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LP
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EOVA 003LP
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LP version. White vinyl. Includes large, fold-out poster (60 x 60 cm). Oval's album Popp started as a concept album. It was neither meant as a pop record nor as "the Markus Popp signature album". At first, Popp was all about playing around. And about changing the musical outlook from the earlier hyper-detailed, improvisational Oval style to straight-up sequencing, old-school glitch tricks and beat-making. Popp explains, "Working on these new 'club tracks' was like going from cucina povera (my 1990s student-budget glitch style) and hi-tech fusion cuisine (post-2010) to feeling like a vegan who just stumbled into a barbecue seminar." Popp is a relentless, euphoric love letter to a musical utopia: kaleidoscopic and soulful, optimistic and grandiose. No matter if you choose to trace the many exhilarating, meandering melodies ("RE", "ID"), or if you prefer to dance to the housy information overload of "AI" and "LO", Popp is simply a joy to listen to. The newly introduced, intricate "fantasy vocals" are another new through line in Oval's music: weaving a blissful, sensual, "post-R&B"-narrative beyond words ("KU", "LO", "VE"). Ghosts of vintage Oval glitch stylings ("FU", "MY", "MO") are met with swooning strings, dreamy bells, 1990s rave stabs, angular bass lines and polyrhythmic beats. The atmosphere can even border on the solemn ("SA"), cinematic ("CA") or even hymn-like ("VE") before dissolving into these unstoppable, multi-layered loop-scapes. Popp explains further, "However complex and insanely technical my tracks may ever be getting, I will always make sure they sound organic, as if they're running on nothing but sheer imagination." Popp is released on Uovooo, a new label run by Markus Popp. Markus Popp's early, now legendary album releases sent shockwaves through the "electronica" landscape in the late 1990's - introducing a unique, innovative digital sound and production aesthetic. With an undeniable instinct for the pleasantly irritating, the drastic and the dreamy, Popp pioneered "glitch" and "clicks & cuts", inspiring and provoking an entire generation of musicians to this day. After a long hiatus, Oval returned in 2010, changing the game all over again with a new, groundbreaking "hyperreal" style, blurring the lines between the electronic auteur and (virtual) "band music". The distinctive, organic appeal of Oval tracks, remixes and albums have brought along several watershed moments for the entire genre.
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CD
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EOVA 003CD
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Oval's album Popp started as a concept album. It was neither meant as a pop record nor as "the Markus Popp signature album". At first, Popp was all about playing around. And about changing the musical outlook from the earlier hyper-detailed, improvisational Oval style to straight-up sequencing, old-school glitch tricks and beat-making. Popp explains, "Working on these new 'club tracks' was like going from cucina povera (my 1990s student-budget glitch style) and hi-tech fusion cuisine (post-2010) to feeling like a vegan who just stumbled into a barbecue seminar." Popp is a relentless, euphoric love letter to a musical utopia: kaleidoscopic and soulful, optimistic and grandiose. No matter if you choose to trace the many exhilarating, meandering melodies ("RE", "ID"), or if you prefer to dance to the housy information overload of "AI" and "LO", Popp is simply a joy to listen to. The newly introduced, intricate "fantasy vocals" are another new through line in Oval's music: weaving a blissful, sensual, "post-R&B"-narrative beyond words ("KU", "LO", "VE"). Ghosts of vintage Oval glitch stylings ("FU", "MY", "MO") are met with swooning strings, dreamy bells, 1990s rave stabs, angular bass lines and polyrhythmic beats. The atmosphere can even border on the solemn ("SA"), cinematic ("CA") or even hymn-like ("VE") before dissolving into these unstoppable, multi-layered loop-scapes. Popp explains further, "However complex and insanely technical my tracks may ever be getting, I will always make sure they sound organic, as if they're running on nothing but sheer imagination." Popp is released on Uovooo, a new label run by Markus Popp. Markus Popp's early, now legendary album releases sent shockwaves through the "electronica" landscape in the late 1990's - introducing a unique, innovative digital sound and production aesthetic. With an undeniable instinct for the pleasantly irritating, the drastic and the dreamy, Popp pioneered "glitch" and "clicks & cuts", inspiring and provoking an entire generation of musicians to this day. After a long hiatus, Oval returned in 2010, changing the game all over again with a new, groundbreaking "hyperreal" style, blurring the lines between the electronic auteur and (virtual) "band music". The distinctive, organic appeal of Oval tracks, remixes and albums have brought along several watershed moments for the entire genre. CD version comes in a digisleeve.
