphony in electronic
sound, electronic expressionism, minimalism, collage music, Dadaism, aleatoric procedures, improvisation/experimental sound, geometrical / abstract sound, futurism / bruitism, primitive sound, synthetical orchestrated music, synthetical
organs, synthetic vocal / chorus
music, prepared sound of traditional
acoustic means, electronic treatment
of vocal, third stream music, improvised and experimental jazz, minimalism within jazz, synthetic jazz, xiloton music, electronically
and mechanically prepared piano /alter-minimal/, synthetical half-industrial sound, new- sound-painting, reincarnation
of the German sound in the 1970s, new
psychedelic, combinational music
forms (see Štajerski poročevalec).
[note 10] - ^ Mario Marzidovšek once participated on the
"mail" concert in San
Antonio, Texas.
Supposedly, Elliott Sharp was also engaged in the same concert.
[hogon’s note 1] - ^ Grešnici are not an experimental music group,
but a trad rock / punk band, while Fast Deadboy is from Kragujevac (SR Serbia),
not Zagreb.
[1] - ^ Identity, Place and the “Liverpool Sound”,
Sara Cohen essay in Ethnicity, Identity
and Music: The Musical Construction of Place edited by Martin Stokes, page
130 (Berg-Oxford, 1994).
[2] - ^ Popular Music and Society by Brian
Longhurst, pages 29-54 (Polity Press- Cambridge, 1995).
[3] - ^ Lokale
Musik und der internationale Marktplatz (in German), Paul Rutten essay
in PopScriptum 2 - Musikindustrie,
page 31 (Forschungszentrum Populäre Musik der Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin-Berlin,
1994).
[4] - ^ Recording Technology, the Record Industry,
and Ethnomusicological Scholarship,
Kay Kaufman Shelemay essay in Comparative
Musicology and Anthropology of Music: Essays on the History of Ethnomusicology
edited by Bruno Nettl and Philip V. Bohlman, page 278 and 285 (The University
of Chicago Press-Chicago, 1991).
[5] - ^ Big Sounds From Small Peoples: The Music
Industry in Small Countries by Roger Wallis and Malm Kirster, pages 5-7, 77
and 270 (Constable-London, 1984).
[6] - ^ Lokale
Musik und der internationale Marktplatz (in German), Paul Rutten essay
in PopScriptum 2 - Musikindustrie,
page 38 (Forschungszentrum Populäre Musik der Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin-Berlin,
1994).
[7] - ^ The
Anthropology of Music by Alan
P. Merriam, pages 210 and 209-227 (Northwestern University Press-Evanston,
1964).
[8] - ^ Popular Music and Local Identity: Rock, Pop
and Rap in Europe and Oceania by Tony
Mitchell, page 85 (Leicester University Press-London, 1996).
[9] - ^ From Grocery Shopping to Political Economy,
Daniel Miller essay in MESS -
Mediterranean Ethnological Summer School edited by Zmago Šmitek and Borut
Brumen, pages 123-130 (Slovene Ethnological Society-Ljubljana, 1995).
[10] - ^ Identity, Place and the “Liverpool Sound”,
Sara Cohen essay in Ethnicity, Identity
and Music: The Musical Construction of Place edited by Martin Stokes, page
117 (Berg-Oxford, 1994).
[11] - ^ Non-Places:
Introduction to an Anthropology of Supermodernity (1992) by Marc Augé (Verso Books-London, New
York, 1995).
[12] - ^ Umjetničko djelo u
razdoblju tehničke reprodukcije (1936) (in Serbo-Croatian), Walter
Benjamin essay in Estetički ogledi
edited by Viktor Žmegač, pages 125-151 (Školska knjiga-Zagreb, 1986).
[13] - ^ Disjuncture
and Difference in the Global Cultural Economy, essay by Arjun Appadurai in Public Culture 2, page 5 (Duke
University Press-Durham, 1990).
[14] - ^ Identity, Place and the “Liverpool Sound”,
Sara Cohen essay in Ethnicity, Identity
and Music: The Musical Construction of Place edited by Martin Stokes, page
133 (Berg-Oxford, 1994).
[15] - ^ Identity, Place and the “Liverpool Sound”,
Sara Cohen essay in Ethnicity, Identity
and Music: The Musical Construction of Place edited by Martin Stokes, page
129 (Berg-Oxford, 1994).
[16] - ^ Center za dehumanizacijo: Etnološki oris
rock skupine (in Slovenian) by Rajko Muršič (ZKO Pesnica-Pesnica, 1995).
