“The bird fights its way out of the egg. The egg is the world. Who would be born must first destroy a world."
Herman Hesse, Demian

The debut album of Mári Mákó, Oudemian, fuses introspective instrumental and vocal textures with live electronics. It is a sonic journey of finding inner strength through crisis, of overcoming existential angst and rebirth.

The title was invented as a combination of two-words: "Ouroboros" and "Demian." Ouroboros is an ancient symbol of a snake biting its own tail representing the circle of life, and Hesse's novel Demian depicts a young boy struggling to find his new self-knowledge and his place in an immoral world. As it happens, Oudemian also holds an actual meaning in ancient Greek: "none."

The meeting of these concepts drive the narrative and musical evolution of the album, which moves from a place of fragility and mystery and arriving at a place of reflection.

All in all

Homecoming

Oudemian

Shedding

Waves

Bell

A live performance with Rothko's painting was organised by Stedelijk Museum when the quarantine was announced in the Netherlands and it had to be cancelled. However it shouldn't stop creation and a music piece was composed but from a different concept. In solitude while composing I realised that piece should be about feeling longing, but not in a defeated way. More like feeling the pause and delay, what we
actually experience in our everyday life during the quarantine. Even though we are not sharing space with the art it still exists out there, and there is a hope to connect after all.
I still made use of the melody line, which I’d created during my time with the painting in the museum. Also there is another factor which was very important for this project; the legacy of Morton Feldman, the American composer who had already composed pieces for Rothko’s art and I refer to that whit a short segment in the final piece.

Rothko and me in the time of quarantine

Mári Mákó (HU) is a composer and sound artist based in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
In her solo practice she plays with live electronics, which she combines with acoustic sound sources: voice, amplified instruments and objects. In her performance she is looking for unconventional music practices to give space for her own compositional processes and she is aiming to challenge the ‘recital form’ of concerts.
Along with that she is designing her own performative tools with sensors and self-built oscillators.
With her inventive musical instruments, her music has been described as a mix of the roots of industrial music, experimental electronic and glitch music contrasted with drone textures.

As a composer Mári Mákó has worked together with ensembles such as: Maze Esenmble, But What About ensemble and Klang ensemble. In her pieces she seeks to explore the experience of musical flow between the muscians and composer. For that she is using her own compositional technique as conducting with graphic symbols.

She is actively performing in Europe with various projects and currently working on her debut album.

Mári Mákó

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