Ovro & Niko Scorpio "Live in Placard #7" CD
[Some Place Else]
Here's a lengthy live disc from these two Finnish experimental artists, recorded live at Placard #7 in Helsinki, Finland on May 22, 2004. Ovro beings with eight tracks of her unique ambient stylings, using lots of faint low-end hums, shuffling midrange, occasional glitchy distortion (very light and very rare), and plenty of manipulated spoken vocal work. Oftentimes the vocals have an eerie yet childlike quality going on, and I've not been that fond of such in Ovro's work in the past, but while still a bit of a bother it somehow comes across more abstractly in this live setting. The faint narration in "Bonfire of Stories" sounds nice against the gurgling low-end textures to create an ominous atmosphere, leading into the murky depths of the also nice "Equate". As a whole Ovro's set flows surprisingly well from start to finish, covering around 27 minutes. Following is "Dreams Which Burn": A 7+ minute collaboration between Ovro and Niko Scorpio, using minimal layering and lots of motion that's a bit more strangely melodic than Ovro's solo material, while slightly more subdued and stripped down than Niko Scorpio's set. It's definitely a sinister piece (notably the latter moments, which are excellent), and the pacing is very well considered to keep things interesting. Hitting right around 23 minutes, Niko Scorpio's eight-song set closes the disc, opening with a similar approach to Ovro's unusual dark ambient and glitchy electronic sounds before becoming more musical and diverse, ranging from ultra minimal drones and hums to the sampled musical arrangements and percussion (from Slayer to Middle Eastern melodies) in the stuttered and almost chaotic "Liminal Cows". Ominous programmed beats continue in the more tangible and musical "Limbo Cut", while towards the close of the set Niko performs a few songs by his Reptiljan project, "All Songs Must Die" and "Zero Ego". These two pieces are harsher and more chaotic, sort of like Niko Scorpio sped up and muddily distorted (not in a bad way). So this is certainly the more active set of the evening. For being live the sound is about what you would expect for the better side of things. It's nice and thick with enough clarity and depth to suffice, while being a little muddier and less crisply detailed than studio work from the two artists would likely be. That's not a complaint, either. I think it sounds very nice and consistent. The layout keeps it minimal with a very nice photograph on the cover and some odd little imagery elsewhere, with some tiny live shots on the back cover with the tracklist. The traycard is also hand-numbered out of 500 copies. I like this. It's not totally my thing as I am quite picky about these things, but despite being a little long for me, the work is curious and comes across well in this documentation. Good work. (6/10)
Running time - 58:08, Tracks: 17
[Notable tracks: Bonfire of Stories, Equate, Dreams Which Burn, Limbo Cut, That Witch Goes to Heaven]
Some Place Else - http://www.someplaceelse.net

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