Invada Records releases new Mario Batkovic album
Accordionist Mario Batkovic’s self-titled new solo album is released on 17 March by the Bristol-based Invada Records, the label run by Portishead’s Geoff Barrow. After having his music introduced to Barrow, Batkovic was invited to support Barrow’s post-rock outfit Beak on their 2015 UK tour. On the strength of these performances, Barrow then signed Batkovic to his record label and subsequently co-wrote several tracks for the “Mario Batkovic” album.
For many decades, the accordion, though one of the most popular instruments in Switzerland, was condemned to a bit of a Cinderella existence. Despite its omnipresence on radio and television, it was widely regarded as an inflexible and old-fashioned instrument useful only within a folklore environment. It was in the 1980s that the accordion’s fate began to change when punks, on one hand, and contemporary composers, on the other, started to place the instruments in a new context.
With a foot in both these camps, punk and new music, Mario Batkovic has developed a completely new style of accordion playing, miles away from the polkas and waltzes we were once used to. Integrating clicks, drones and breaths and other noises into his style, he refuses to acknowledge musical boxes, saying: “I chose the path of greatest resistance for my music voluntarily.”
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