MIRCO MAGNANI
Mirco Magnani is an Italian composer, author, producer, and video artist, co-founder of several bands during the 1980s and 1990s, including Minox, Technophonic Chamber Orchestra, and 4D Killer. Since 1984, he has produced music and multimedia events with the 1980s new wave band Minox and has been associated with the independent record label Industrie Discografiche Lacerba since 1986.
In 1996, he co-founded the independent record label Suite Inc., managing it until 2006. Mirco worked on releases for his label, also performing on stage with Steven Brown (producer of Minox’s 1986 album Lazare), Blaine L. Reininger, Luc Van Lieshout of Tuxedomoon, Lydia Lunch, Krisma, and Mad Professor. His work has been remixed by artists such as Murcof, Nobukazu Takemura, The Gentle People, Daedelus, and Ken Karter.
He produced releases for several bands under his label, including a single, an EP, and the debut album of Dubital, the first album of MissQLee (featuring photographer Jacopo Benassi), and the debut album of Enfantronique, which also involved the cult Italian band Krisma.
In 1998, Mirco co-founded two parallel projects, the band Technophonic Chamber Orchestra and 4D Killer, releasing several albums and performing live shows until 2010. Starting in 2003, he began creating audiovisuals for live performances for his projects and other Italian artists, later expanding into video art and music videos.
In 2006, Mirco launched his solo moniker T.C.O., producing Decompositio Sonata, an audiovisual project reinterpreting 20th-century classical composers. In 2009, he moved to Berlin, and from 2010 onward, he expanded his horizons to include event organization, live performances, and DJ sets at various Berlin parties and festivals. In 2012, he initiated a new collaboration called Undogmatisch with painter Valentina Bardazzi, who created the label’s artwork. The Undogmatisch project began as an art event featuring an exhibition space, AV live shows, and DJs, later evolving into an independent record label in 2016.
Another collaboration followed for Mirco Magnani’s concept album with actor/opera singer Ernesto Tomasini, titled Madame E., released in 2017. This album is a free reinterpretation of Georges Bataille’s novella Madame Edwarda. In 2018, he produced another concept album, Cronovisione Italiana by Carlo Domenico Valyum. Mirco served as director and curator of this project, which involved sonic and video reworkings of cult Italian television broadcasts from the 1960s to the 1980s.
Recent notable releases include collaborative improvisation sessions with his Berlin-based Polish friend Lukasz Trzcinski: two releases titled Lumiraum and Lumiraum Appendix, and an album with former Technophonic Chamber Orchestra collaborator Andrea De Witt, titled Toretam Tor. He also contributed collaborative tracks to three compilations he curated, titled Magnum Opus Collectio Series: NIGREDO, ALBEDO, and RUBEDO, featuring Andrea De Witt, Luc Van Lieshout, Andreas Yakovlev, Stamatis Dounis, and as a member of Orquestrina Utu.
In 2024, he released a new album, Zarathustra – Der Große Mittag, a project initiated four years earlier with the aim of rediscovering the messages behind Friedrich Nietzsche’s Also Sprach Zarathustra, a book that seems to have never been fully understood. The album features four different languages to provide a multicultural perspective on Nietzsche’s text, representing four significant old and new cultures connected to the book: German, English, Iranian, and Russian. The album includes contributions from Steven Brown (Tuxedomoon), Sainkho Namtchylak, Nikolas Klau, and Paganland.
