Marcus Wrangö // Musician Biography
Marcus was born an raised in Stockholm, Sweden. He always had a great interest in music and listening. He is an educated computer and network technician, and has been working with computers for more than a decade.
He has a background in music styles as electronica and electronic dance music. The last years he's been focusing on electro acoustic music and contemporary music.
He is educated at EMS Studios in Stockholm and Gotlands School of Music Composition, and is now studying for a Masters Degree in Electro Acoustic Music at The Royal College of Music in Stockholm.
He started out playing electric bass guitar, but shifted to electronics in his late teenage years. As he got into working with computers and software it was natural to put the electric bass aside to concentrate in building up his own electronic production studio. Marcus was part of the underground techno scene in Stockholm, both attending and playing at clubs, rave parties and festivals. He focused in building a live performance rig to play live techno for the dance floor. Using samplers, synthesizers, drum machines, and so generated a wide palette of tools for playing dance music live.
To acquire tools for producing and playing non dance music electronic music Marcus started to develop his own software specialized for different styles of electronica. He also started to use the laptop as an musical instrument.
When Marcus started to study electro acoustic music he continued to develop software to be used in the live electronic setup. And facing performance problems with laptop performances - due to the often boring performances with a guy at stage behind a laptop - Marcus started to use and develop musical expression interfaces to make the live performances more interesting and musical. He used musical expression systems based on regular Midi-controllers, Gamepads, Nintendo Wii Remotes and the Arduino platform. He often remodel existing systems to be used as a specific musical instrument.
During his years of composition studies he often used traditional instruments, and playing free improvised music, both with traditional and electronic instruments. Example of acoustic instruments used in performances: Tenor and soprano trombone, Bb and Contrabass Clarinet, Electric bass guitar, Stone and ordinary percussion, toys, nose flute, and more.
Marcus uses also his vital component in both composition and performance. He composed text sound pieces, both for performance and in tape music form, using his voice.
Since 2006 he is playing in the Royal Laptop Quartet, with Anna Einarsson, Mattias Sköld and Sebastian Lakatos. The quartet is using there laptops as instruments, and using game controllers, keyboards and joysticks. They build there own musical software using Max/MSP, and the laptops communicate using wireless networking. The music style goes from live electro acoustics to microsound to noise.
Notable performances and collaborations:
* Playing laptop with Royal Laptop Quartet at Nordic Music Days in september 2007.
* Playing noseflute, party trumpet and bells, together with Stockholms Saxophone Quartet in a piece by Ida Lundén, at her diploma concert, in Nybrokajen 11, Stockholm, in 2006.
* Playing live electronics in a piece by himself, together with percussionists Daniel Saur and Martin Orraryd, inbetween a piece by Sven-David Sandström (played by GotlandsMusiken), in Hide Kulturbrott, Gotland, in 2005.
* Playing stone percussion in his own piece for a dance performance at Gotlands Länsmuseum, at a banquette with the Princess of Sweden and Eurodisco Prince E-Type in the audience, in 2005.
* Playing his piece for trombone and live electronics PRTR-03, at Siren Festival, Gothenburg, playing both trombone and live electronics, in 2005.
He has also worked with electro acoustic composition, chamber and orchestral music compostion, sound installations, photography, video art and graphical design.
Marcus motto is: ..limit your tools, not your mind.
Discography
* 9-1 Nordic Objects, Juggling DVD, 2006.
* glaptop, Blocc Records, CD Album, 2003.
* Sand Waves Sector One, Electronic Desert Recordings, CD Compilation, 2003.
* iDEAL Electronics, iDEAL Recordings, CD Compilation, 2003.
* Collectanea First Course, Escapi / Swedish Electronica, DVD Compilation, 2003.