BIOGRAPHY

Etbin turned up towards the end of 1952 and it was in Ljubljana that he was heard singing for the first time. Later on he was taught to play violin until he was given his first guitar when he turned fourteen. It did not take him very long to find the instrument most useful for producing more than a single tone at a time. It enabled him to gain self-sufficiency in accompaniment to his voice, occasionally substituted with diatonic mouth harmonica.

He graduated from the Ljubljana School of Graphic Design in 1971 and went on to share a year of multilateral experiences as an exchange student in the USA. After his return to Ljubljana, he attended the Art Department of the Ljubljana Pedagogic Academy and he even spent a year as an art teacher. During his student years he became known by designing visual communication projects and as an art and technical director for numerous publications, for which he received quite a few awards. Etbin is a member of DOS (Designers’ Society of Slovenia).

‘Since inconstancy’, not just for the artist, ‘seems to be the only constant’, he went back to music school. He continued studying violin and decided to take up classical guitar, even though his guitar music, performed at recitals or concerts, had already attracted some attention a few years earlier. Etbin also formed or joined various acoustic groups whose music was attractive to a larger audience.

Before all this happened, way back in the late seventies, his sound research and music editorial work for Radio Student, one of the oldest student radios in Europe, established in 1969, can be regarded as a contribution to the widening of music and radio/audio perceptional horizons. Also during this time Etbin played the role of a piano player and could be heard on guitar in Karpo Godina’s movie ‘Rdeci boogie ali Kaj ti je deklica’ (Red Boogie, 1982).
In the following decade Etbin devoted his efforts to merge all of his skills in multimedia performances which were co-created by a variety of enthusiasts from all creative fields. Some of the ambient music tracks recorded in the Karst caves, together with studio produced sounds, were revealed on the audio cassette Cavis negra. Etbin played a significant part as a musician and designer in the multimedia formations Om produkcija, Most and Institut Egon March that toured throughout Europe and performed in numerous art galleries.

Since 1984 he has been a music workshop mentor and a teacher of guitar. As one of KUD’s (Cultural & Arts Center – a distinguished venue in Ljubljana) Exiles Project activists, Etbin formed a few orchestras. The players were the children of war refugees who performed at many international humanitarian events. One of the performances was for the campaign ‘All Different - All Equal’ in the European Parliament Hall in Strasbourg, 1995.

It was in this particular period, when in this part of the world our perfumed peace was overwhelmed by the spirit of war, that Etbin’s intensive music writing reflected his search for answers to the vexed questions of an individual’s existence in the space between two extremities, where the predomination of one over the other is only the matter of time. Although the fin de siecle’s spiral spin had been experienced many times before, this time the velocity reached such a level of intensity that it actually found itself in the stillness of a silent moment between the beauty of the obligatory stiffness of the partiture and the joyful impredictability of improvised freedom, between breath and breeze, finger and sound, between what we want and what we wish. Eternity consists of a series of timeless moments in constant search of balance – Equilibrium – and this is the title Etbin gave to his extensive opus.

Although primarily a composer of solo pieces, Etbin turned to an ensemble work for his latest score Modus vivendi written for classical guitar and chamber ensemble. Modus vivendi was premiered in Ljubljana in June 2005 when it was performed by the ensemble Ante portas.
The guitar, rather then in ensemble, appears solo or alongside oboe, violin, violonchello and French horn in various combinations: duets, trios and a single quartet.
The music was initially intended for children due to Etbin's belief that the inner child should never be abandoned. Yet during the creative process, the score became more appealing to 'bigger ears' and this is why it was subtitled The Musical Fairy-tale Voyage for Little Smaller and a Lot Bigger Children. While in the mean time the children haven't grown up entirely. So much the better.