Songs are not defined by their beat or their melodies, because, in truth, they keep oscillating between snippets, cells of sounds, which all contribute to a greater whole. It is a testament to Oval’s skills that this approach never results in something of an amorphous collage, but on the contrary on something light and airy, with a definitive pop twist. Exploratory fun and fun explorations.
Last month, Oval released a new EP entitled Eksploio, heralding the release of a new album in January 2020, Scis, and you if you aren’t excited about this prospect, you should.
Never mind that Oval is actually a bit of a legend in the electronic world, that he’s been in the circuit in the early 90’s, already focused on forward-thinking ideas and concepts that were put into motion on his records—Eksploio is a gem of a little EP.
The music on Eksploio sounds like if the constituent parts of ambient music suddenly decided to have a party. There is something on it which feels like a Nintendo menu soundtrack dancing while no one’s looking. Listen to “Brockaat”—mallet and piano sounds scamper around, anchored later on by a playful glitchy beat. On “Paragramm,” the subtlest hints of jazz come in contact with unmistakably electronic percussion and sequencing.
The sequencing on Eksploio is probably what makes this record such a fresh experience, and Oval’s experience in experimenting with digitally-assisted composition techniques shows in full force. Rather than a simple linear path telling a story of tension and release, each piece works like a small organism in talks with itself. It is always musical though, and never veers on the cliched side of electronic abstraction (that’s from the press release, but it turns out it’s a very accurate description). Markus Popp blends together software instruments, acoustic sounds, interesting effects, and while the tempo remains steady, we never feel like there is an overwhelming sense of The Grid. Songs are not defined by their beat or their melodies, because, in truth, they keep oscillating between snippets, cells of sounds, which all contribute to a greater whole. It is a testament to Oval’s skills that this approach never results in something of an amorphous collage, but on the contrary on something light and airy, with a definitive pop twist. Exploratory fun and fun explorations.
Eksploio is available on Thrill Jockey.
