Maurizio Bianchi (born 4 December 1955 in Pomponesco[1] in the Province of Mantua) is an Italian pioneer of industrial music, originating from Milan.

Biography

1979–1983

Bianchi was inspired by the music of Tangerine Dream, Conrad Schnitzler and Throbbing Gristle. He wrote about music for Italian magazines[2] before beginning to release his own cassettes under the name of Sacher-Pelz in August 1979.[3] He released four cassettes as Sacher-Pelz before switching to his own name or simply "MB" in 1980.[4]

Bianchi corresponded with many of the key players in the industrial music and noise music scenes including Merzbow,[5] GX Jupitter-Larsen,[6] SPK, Nigel Ayers of Nocturnal Emissions and William Bennett of Whitehouse.[7] After this exchange of letters and music, his first LPs were released in 1981.

Symphony For A Genocide was released on Nigel Ayers' Sterile Records label after Bianchi had sent Ayers the money to press it. Each track on the LP was named after a Nazi extermination camp. The cover featured photographs of the Auschwitz Orchestra, a group of concentration camp prisoners who were forced to play classical music as people were herded into the gas chambers. The back cover included the text "The moral of this work: the past punishment is the inevitable blindness of the present".[8]

Also in 1981, William Bennett, head of the band Whitehouse and the British Come Org. label, offered Bianchi a record contract, which Bianchi signed unchecked. The contract assumed all rights to Bianchi's work. After delivery of the tapes Bennett edited-in speeches by Nazi leaders, and instead of the relatively unsensational name MB, it was published under the alias Leibstandarte SS MB, named after the SS unit that worked as bodyguards to Adolf Hitler.[7]

By 1983 and the release of the Plain Truth LP on U.K. power electronics label Broken Flag, Bianchi had become a Jehovah's Witness.[9] At the end of 1983 Bianchi announced his withdrawal from music, stating "The end is very near, and we have a very short time to recognise our mistakes and to redeem ourselves... I stopped doing music, and now my life is going towards its full awareness".[10]

1998–2009

In 1998, encouraged by Alga Marghen label head Emanuele Carcano, who offered him a label of his own, Maurizio Bianchi resumed making music. The label was EEs'T Records, through which he released new editions of old MB albums and many new recordings.[11]

Bianchi then proceeded to work on over a hundred new projects both solo or in collaboration with other Italian and international artists[12] including Atrax Morgue, Aube, Francisco López, Mauthausen Orchestra, Merzbow, Ryan Martin and Philip Julian/Cheapmachines.

Bianchi has worked with record labels including Dais Records, the Carrboro, North Carolina based Hot Releases and the Italian Menstrual Recordings to re-release some of his out-of-print material.

On August 19, 2009, for unspecified personal reasons, Maurizio Bianchi decided again to completely stop making music.[13] This decision was soon after reversed; Maurizio Bianchi continued to release new music.[14]

Sample

In 2005, a 2-CD-Set named Blut und Nebel was released, consisting of a remix of his first ten LPs. Bianchi submitted the set's first CD, remixing the first 5 LPs from 1981 and 1982, to Wikipedia. The track, over 45 minutes long, is split into three .ogg files:

Discography

Sacher-Pelz

MB / Maurizio Bianchi first phase

Cassettes

Vinyl albums

Leibstandarte SS MB

As his releases on Come Org have been massively manipulated, Maurizio Bianchi does not count these records as part of his discography. However, in 2013 Triumph of the Will and Weltanschauung were re-issued with bonus tracks as separate CDs and as part of the Teban Slide Art box set, which also contained the unofficial release Lebensraum, all under the name "M.B."[15]

MB / Maurizio Bianchi second phase

Collaborations

Books

References

  1. ^ "Maurizio Bianchi's 1983 LP The Plain Truth on vinyl – FACT Magazine: Music News, New Music". Factmag.com. 2010-05-18. Retrieved 2014-08-05.
  2. ^ Interview in Flowmotion issue 4, October 1982
  3. ^ Kraus, Stephan. Maurizio Bianchi: A neurotronic ABYSS OF SOUND within meningitic twilights. Axis Archives, 1999.
  4. ^ "Sacher-Pelz Discography at Discogs". Discogs.com. Retrieved 2014-08-05.
  5. ^ "Razor Blades In The Dark: An Interview With Merzbow". thequietus.com. Retrieved 2014-10-10.
  6. ^ "The Living Archive of Underground Music: G.X. Jupitter-Larsen ( The Haters)". Livingarchive.doncampau.com. Retrieved 2014-08-05.
  7. ^ a b "Nocturnal Emissions Archive". Earthlydelights.co.uk. Retrieved 2014-08-05.
  8. ^ "Nocturnal Emissions Archive". Earthlydelights.co.uk. Retrieved 2014-08-05.
  9. ^ Underwood, Steve. The Broken Flag Story in As Loud As Possible issue 1, p90, 2010
  10. ^ from a letter to Subterranean Records (USA) quoted in Kraus, Stephan. Maurizio Bianchi: A neurotronic ABYSS OF SOUND within meningitic twilights. Axis Archives, 1999.
  11. ^ "EEs'T Records - CDs and Vinyl at Discogs". Discogs.com. Retrieved 2014-08-05.
  12. ^ "Maurizio Bianchi Discography at Discogs". Discogs.com. 1955-12-04. Retrieved 2014-08-05.
  13. ^ "another new objective | Short Interview with MB". Thenewobjective.tumblr.com. Retrieved 2014-08-05.
  14. ^ Baby, Dream. "Dais Records shifts focus from old Maurizio Bianchi to new Maurizio Bianchi".
  15. ^ "Discogs.com". Discogs.com. 9 February 2013. Retrieved 8 October 2013.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Maurizio Bianchi.

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