Maldoror was formed from a mixture of boredom, circumstance and destiny. Mike Patton explains: "While in the middle of a particularly 'plush' Faith No More tour of Australia with a few days off on my own hands, I decided to do some improv shows to get my blood boiling. Merzbow records were boiling in my blood at the time, so I decided to call Masami Akita, the undisputed king of Japanese "noise" music. I'm glad I did. The shows we did together while in Australia and Japan were amazing and inspired me to finance a small recording in Tokyo in 1997.
"The recording was entirely improvised. I took it home and began working with these raw materials in my basement studio. My object was to organize and harness this chaotic noise into a coherent and musical structure. My aim was to make "songs" out of giant blocks of improvised sound. With the use of samples, found sounds, cartoon music and other odds and ends, I think it works.
"The name 'Maldoror' comes from a nineteenth century novel of the same name, written by Lautremont. It is an early French surrealist masterpiece, full of brutality and beauty - just like the music on this record."
Source: http://www.southern.net/southern/band/MALDO/biog.html