SIP - SoundLAB Interview Project

Albert, Marco

Marco Albert
Italy

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biography
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Interview: 10 questions

1. When did you start making music, what is/was your motivation to do it?

I started making music in my early teenage years and chose it as my favourite amongst human activities.

2. Tell me something about your living environment and the musical education.

I attended practical and theorical music lessons in the past but never took any kind of degree. A lot of what I know today is self-taught or acquired through exchange with peers. I first got acquainted with electronic music in the early ’90s, along with starting to mix with, and contribute to, an ‘underground’ and ‘experimental’ scene.
I have mostly lived in urban areas that have no doubt had an impact on the perception of my sonic surroundings and consequent making of sounds.

3. Is making music your profession? What is the context in which you practice music nowadays?

I collaborate with an audiovisual collective, I compose, produce and release my electronic/field-recording based tracks under the moniker of Maikko. I have founded an electroacoustic impro/rock trio and enjoy playing live gigs. Very little money has always come out of these activities. ‘Profession’ and ‘professional’ are terms that could be largely debated upon.

4. How do you compose or create music or sound? Have you certain principles, use certain styles etc?

I have always felt musical composition, or creation of sounds to depend very much upon external stimula. The situation, the environment, the presence/absence of a project, the people involved, and so on. One develops his own ways of attempting to harness the odds, but it has always been fertile to acknowledge them and to ‘let them be’.

5. Tell me something about the instruments, technical equipment or tools you use?

I use and mix several elements, among which: voice, pedal effects, field recordings, samples; and normally use commercial software to put everything together.

6. What are the chances of New Media for the music production in general and you personally?

New Media is an ambiguous definition. Even when referred to the latest technology to make music with (hardware, software, and so on), I still think these are ultimately tools. Therefore, much depends on the technical ability and on the meaningful purpose they are used for. In my opinion, the final outcome depends on how well a story is told.

7. How about producing and financing your musical productions?

A necessary step for me. I finance my work, co-produce my releases and shall keep on doing so until someone else steps in and volunteers to do it for me.

8. Do you work individually as a musician/soundartist or in a group or collaborative? If you have experience in both, what is the difference, what do you prefer?

I passed through both experiences. Each has its pros and cons.
Group/collaborative experiences are rewarding in terms of sharing a common path and contributing to results that are often greater than what they would have been, had one worked alone.
On the other hand, group dynamics often prevail, even in the ‘flattest’ or most rhyzomatic of situations, and inevitably interpersonal relationships become difficult to manage in the long run. For me, that is.

Individual experiences are, to my opinion, necessary stages to verify one’s own path.

9. Is there any group, composer, style or movement which has a lasting influence on making music?

Yes. All those that have been meaningful and/or groundbreaking, and have thus been a source of inspiration for their contemporaries and the ones that followed. The genres, authors and bands are too many to list.

10. What are your future plans or dreams as a soundartist or musician?

To be able, one day, to make a living out of it.

Links:
– Otolab: www.otolab.net
– Microsuoni: www.microsuoni.com/labels/otolab.html
– Stasisfield: www.stasisfield.com/releases/sf-3009.html
– Vidauxs: www.vidauxs.net
– Gruenrekorder: www.gruenrekorder.de/?page_id=226
– Maikko: www.maikko.net
– Newtone2060: www.myspace.com/newtone2060