[17] - ^ Disjuncture
and Difference in the Global Cultural Economy, essay by Arjun Appadurai in Public Culture 2, page 5 (Duke
University Press-Durham, 1990).
[18] - ^ Zgodbe o jazzu: Razvoj afroameriške glasbe
med leti 1619-1964 (in Slovenian) by Peter Amalietti, page 6 (Državna
založba Slovenije-Ljubljana, 1986).
[19] - ^ Kameleoni 1965-1995 (in Slovenian) by
Franko Hmeljak (Capris-društvo za oživljanje starega Kopra-Kopar, 1995).
[20] - ^ The Politics of Punk, Gregor Tomc essay in Independent Slovenia: Origins, Movements,
Prospects edited by Jill Benderly and Evan Kraft, pages 113-134 (Macmillan
Press-London, 1994).
[21] - ^ Punk pod Slovenci (1984) (in Slovenian)
edited by Nela Malečkar and Tomaž Mastnak (Knjižnica revolucionarne teorije-Univerzitetna
konferenca ZSMS-Ljubljana, 1985).
[22] - ^ Fast Food, Stock Cars & Rock 'n' Roll:
Place and Space in American Pop Culture edited by George O. Carney (Rowman & Littlefield Publishers-Lanham,
1995).
[23] - ^ Identity, Place and the “Liverpool Sound”,
Sara Cohen essay in Ethnicity, Identity
and Music: The Musical Construction of Place edited by Martin Stokes
(Berg-Oxford, 1994).
[24] - ^ In Garageland: Rock, Youth and Modernity
by Johan Fornäs, Ulf Lindberg
and Ove Sernhede (Routledge-London, 1995).
[25] - ^ Popular Music and Local Identity: Rock, Pop
and Rap in Europe and Oceania by Tony
Mitchell (Leicester University Press-London, 1996).
[26] - ^ Center za dehumanizacijo: Etnološki oris
rock skupine (in Slovenian) by Rajko Muršič (ZKO Pesnica-Pesnica, 1995).
[27] - ^ Subcultural Sounds: Micromusics of the West
by Mark Slobin, page 34 (Wesleyan University Press-Hanover (NH), 1993).
[28] - ^ Nemška scena in simfo rock (in
Slovenian), Bojan Tomažič
article in Večer, 26.03.1988.
[29] - ^ The Hidden Musicians: Music-Making in an
English Town by Ruth Finnegan, page 156 (Cambridge University Press-Cambridge,
1989).
[30] - ^ Keith Negus
as cited in Popular Music and
Local Identity: Rock, Pop and Rap in Europe and Oceania
by Tony Mitchell, page 264 (Leicester University Press-London, 1996).
[31] - ^ Popular Music and Local Identity: Rock, Pop
and Rap in Europe and Oceania by Tony
Mitchell, page 264 (Leicester University Press-London, 1996).[32] -
^ Popular Music and Local Identity: Rock, Pop and Rap in Europe and Oceania by Tony Mitchell, page 89 (Leicester
University Press-London, 1996).
[33] - ^ Popular Music and Local Identity: Rock, Pop
and Rap in Europe and Oceania by Tony
Mitchell, page 89 (Leicester University Press-London, 1996).
[34] - ^ Bili ste zraven: Zbornik o rock kulturi v severovzhodni
Sloveniji (in Slovenian) edited by
Gorazd Beranič, Dušan Hedl and Vili Muzek (ZKO Pesnica-Pesnica and
KID-Ptuj, 1994).
A “Black Box" of Music Use: On Folk
and Popular Music, Rajko
Muršič essay in Narodna umjetnost 33/1, pages 59-74 (Institut za etnologiju i
folkloristiku Zagreb, 1996).
Agonija Gustava (in Slovenian), fanzine edited by Dušan
Hedl (MKC Maribor-Maribor, October 1988).
Big Sounds From Small Peoples: The Music Industry in
Small Countries by Roger Wallis and Malm
Kirster (Constable-London, 1984).
Bili ste zraven: Zbornik o rock kulturi v
severovzhodni Sloveniji (in
Slovenian) edited by Gorazd Beranič,
Dušan Hedl and Vili Muzek (ZKO Pesnica-Pesnica and KID-Ptuj, 1994).
Brum inkriminalnih živcev (in Slovenian), fanzine edited by Jože
Kos Grabar, May 1987.
Center za dehumanizacijo: Etnološki oris rock skupine (in Slovenian) by Rajko Muršič (ZKO Pesnica-Pesnica,
1995).
