OCTEX (Slo)

Jernej Marusic aka Octex is a pioneer of Slovenian dub-techno, pushing the definition of this genre to its furthest limits and beyond, creating unique rhythmical atmospheres that lie somewhere in between club and avant-garde music.

Already, after the first release, on compilation Elektrotehnika Slavenika (NSK/Wire,2000), his music got noticed by the late, great John Peel, that also supported his debut album Idei Lahesna (Tehnka, 2002) which is regarded by many as one of the best dub-techno albums of all time. It also won him the Slovenian Bumerang award for up comer of 2003, and two years in a row placed him amongst 10 finalists of Radio France International Electronic Music Award. Self-made video for the track Emergon got airplay on MTV, VIVA, Onyx TV… With the release of his second album Variations (rx-tx, 2005), he showed his desire to get away from established musical trends and push the sound further, deeper, and more experimental. He continued in that direction on Every Sound Tells a Story (rx-tx, 2009). In 2012 french label Entropy Records released Dead Centre of Nowhere, an ambient sequel to Idei Lahesna, recorded some 10 years ago, but till then never released. Besides that, he has released music on numerous labels (Mute, EFA, STHLM, Public Records…) and remixed artists such as Laibach, Marko Furstenberg, Gabriel Le Mar, Ultra Red…

After the release of the debut Streeteepy of his side-project Pavemental in 2015, which focuses on his unique take on urban hip hop beats, he retreated into musical self-isolation, only resurfacing for selected live performances to test out new music. This year he is resurfacing in full force with his record label Polynya music, which starts with the new album Mindrifft and accompanying new AV performance. His live AV performances are ever-changing and evolving analog/digital hybrids in

which fragments of prerecorded studio material get intertwined with on-the-spot modular improvisation. All this is visualized by a custom system that follows the music, extrapolating audio parameters, synaesthetically applying them to video. Enabling AV performance, without sacrificing any improvisation and flexibility, and not taking performers’ mind off the music, remains the focal point. He has performed at festivals and clubs all around Europe, such as ARS Electronica (Linz), CTM (Berlin), ISEA (Helsinki), Dis-patch (Belgrade) Exit (Novi Sad) White Night (Riga), Flussi (Avellino) …

Octex – Mindrifft On Mindrifft Octex explores the phenomena that occur when we listen to repetitive music, which makes us hear tonal and rhythmical shifts that are not there. He discovered that introducing this kind of shifts into the music creates a feedback loop between the music and the listener’s brain, blurring the boundaries between what is real and what is imagined, causing a special hypnotical effect. The music was created using vintage analog synthesizers controlled, processed, and augmented by a modern modular system, spiced up by hands-on mixing desk manipulation, and rounded off with some clever digital processing. The album will be released in 6 parts as a series of releases in the span of 6 months on Octexe’s newly started label Polynya music, with the first release scheduled for 11th of October. It was premiered in its entirety on 29th of September at the Sonica festival in Ljubljana in the form of a live AV performance, with accompanying hypnotic visuals. Mindrifft marks the return of Jernej Marusic aka Octex, a pioneer of Slovenian dubtechno, pushing the definition of this genre to its furthest limits and beyond, creating unique rhythmical atmospheres that lay somewhere in between club and avantgarde electronic music. After 2015 he has retreated into musical self-isolation only resurfacing for a couple of live performances to test out new music, but this year he is resurfacing in full force. 

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Sajeta 2022