The artist you know as MVRK is in a transitional state…
For the last 10 years he’s been lurking in the shadowy ranks of some exceptional, forward-thinking labels. Vision, NEU, Overview, Delta9, Studio and 4NCY are just some of the platforms where the young Hungarian producer has given space to gradually hone his brooding, tense sonic signature.
His sound has been a mainstay on both our own Freshest D&B playlist and the Vision Radio show I co-host (and consequently mis-pronounce his name) every week, especially recently as he’s just dropped his debut album – Liminal Spaces.
Two years in the making, Liminal Spaces is every bit the thoughtful and detailed body of work you might expect from him if you’ve been following his past work.
A probing journey through heavy feelings and open-armed tempos, the whole album is brought together with an alluring aesthetic and strong sense of narrative that sucks you right in and arrests all senses.
Featuring the likes of PAV4N and presented in very distinctive, stylised artwork that depicts a place of strong influence and inspiration for him, it’s a highly accomplished debut album that lives in its own universe. But make the most of it as he’s stepping away from releasing music for a while in order to focus on his career in medicine.
Don’t worry… More MVRK material will surface as and when he needs to express himself. But Liminal Spaces is most definitely a line in the sand as he moves into other areas of life. A statement, a document and a celebration of everything he’s learnt and accomplished as a producer so far, it’s a powerful release. We called him to find out more.
Hey Mark! How are you? And what would you be doing right now if you weren’t answering these questions?
I’m doing great, Dave! Thanks for your patience with this interview. Actually, it’s a sunny Sunday morning right now, so I can absolutely take the time for doing this!
Nice. How has your year been so far? The world is in a very tense and messed up place at the moment, are you able to find peace of mind and space to create right now?
It’s been great! I finished med school last year and started working in the field. It’s still a very new experience for me, but I love and enjoy it very much.
As far as creating goes, this year has been all about finishing my album. I did countless tests in different setups, then went back to tweak the projects, and then tested again. It’s not the most creative part, but trying to shape a lot of music into a cohesive whole is something I’ve never done before, and I’m very happy with how it turned out!
Ah yeah, working on that cohesive sound is one of the biggest challenges of an album, I believe. Before we get into more specifics about the album, I’d love to hear a bit more about your journey. Next year will mark 10 years since your earliest releases on labels such as Proximity and Vandal. Does it feel like that long?
Time flies! It’s not easy to recall 10 years altogether, but I’m pretty happy with how the journey turned out, and I don’t think I would change any major things if I had the chance.
Actually, during those years, I never had one fixed label releasing my music, and there’s also a funny coincidence: quite a few labels ceased to exist shortly after putting out my stuff. So I always tried to adapt, do what I felt like doing, and ten years passed in the blink of an eye.
Was there a clear moment when you felt like you’d ‘broken through’ so to speak? Or really levelled up significantly?
People started playing my music more around 2018, after I released the Dots EP on Hybris’s label Pseudoscience (shoutout Evan!). But I guess my MVRK project is still pretty underground – and that’s completely fine!
Amen!
I think commercial success is not a good barometer for art, especially these days when the music scene is extremely saturated and a lot of people are fighting for attention. I don’t really want to be a part of that. That being said, it always feels amazing when my music resonates with others.
Yeah fully agree! For me that breakthrough moment of yours was hearing you on Noisia radio back when I was a fan of the show and an avid listener. We played you on Vision Radio a lot over the years and I know you’ve had conversations with Nik so please take a moment to salute our mutual Dutch friends.
What can I even say… Inspirations come and go, but if I had to name one person whose music inspired me the most, it’s Nik. Thank you and the whole team for the constant support, I’m so grateful for that!
All thanks to them! Nik is the man! Now onto your album. Are you an album person anyway? Was this always on your agenda as an artist?
I absolutely am, big fan of the format. I believe that, in our age, releasing an album is kind of a rock’n’roll attitude: not caring about the marketing side of things, where every piece of music and release is so calculated to maximize sales, just doing what feels right.
