Margaret Unknown on the Power of Music
[USE YOUR MICROPHONES TO GET BLASTED!]
Margaret Unknown is the stage name of Vienna-based musician and performance artist Max Bogner. I've known Max since 2011 - I joined the organizational team of an artist-run space in Vienna ("mo.ë"), to which he was the second-in-charge.
It was an amazing project, and they let me help them set up the studio infrastructure (we had 5-8 artists working there), an international artist-in-residence program, get governmental and municipal funding, and also establish a part-time employment for the curatorial director.
During all of this, Max was the one making sure that the project's focus on improvisational music expanded ever wider and stronger - he booked international projects, enabling him to get an ever-stronger reputation himself: both as booker and musician.
We both left the project at around the same time in 2015 - he went to Berlin, I took care of a local startup gallery.
Now in 2017, I reached out to him about getting interviewed for this project - he was one of the first to agree. I was excited! We met at an underground studio and talked for over an hour - about his improvisational lifestyle, which far exceeds the improvisational music he did.
For this clip, I wanted to offer you both Margaret's words/mind/movement of thoughts, as well as specific works of his. It's an edit that wants to be listened to with your headphones, demanding your full attention - showing the tiniest view into his extensive collaborations over the years.
Back when we saw each other on a daily basis, Max had up to three gigs a week - so to show him in three collaborative settings is kind of a joke. Nevertheless, that's what's happening in this clip - showing him with amazing musicians that you might not have heard of: Linda Sharrock, Mario Rechtern, Didi Kern (listen to this video!!), Theresa Eipeldauer, Luka Bosse etc.
(In) The Abyssity of the Grounds
For several years, Margaret has been a quintessential part of Linda Sharrock's project, (In) The Abyssity Of The Grounds. It's an insane project, with extreme aural results - which is why I added a little bit into the clip - I wanted for the viewers to experience some of the improvisational rawness that Margaret is working on.
Here's the label's description for this specific work:
First major release of brand new material arguably since her work with Wolfgang Puschnig in the late ’80s by one of free jazz’s most important icons whose transition via a debilitating stroke into deep, guttural wordlessness has seen her enter a new realm of primal vocal raging. This is Linda Sharrock, best known for her show-stealin’ voice work on ex-husband Sonny’s two albums "Black Woman" and "Monkey-Pockie Boo", at her wailing, heart-stopping best, flanked by a stellar group of Theresa Eipeldauer (voice), Mario Rechtern (soprano, alto, baritone, saxoline and voice), Margaret Unknown (guitar, electronics and voice) and Didi Kern (drums), recorded in 2014 for over TWO HOURS presented here across THREE heavyweight vinyl LPs. A truly stunning, demented and absolutely essential bombardment of relentless energy by one of the giants of avant-garde music.
Anyway - I hope you enjoy the clip as much as I did when editing =)