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LP
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EOVA 001LP
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"VOA is the true next step for the collaboration of electronic music legend Markus Popp aka Oval with several wonderful singers/musicians from all over South America. VOA offers the previously unreleased 'A'-selection of recordings from those legendary Salvador da Bahia sessions plus brand new Oval material - adding up to an 18-track metamelomusical supermerger, chock full of genre-defying, mesmerizing songs and haunting, sensual melodies that does not cease to surprise. From the chilling vocals and multilayered guitar excursions of Agustin Albrieu to Aiace's sensual, radiant folklore style, from Hana Kobayashi's inventive pop sensibilities to Maite Gadea's earthy, soulful interpretations of two classics from the Oval guitar songbook of the future. Also, the pleasantly unpredictable avant-pop quirkyness of laptop songwriter Andres Gualdron. All this adds up to a pretty wild ride - and in a seemingly effortless, strangely organic way. And what Dandara does to these two songs can only be described as magical. They are also featured in an enchanting music video with breathtaking performances by actresses Ursula Doll and Daniela Lucato, directed by filmmaker/visual artist Darko Dragicevic (of Oval's 'Ah!' music video fame). This album is a true next-gen experience, a celebration of musicality evolved - it takes the hyperreal, hi-impact songwriting of the new Oval sound to a new level, resulting in a unique, intensely emotional style that none of both parties involved would have ever come up with on their own. VOA is like a sky with two suns, a musical asterisk that points straight into the unknown."
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CD/DVD
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STRIKE 134CD
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In many ways, O, released on Thrill Jockey after a nine-year break, was a second debut album for Markus Popp aka Oval. A radical break with old concepts and methods, a new beginning. While Popp's artistic approach in the 1990s and early 2000s was more of a structural, theoretical nature, O was just about the music itself. Themes such as the means of production, limitations, dogma and concept took a back seat to a musical sensibility. Instead of writing new software to synthesize and process sounds, for O, Popp dove into the heart of our preset-culture. He acquired a standard PC and only used the pre-installed sounds and plug-ins. With this ready-to-play machine and conventional musical instruments like the guitar and drums, a new chapter in the story of Oval was written. DNA is a mountain of an album: an audio CD with 25 tracks, each about three minutes long. Some are no longer than a minute. Here you'll find a collection of rare Oval pieces and 12 previously-unreleased tracks. DNA is a mixture of music from Markus Popp's various creative phases. It's surprising how old and new meld seamlessly together, and how, for Oval, formalism and musicality have produced similar results. Markus Popp has found an unmistakable musical language and declined it from A to Z. DNA, so to say, is the accompanying dictionary. Originally, this album was supposed to appear before O and conclude the "electronic" phase of Oval. DNA is intoxicating and wonderful. There is the intensive guitar work of the new pieces, an eruptive bundle of sounds, the sparkle and shimmer of high tones. The simultaneousness of countless events, unbelievably dense and at the same time secretly light. Disc 2 of DNA is almost something like an Open Source Manifesto: It contains the SoundBrowser/Sequenzer-Software OvalDNA and more than 2,000 Oval Sounds from various phases of Popp's work as individual AIFF files. The software and sound files are intended for music producers and are available to all without restrictions. Also included is a video documentation of PlayGroundTV/Madrid, the Glass UFO music video by AmberleyProductions/Berlin and 10 bonus tracks for the OvalDNA album as WAV files.
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2CD
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THR 244CD
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"O is the first new Oval album in nearly a decade, a striking 70-track double CD and the follow up to May's sold-out Oh EP (THR 012.44EP) by electronic pioneer Markus Popp. Popp lives and works in Berlin. He took time off after his last release in 2003 under the moniker So, wanting this new material to be a radical departure from his old concepts and methods on all levels, to essentially be a new 'debut' album. For O, Popp's creative process shares nothing with his creative process for prior Oval albums. Previously, Popp focused on the creation of the programs that would process sound and effectively create the music, a process that was more theoretical in nature. For O, Popp uses an instrument that is very common, a stock PC outfitted with stock sounds and plug-ins. On the 2CD version of O, disc 1 features twenty relatively longer pieces that range from delicate, sophisticated pop to brutally torn, electro-acoustic riffing full of angular, colliding guitar sounds. All of the songs are peppered with expressive and open drumming. Disc 2 features fifty concise, highly detailed pieces that are a conscious nod to the culture of instant gratification. These tracks represent Popp's personal challenge to create pieces within a constrained framework that addresses this aspect of music culture. Popp has even referred to these pieces as ringtones. These one-minute tracks have a melodic finesse and associative power that are unexpected under such constraints and are ripe for future sampling projects."
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CD
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TKCB 71869
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Japanese version of the new Oval album (released in the US on Thrill Jockey), with 4 bonus tracks exclusive to this release ("Excel", "Newslo", Stueck" & "K-Sum"). "Markus Popp, a.k.a. Oval, is a mastermind of digital technology. Ovalprocess continues his elaborate manifesto of electronic music coupled with multimedia wizardry. This new release from Oval is a flowing, textured manuscript that utilizes sublime low end rhythm and directive pulsation in a manner that eases the listener into a soft and pillowy world dominated by electronic bleeps, glitches and moans. Ovalprocess equally represents an innovative music software application, designed by Popp, as much as it serves as the core engine to an innovative Oval sound installation. The installation is centered around one or several publicly accessible sound terminals running the Ovalprocess application, rendering the exhibit a customizable, collaborative workspace. Making the installation accessible in a public space is the ideal aesthetic that Popp craves-he feels it is far more effective than offering a CDRom or another option that would make the application available on a more individual basis. The Ovalprocess installation allows the public to use sounds that are found on the album to produce their own Oval-like music. His latest release displays Popp's talent at developing a deep and complex groove with seemingly difficult tools. Ovalprocess is best enjoyed at a loud volume. Oval's rich and round tones provide a Siren-like lure that is irresistible."
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