Yes, I always wanted to release a bigger project like this, and now I felt the stars had aligned to do so.
Sick. When did you start to dig the foundations for this project?
I spent a year in China from autumn 2023 doing my final year of university, and I intended to use that time to work on a bigger project. Then around winter that year, I realized it could be an album.
Some of the tracks started as ideas 4-5 years ago. I left them unfinished because something didn’t click. When I was going through my old folders while thinking about the album, I had some “wow, that’s such a cool idea, why didn’t I finish this?” moments.
Maybe I didn’t have enough experience to see the bigger picture back then – or maybe the timing just wasn’t right. Sometimes it’s good to let ideas marinate.
They definitely do. But the timing has paid off as this all sounds so good. Even the intro hits hard. Who is Tine? They must be very important in your life to have a theme named after them!
Thank you! She’s singing the vocals in the intro (and in a few other tracks too), and she is indeed very important to me. Actually, I wrote another intro and an outro with variations of this theme, those didn’t make the final tracklist, but this one is very special to me.
Lush. A big draw of the album for me is the multi-genre aspect of it. This is the first time I’ve heard you really stretch your legs at slower tempos. How was that for you? And have these techno and breakbeat excursions inspired you to do more?
I’ve always done a bunch of different things – usually, labels prefer a more cohesive sound for an EP format. That’s also one reason why it feels good to self-release this album.
I decided to include only my own productions on this one, with no collaborations (aside from a vocal feature by PAV4N). It takes more work, but I’m in full control – with all the responsibility that comes with that.
There are also a lot of untypical arrangements, which I love. Especially tracks such as Electric Interval. How important is it for you to push different arrangements and subvert genre standards with your art?
Actually, it comes very naturally to me. I never sit down to produce thinking, “OK, now I will subvert genre standards!” I just like to keep an open mind while making music, let ideas flow, and question every decision I make.
As soon as you use a label to describe what you’re working on, there’s a temptation to conform to its rules. Also, in a digital environment, you can literally create anything – different time signatures, microtuning, whatever… Feel like writing a post-punk song? Or a jazz quartet piece in 7/8? Why not? For me, it’s pointless to write the same thing over and over again when there are so many possibilities. Hold every rule breakable!
Absolutely! You mentioned cohesiveness earlier and it’s something I wanted to ask you about. Like all the best albums there’s a great consistency, sound and mood that brings it all together. How hard it is to create that experience across a whole body of work and what did you have to do to achieve it?
I like listening to classic albums, both electronic and live music, and thinking about why they sound timeless. I believe there’s a certain quality in mixing and mastering that transcends time – music that’s pleasing and interesting to the human brain in terms of dynamics, timbre, and cohesion.
The best reference point for that beauty is nature. My goal was to make these tracks sound naturally pleasing, yet still relevant for today. Mixing trends come and go. For me, it made a lot of sense to approach the album’s sound from this perspective, and I can only hope it stands the test of time.
How do you feel about the album in general now it’s complete and in the hands of your peers, DJs and – as of this week – fans?
Not gonna lie, it feels a little scary. There’s a healthy amount of self-doubt too. But at the same time, it’s relieving, and I can’t wait for everyone to hear it. For a project to connect commercially, a lot of factors need to align, and most of them are outside our control: timing, the cultural mood, current events. The only things we can control are doing our best work, sharing it, and not looking back.
I always ask this question when interviewing about an album as artists tend to fall into one of two categories… Now the album is complete, are you super inspired and already back in the studio? Or are you taking a well deserved break from creating for a short while?
As I said earlier, after this release (and another collab single), I’ll be stepping back from releasing music and performing for a while. I want to shift my focus more toward medical work and research: there’s a lot to learn there too. I’ll never stop writing music, though. I just want to wait for some new impressions and influences.
We hope to hear more from you in the future, whenever you’re ready. What are you looking forward to most this summer beyond anything musical?
I’m really looking forward to spending some time in Japan and China this summer, and just enjoying the nice weather in general. That’s the best time of the year for me!
