Oval (D)

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OVAL was founded in 1991 as a band consisting of Markus Popp, Sebastian Oschatz and Frank Metzger, disbanded in 1996 and became a solo project by Markus Popp (born February 24, 1968 in Darmstadt, now lives and works in Berlin). Oval’s trademark was the forgoing of conventional instruments and the use of special CD samples, which (eg by painting with felt-tip pens) made them “stutter”, “hang” and jump and often mix them on top of each other. The unmistakable, rhythmic and at the same time orchestral sound achieved in this way became the hallmark of the band and made them glitch pioneers through their production methods. In interviews, Popp pointed out that he views Oval less as music than as acoustic design.
Oval’s first release “Wohnton” was released in 1993 by the Düsseldorf label “Ata Tak”. Contrary to all subsequent productions, most of the pieces of “Wohnton” included voices with German language lyrics.
In 1995 they began to further develop the installation concept in the direction of an interactive software, which eventually led to the so-called “Skotodesk”.
After a long hiatus, Markus Popp released a large number of new songs in 2010. The production was completely different from previous works, using solo. inexpensive and commercially available programs instead of self-programmed programs. First, Popp released the EP “Oh”. The album “O” followed, released as a double CD / LP with 70 tracks. On March 8, 2013, Popp released a sixteen-song album titled “Calidostópia!”. The project was funded by the Goethe Institute and the Bahia State Cultural Foundation. In the same year he released VOA (2013), an album that was also the result of collaborations with South American musicians and singers. In 2016, Popp launched his own label, UOVOOO. The label’s first release was the French musician Mei’s album “Partura” (May 2016).