Since we last spoke, I’ve been groping in the dark: Markus Popp aka Oval just announced his upcoming OvalDNA release back then, and it left me excited but unsure what to expect. Though the original release date was being pushed from November to December 9th (due to “problems in the production process“, Shitkatapult), I realized that this might actually be a pretty great record.
Popp will be releasing parts of his huge sound library, but I prefer how ‘The Wire’ magazine stated it: OvalDNA is an “open source manifesto“. While the first CD comes with 35 lost, hard-to-find or previously unreleased audio tracks (each about one to three minutes long) from Oval’s past (ranging from 1993 to 2010), the second disc is a DVD-ROM which carries more than 2000 sound files in AIFF format from Popp’s archive, as well as 10 previously unreleased bonus tracks in WAV format (stream at the bottom of this page). It reminds me of Terre Thaemlitz‘s Dead Stock Archive release from early 2009, although the political idea behind it will surely differ.
The OvalDNA DVD will also come with an accompanying software and a bunch of Oval videos. Both discs are held together by a colorful artwork designed by Cologne’s Frieda Luczak, liner notes come from Atsushi Sasaki, David Toop, Minoru Hatanaka and Markus Popp himself.
You can stream a couple of Oval remixes, live recordings and unreleased tracks until OvalDNA comes out on Shitkatapult on December 9th, these tracks in the player below didn’t make it on the record.
On a different note, Oval is playing two live shows in Berlin (one with Apparat during Electronic Beats Recommends, sold out). Also, Bureau B (also see the new Slices DVD for a label feature) will be re-releasing Oval’s 1993 album Wohnton, soon – originally published on the legendary record label Ata Tak from Düsseldorf.
Oval Live:
December 20th, 2011 Berlin – HAU w/ Apparat
January 13th, 2012 Berlin, Volksbühne w/ Warren Suicide, String Theory
Photo: ©Trevor Good
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