Disjuncture and Difference in the Global Cultural
Economy, essay by Arjun Appadurai in Public Culture 2, pages 1-24 (Duke
University Press-Durham, 1990).
Drugačna izhodišča k razumevanju
situacije mladinske kulture pri nas (in Slovenian), Mario Marzidovšek article in Mladina nr. 31. 03.10.1986.
Fast Food, Stock Cars & Rock 'n' Roll: Place and
Space in American Pop Culture edited by George O. Carney (Rowman
& Littlefield Publishers-Lanham, 1995).
From Grocery Shopping to Political Economy, Daniel Miller essay in MESS - Mediterranean Ethnological Summer School edited by Zmago
Šmitek and Borut Brumen (Slovene Ethnological Society-Ljubljana, 1995).
Identity, Place and the “Liverpool Sound”, Sara Cohen essay in Ethnicity, Identity and Music: The Musical Construction of Place
edited by Martin Stokes, pages 117-134 (Berg-Oxford, 1994).
In Garageland: Rock, Youth and Modernity by Johan Fornäs,
Ulf Lindberg and Ove Sernhede (Routledge-London, 1995).
Inkriminalni produkt (in
Slovenian), fanzine, 08.02.1984.
Kameleoni 1965-1995 (in Slovenian) by
Franko Hmeljak (Capris-društvo za oživljanje starega Kopra-Kopar, 1995).
Kaos, hrup in red (in Slovenian), facsimile of the article
by Peter Barbarič in MML catalogue, 1985.
Lokale Musik und der
internationale Marktplatz (in German), Paul Rutten essay in PopScriptum 2 - Musikindustrie, pages 31-45 (Forschungszentrum
Populäre Musik der Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin-Berlin, 1994).
MML na poti k Hajnrihu (in Slovenian), Jože Kos Grabar article
in Mladina nr. 38, 21.11.1986.
MML jezdi k svetlobni hitrosti (in Slovenian), article in Kmečke &
rockodelske novice fanzine nr. 22. 1987.
Nemška scena in simfo rock (in Slovenian), Bojan Tomažič article in
Večer, 26.03.1988.
Non-Places: Introduction to an Anthropology of
Supermodernity (1992) by Marc Augé (Verso Books-London, New
York, 1995).
O novejši glasbi (1984) (in Slovenian), Mario Marzidovšek
article in Štajerski poročevalec
fanzine 1985.
Popular Music and Local Identity: Rock, Pop and Rap
in Europe and Oceania by Tony Mitchell (Leicester University Press-London,
1996).
Popular Music and Society by Brian Longhurst (Polity Press- Cambridge, 1995).
Punk pod Slovenci (1984) (in Slovenian) edited by Nela Malečkar and Tomaž Mastnak (Knjižnica
revolucionarne teorije-Univerzitetna konferenca ZSMS-Ljubljana, 1985).
Recording Technology, the Record Industry, and
Ethnomusicological Scholarship, Kay Kaufman Shelemay essay in Comparative Musicology and Anthropology of
Music: Essays on the History of Ethnomusicology edited by Bruno Nettl and
Philip V. Bohlman, pages 277-292 (The
University of Chicago Press-Chicago, 1991).
Štajerski poročevalec (in Slovenian), fanzine by Mario
Marzidovšek, 1985.
Subcultural Sounds: Micromusics of the West by Mark Slobin (Wesleyan University Press-Hanover
(NH), 1993).
The Anthropology of Music by Alan P. Merriam,
(Northwestern University Press-Evanston, 1964).
The Hidden Musicians: Music-Making in an English Town by Ruth Finnegan (Cambridge University Press-Cambridge, 1989).
The Politics of Punk, Gregor Tomc
essay in Independent Slovenia: Origins, Movements,
Prospects edited by Jill Benderly and Evan Kraft, pages 113-134 (Macmillan
Press-London, 1994).
Third Generation Serious (New) Music:
Kasete MML 23 in MML 24
(in Slovenian), Milko Poštrak article in Mladina
nr. 38, 21.11.1986.
Umjetničko djelo u razdoblju tehničke reprodukcije (1936) (in Serbo-Croatian), Walter Benjamin essay in
Estetički ogledi edited by Viktor
Žmegač, pages 125-151 (Školska knjiga-Zagreb, 1986).
Zgodbe o jazzu: Razvoj afroameriške glasbe med leti
1619-1964 (in Slovenian) by Peter
Amalietti (Državna založba Slovenije-Ljubljana, 1986).
Znajdi se, kakor znaš in veš (in Slovenian), facsimile of the Marjan
Ogrinc article in MML Catalogue, 1985.
