Oval

Back to delight the most refined palates in experimental electronics, Markus Popp has decided to organize a world tour to present his new material. After the moving comeback with "O", curiosity about how those tiny vignettes would translate live was running high. The venue hosting him is La Città del Teatro, a cultural center set in the countryside around Pisa, in Cascina. As part of the excellent Fosfeni electronic music festival, whose lineup includes names like Ben Frost and Filastine, Oval arrives on a cold March evening with a minimal stage set-up: on a desk sit his laptop, a mixer, a few distortion pedals, alongside decidedly bare-bones visuals.

After a shy introduction to the performance, Popp starts circulating his creations, drawing at random from "O" with skill and passion, offering the audience all the intimate, personal atmosphere appreciated when listening to the record. Although his variations are practically nonexistent, the pleasure of hearing tracks like "Ah!" through a professional stereo system is genuinely surprising. His performance is an act of love toward music, a delightful mutual sharing, an hour-and-a-half gift capable of making the speakers shine beyond belief. The timbres and melodies resonate gently, creating a flow punctuated by simple stretches of silence between one track and the next, much as happened on the record, with the difference that the track order was different. The fact that changing the sequence in which the tracks are performed didn't undermine the final result shows how these compositions possess a magical versatility, completely detached from external factors.

After the first part of the show, made of enchanted music, delivered with a reverent, almost awkward gait, Markus Popp steps away with a minimal goodbye, applauded by an audience that isn't large but is very grateful. His return to the stage is a chance to fill in a few gaps in the setlist. For obvious time constraints not all seventy tracks of "O" will find room within the show, yet the mystical suggestion evoked will be just as identical and deeply authentic.

A legend and pioneer of the entire glitch movement, mentor to a countless host of musicians indebted to him, Oval, with commendable simplicity and humility, delivers an essential, focused show, carefully developed and never rushed, demonstrating an intellectual honesty and an acumen typical of someone who has left an indelible mark on his musical field of reference.

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