Marko Ciciliani

Composer, audiovisual artist and researcher from Croatia (b. 1970), currently based in Austria. He founded the group Bakin Zub in 2005. Ciciliani's early works were mainly inspired by 'open form', but in early 2000s Marko switched to the 'no-input mixing board' realm of experimental music, creating his own, not so minimalistic blend of it. Later he gave up on this practice and gradually turned to audiovisual art, combining instruments and electronics with light and laser designs. Marko Ciciliani studied composition and music theory at Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg (1990s) and also took a year at Manhattan School of Music (1993-1994) with Nils Vigeland, a former collaborator of John Cage. For post-graduate studies Ciciliani went to the Royal Conservatory of The Hague (1996-1998). His PhD research on light design as part of musical composition was completed at Brunel University London (2007-2010). Since October 2014, Ciciliani is a full professor for computer music composition and sound design at the Institute for Electronic Music and Acoustics within the Kunstuniversität in Graz, Austria. Starting in 2000 and for almost a decade Marko was primarily performing on stage with no-input mixing board. He has built a reputation for allowing circuits' feedback to grow into complex and very textured patterns, unlike more lowercase, bearly audible output of most performers in the genre. Ciciliani played 'sans instruments' with Fred Frith, Gordon Mumma, Roberto Fabbriciani, Axel Dörner, Sachiko M and others. In 2008 his album 81 Matters In Elemental Order basically marked the end of "no input"-era – after this release Marko stopped using this artistic media. In 2011 he started working on a new solo program, consisting of a number of compositions for various electronics setups, projections, lighting and laser. In 2013 Marko Ciciliani toured with this program in the west of the USA. Ciciliani's music has been performed in more than 30 countries in Europe, Asia, Oceania, Americas and programmed by various festivals and concert series: Wien Modern, Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, Zagreb Biennale, Maerzmusik, Experimental Intermedia (NYC), Club Transmediale (Berlin), SuperDeluxe (Tokyo), the NOW now (Sydney). Marko also performed with many ensembles and orchestras, such as the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, SWR Orchestra, MusikFabrik, Asko Ensemble and others. He received numerous project-residencies at STEIM, ESS, ICST, ZKM, including prestigious 3-month Villa Aurora Stipend residency at Los Angeles in 2009.