RAJKO MURŠIČ (Faculty of Arts, Ljubljana, Slovenia)

On relationship of Global and Local Music Production: Mario Marzidovšek and his independent label Marzidovshekminimalaboratorium

Mario Marzidovšek was a unique musician, artist, producer and organiser from the north-east Slovenia. In the eighties he was engaged in numerous alternative activities, including mail art and establishing of a first private - then illegal - and non-commercial label in the former Yugoslavia. From 1984 till 1988 he released more than 50 cassettes with various kinds of music, predominately electronic and alternative rock music. He established a mail network and communicated with numerous artists and producers from all around the world.

Although his work was partly influenced by the activities of the Neue Slowenische Kunst and other alternative groups and producers in Slovenia, his work was original and unique. His musical activities in producing electronic music were influenced by German Kraut Rock and various modern experimental composers. However, he supported activities of punk and hardcore groups in the region by his label and organised several important concerts in Maribor. In 1985, he released two compilation cassettes presenting alternative punk and hardcore groups from the region.

His electronic performances were noisy and radical. Although his cassettes were of bad reproductive quality, due to the poor technical possibilities, he was sending them to different addresses in the former Yugoslavia, Eastern and Western Europe, United States and elsewhere. He released many recordings of his music and collaborations with different musicians from Europe and the United States. He combined received tapes with his music or sent his tapes to his collaborates who released their home-made cassettes. One of his major successes was releasing of a cassette compilation entitled Third Generation Serious Music with compositions, collected by the concourse.

Living in a small town of Slovenska Bistrica was not a handicap for Mario Marzidovšek. On the contrary. His personal experience (he worked in a chemical factory) was the essential "input" of his creativeness and radicalism. His work was to prove that local and global productions nowadays may not be in contradiction. If anyone wants it, s/he can communicate without limits. The local productions are not necessarily derivations or echoes of the fashionable trends from the centres.