Search - Oval, Christophe Charles :: Dok

Oval's departure release...

DAC Crowell | 04/04/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This full-length effort, a collaboration between Oval and sound artist Christophe Charles, marks a shift in Oval's style. Previous releases by the trio were characterized by a often-brittle sound, majorly revolving around a sound not too unlike that of a malfunctioning CD player. This often yielded fascinating results, particularly on "Diskont" and "Wohnton", but after a few discs full of this, the novelty tends to grow thin. However, here the group ventures into seamless structures that often have a terse, nervous feel in addition to their obvious ambience. But unlike 'dark ambient' releases, this set of pieces is an ambience of digital environs...sort of a "Music for PCs", if you would. Very hard to categorize this, to be sure, but at every turn this is an interesting release, and an important move for computer music from the lab-like environs of academia into the electronic music forefront. Very recommended, especially for those in the New Music scene as well as those looking for a 'twist' to their ambient collection."

Art-damaged world music for the early 00's

DAC Crowell | 03/30/2000

(4 out of 5 stars)

"In a time when grammy-nominated, self-proclaimed "artists" are obssessing over "roots music," it always is a relief to expereince folks like Oval and Mr. Charles thinking forward and approaching music as exactly what it is: artifical noise composed of altered air molecules.Similiar to the other works by Oval, "Dok" seems to exhibit the sounds of a 22nd century city that's overpopulated with commerical images and computers choking on excess data. Christophe's samples of crowd noise and bells paints the Old World being swallowed up in hyper modernization. Overall, I sense that Oval is mainly trying to figure itself out with "Dok," which does have its momments of tentativeness and cold redundancy. But thankfully, they have greatly improved their art with "SzenarioDISC." To their merit, Oval has added great warmth and motion to Christophe's work. By the way, if you digged "Dok" I reccomend Christophe Charles's "Undirected 1986-1996" CD, since it takes the samples of "Dok" into truly alien territories."

Brilliant

animade | Toronto, Canada | 12/30/2000

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I listened to Christophe Charles' interpretation of the sounds(Undirected/Dok, 2000) before listening to this album. This is a interesting twist on the samples. This album presents a more repetative and filtered sound, which is a contrast to Christophes 2000 album. The bare organic complexities of the samples still shine through in this work. Truly marvelous. If you like this, try Christophe's work, it is much more 'Undirected' and raw. Mind Boggling. Highly recomended."