Romantiq

Ovals Romantiq stemmed from Markus Popps audio-visual collaboration with artist Robert Seidel for the opening of Frankfurts German Romantic Museum. Popp drew inspiration from Romantic literature and architecture for the project, and composed music which incorporates period instrumentation. Far removed from the exuberant maximalism of 2016s Popp and 2020s Scis, the album sounds closer to the electro-acoustic experiments of his sprawling 2010 comeback O, except this one feels like a more focused work instead of an unruly hard-drive dump. Glitch effects are present, but they seem more reined in than on early Oval releases, and the sound is overall much cleaner and less swamped with grainy, noisy textures. Yet the lines are blurred between the acoustic and the electronic, as Popp transforms his source instruments and creates a unique sonic vocabulary. Opener "Zauberwort" features delicately tapped melodies which almost sound like a dismantled music box over a warm bed of organ and flute, and fluid vibrations swim around the crystalline notes of "Cresta." "Amethyst" is the albums most glitch-heavy track, using the effect to construct a catchy, repetitive motif, while its deployed in a more subtle manner on "Wildwasser." The clear, resonant tones of "Glockenton" could nearly pass for new age if it werent for the traces of feedback buzzing beneath. "Elektrin" seems to elevate some of these background noises, letting them lift off and swoop around the clanging melodies, and "Okno" contains sour, pitch-bent strings and brass. "Touha" resembles one of the prepared piano pieces from Aphex Twins Drukqs, but with unnerving noises swimming around the intricate melodic patterns. Romantiqs compositions manage to be soothing and reflective even as they restlessly pursue unknown sounds and feelings. ~ Paul Simpson