SCIS

Markus Popp, the man behind Oval, is credited with creating the style we now
know as "glitch" or "clicks & cuts", but he never stopped there. Scis is his latest
offering, an album still pushing technology, using the computer as an instrument,
but for the first time it seems you can most clearly hear the musician behind the
screen. It's emotive, there's loops of acoustic instruments, composed together
in ways that feel more organic, and improvised. Popp describes extensive
research into "new vintage", and this album reflects that & his history. It employs
familiar sounds or motifs in new ways, and unfamiliar sounds in old ways and
this combo gives it something present. There's prepared pianos, woodwinds,
sweeping strings, gritty bass riffs arranged, among other styles, using Oval's
signature loop-driven techniques. Moments remind of traditional electronic
and re-imaginations of a club sound aesthetic, and there's moments that feel
cinematic and lyrical and the album as a whole feels in between and both.
With his early works he championed software intuition over his own role in
music making, anticipating the AI trend in composition while most of us were still
mastering Microsoft word. Popp toured with a desktop computer and projected
his screen, constructing remarkably evocative and emotional performances from
file manipulation. Each new Oval release saw Popp radically redefine his practice,
introducing new elements and embracing new creative challenges, integrating
cutting edge technology and processes into his practice to ensure that each record
sounded as contemporary and exhilarating as the last.Where early compositions saw
Popp meticulously tinkering with software and systems to reduce his own visible
hand in the music, Scis instead sees Popp focus the human element in his creation,
augmenting delicate and intensely crafted loops with an array of acoustic instruments