Revisited
Basic InformationFormat: CD Tracklist:
1. Sideral |
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Lycander in Heathen Harvest
I'm not always passionate about albums which have to be rehashed and reformatted, but in the case of Ovro's "Revisited" an overhaul was vital. A lot of the work on this disc can be found on the CDR "Estrainer", such a limited release that it's impossible to find a copy. The term "revisited" doesn't just apply to some older material in an improved form though, but to a spacial and geographical return as well. Many of the tracks within this album contain field recordings from Ovro's trip to St Petersburg, jimmied into her trademark style of glitch dark ambient. "Revisited" is an emotional journeying for the petite Fin, both as a reworking of her older music seen dragged into the daylight for a makeover, and an aural scrapbook of her Baltic expeditions.
I first came across Ovro's work a few years ago through the Horizontal/Vertical EP released under Drone Records. Even though it was put out in the same year as "Revisited", there is a stark difference in feel between the two releases. "Revisited" has much more centre, much more focus than the H/V EP, which in comparison comes across as an experimental dark ambient orphan, the runt of a drone litter thrown on the "by the same artist" pile and glossed with special packaging. "Revisited" is altogether a greater and more intriguing work. It shows Ovro as a thinking dark ambient artist, one who gives subtle clues to her real interests, real world identities and concerns, all expressed through the mirror of her select aural voice.
One has to be careful with field recordings. In my mind there's always the question of whether one passively collects ambient sounds or goes looking for them, and the former seems far more genuine. It's akin to the difference between writing music naturally or intentionally aping your favourite inspirations. Fortunately a lot of the sounds within "Revisited" are incidental rather than overblown, mixed well with the atmosphere and the dark ambient underlay. As usual, Ovro punctuates the music with her usual stuttering and glitching white noise, breaking up the ambience which can so easily wallow in self-stagnation.
The field recordings are the main attraction here, comprising anything from distorted vocal patterns to crowd buzz to snatches of street conversation, but with a professional aptitude Ovro is able to create something intriguing, unsettling and beautiful out of them. Strangely enough, even though the majority of the sounds were collected in Russia, this record has more of a Middle Eastern feel. There are no silken arabesque clichés here though. Even in the closing cadences of the wonderful "Ukok" we feel as if we are an unseen, unwelcome interloper in a private mosque, hazardously listening to something never intended for Western ears. These sounds were meant to pass without remark, but here they are, stolen from their ephemeral timelines and permanently pasted onto our subconscious.
"Revisited" is very much a work of personal intrigue but one which likes to retain anonymity and introspection. It's more of a showcase than a journey; at no point do we feel as if we are following our mentor around as much as being sporadically map-pointed to various destinations. This unfortunately works to the album's detriment since there seems to be little cohesion, little meshing of themes, everything is just dropped in and swirled around for effect. We'll never totally understand the stories behind these sounds, but we can still relate to their emotional gravity. This, perhaps, is the most vital thing being communicated here – we don't have to physically exist in a location to appreciate its effects. The power and weight of a single sense can be enough, and Ovro is highly capable of demonstrating how.
Rating: 3.5/5
Krist_Offer in Imhotep
"Laura Palmer didn't die in Twin Peaks, she just went on a journey to Russia. This album is the proof... travel - experience - brilliance!" (4/6)
Paul Lloyd in Connexion Bizarre
"In 2006, Finnish artist Ovro released a very limited edition EP called "Estraier". Based on field recordings taken from her 2006 tour of Russia, "Estraier" was only available in small quantities as a bonus disc with pre-orders of her "Mosaick the Serpent / Vipera Aurea" album. "Revisited" is limited to 1000 copies and is based on the original "Estraier" recordings that have been further processed and manipulated to form a completely new album.
Although it starts out in a similar way to the original recording, "Revisited" soon heads in a new direction full of entrancing dark ambient soundscapes. It commonly features an ever-present low bassy rumble mixed with everyday sounds such as people talking, trains travelling and general street activity skilfully mixed and augmented in the studio with undulating tones and subtle sounds to enhance the experience. Opening with the serene ambience of "Sidéral", the album starts out gently with steady low tones and the sound of the St Petersburg underground system and the busy city above subtly building with intensity as it progresses. Similarly, "Commutare" features the sound of the train to Moscow and its underground system mixed with Turku traffic. The result sees the deep rumble and familiar sound of the train on the tracks enhanced with train announcements interspersed with occasional bursts of train noise and passengers chatting.
Ovro's ability to take field recordings from very different sources and combine the sounds as if they are musical elements in their own right is fascinating. While her music is distinctly electronic and dark ambient, her use of TV samples, overheard conversations and everyday sounds brings an element of familiarity to her work, bringing with it a sense of feeling and presence not achieved with other dark ambient releases. "Compulsed" is a good example of this with the layering of manipulated sounds sourced from Russian TV enhanced with digital creaks and clicks lends an element of reality that it is easy to relate to but the processed sounds then turn that feeling on its head by giving it a dark nightmarish quality. "Iconon" treads a similar path by treating sounds of a tour guide and tour group recorded during a visit to St Issac's Cathedral. The tour guide's voice is processed to sound like it is coming through from another dimension while the sound of bells from a nearby monastery chime in the background. Ovro's manipulation and reversal of voices gives the track a dark demonic quality that is heightened by a low rumble and groaning electronic detritus throughout. All of the elements are recognisable and familiar but processed and manipulated in such a way as to give them entirely new meaning and relevance to the piece as a whole.
