Marko

(2008)

Marko Tarvonen

Also known as Baron Tarwonen, he was born on March 21st 1978, what makes him the oldest Moonsorrow member, and since he was very young he had an increasing interest towards music, which led him to start playing drums being 7 years old. That same year, 1985, he entered the Pop & Jazz Conservatory in Helsinki. He took lessons there for just over ten years, un til he decided to start creating his own music. In the beginning of the 90s he started to play guitar as well, and he still does some acoustic guitar parts in Moonsorrow. He also likes singing, and does choirs everytime he can. But his thing is undoubtedly percussion, and that’s what he plays in all the bands and projects he participates in. His main influence is 70s progressive rock, which he declares himself a great fan: King Crimson, Genesis, Jethro Tull… he even participated for several years in a Pink Floyd tribute band. These influences are evident in the songs written by him, generally representing the more calm and progressive side of Moonsorrow. As told in the biography, Henri participated in the composition of every single song, but in some of them, Marko’s contribution is predominant. The complete list of tracks written partially by him is:

Sankaritarina;
Hiidenpelto;
Raunioilla;
Jumalten kaupunki;
Kivenkantaja (one riff);
Haaska;
Kaiku;
Tuleen ajettu maa;
Tulimyrsky;
Kuolleiden maa.

Marko is possibly the Moonsorrow member with the highest number of active parallel bands. Currently he’s an official member of at least Arthemesia, October Falls and Barren Earth, and some years ago he made an album with an old-school death metal project called Chaosbreed (here he played guitar, while drums were done by Nalle Österman), which is dead nowadays. Before Moonsorrow, he and Markus had a black metal band called Gorewinter; in fact, they met the cousins when Meat Hook Productions signed them. Marko was a member of both bands for a while but, after three demos, Gorewinter came to a state of inactivity until its complete abandonment, in the year 2000 or 2001.

Gorewinter (ca. 1999)

Kivenkantaja
sessions
(2002)

Moscow 20·VIII·2005

Barren Earth - Our twilight (album version)
(music and lyrics by Marko)