Ovro is very good at maintaining her anonymity, perhaps to retain focus on her music, only choosing to release new material from time to time. However, the music she does release keeps a watchful eye on quality. "Revisited" is an absorbing re-imagining of the "Estraier" EP with great depth that reveals new facets on every listen."
(9/10)
Simon V. in Filth Forge
"Finnish "wondergirl" (as advertised by her label Some Place Else) Ovro is specialized in the most cryptic and mysterious dark ambient, usually created with the aid of field recordings collected into special places. "Revisited" is a sort of audio document about a travel to Russia, since all seven tracks use sounds and noises recorded in places scattered among those cold lands and eventually reprocessed and treated in the studio.
From the underground of St. Petersburg, reverberated in opening "Sidéral", to the echoes of an ice temple brought back to life in "Templier", exploring then the bells of a monastery in Moscow, the noises inside the Cathedral of St. Isaac, the trains of Moscow, the voices of the crowd, and even the traffic of Turku, not to miss the homeland too much. Of course, each recording is mixed to minimal dark ambient tunes, working as link to the whole.
"Revisited" is an interesting sound journey, even able, in more than a single passage, to conjure a certain atmosphere, but which remains in the end cold, freezing, incapable of communicating real emotions. Judging from the concept of the CD, this might also have been precisely the aim."
Grégory Dejaeger in Judas Kiss:
"As a matter of fact, the material to be found on this 'new' album by Finnish artist Ovro, one of the few female laptop artists around, had already been released as a low-key, limited CDr entitled Estraier about two years ago. Its purpose was to document a mini Russian tour (well, Moscow and Saint-Petersburg, really) she did back then as part of the two-day Noisy Women festival appropriately held for Women's Day - a bank holiday that is only really celebrated in Russia and its former satellite states, it seems - with label boss, travelling companion and occasional live assistant Niko Skorpio, on whose Some Place Else imprint she'd already released a handful of albums.
Revisited, as the title somehow implies, is a new, expanded version of this older material, mostly consisting of field recordings taken in the aforementioned cities in March 2006 (when the tourists haven't invaded the place yet) as well as in her native Finland (Turku, to be more precise), the whole lot then being re-worked and re-arranged in the studio environment. So, if you don't own the original release - and seeing how only a tiny number of copies were ever made, chances are you don't - here's your chance to catch up with it. And get an extra ten minutes as a bonus.
Musically speaking, we're talking decidedly minimalist and reflective stuff here. The aim of the artist, it seems, is to provide us with a first-hand account of her journey to the East and not let the music detract us from the mental account of those days spent on the road. That would be the reason, I suppose, why the booklet contains a short explanation of the sound samples that embellish each of the seven tracks that the album consists of, ranging from recordings of the Saint-Petersburg metro (beat that!) to the bells of a Moscow monastery and some mesmerizing Altaic fiddle work on album closer Ukok, thereby providing some useful insight into the sound structures on offer. Again, from a strictly musical point of view, there is not much going on and if you're looking for majestic sound waves or your daily dose of gothic-friendly frivolity, you'll be better off looking somewhere else. If, on the other hand, you are ready to invest some time into the sort of album that you're not likely to hear every day and can appreciate the gusto of an artist that is unashamed to present her artistic vision without cheap tricks or unnecessary embellishments, Ovro's newest will distil its venomous charms little by little and take you along on a mental journey that may lure you into buying a second-class train ticket to the Third Rome and explore the place with your eyes, too.
Revisited, which comes in a classy fold-out digisleeve limited to 1000 copies and containing some pictures taken during the trip, might not be your every day dark ambient release but then again, that is certainly a welcome thing in this day and age of internet-induced over-consumption. Xaracho stuff, indeed!"
Maurizio Pustianaz/ in Chain D.L.K.:
"Also active with Haeretici 7o74, Ovro with Revisited is presenting her fourth album. Divided into seven
different moments, Revisited contains re-worked tracks already presented on the 2006 CDr Estraier.
The original field recordings were taken during a trip from St. Petersberg to Moscow. On the inner cover of the CD Ovro
explains what moment the recording covered and reading simple explanations like "Relocating to Moscow now by train, in
Moscow by underground, with echoes of Turku traffic mixed in" and listening to a track that sounds like a trip to hell
has a particular effect on me. It's like to be drugged and walking by the city. It's a strange aural experience as each
sound float back and forth while you lose the sense of balance. Musically the album sounds dark and experimental mixing
drones and field recordings collected in different locations (mostly city places) but in this case I won't talk about
it like I would for an entertaining media. You have to experience it more than listen to it also because otherwise you
would find that the overall atmosphere is pretty the same."
(3.5/5)
Remco / Gothtronic
In a relax atmospheric ambience Orvo takes you deep into the underground of St. Petersburg and is treating the listener on a sonic journey using different field recordings made in this city, Moscow and Turku in 2006 and was released before as Estraier on CDR. This is a remixed version of that release on Some Place Else.
Revisited comes to you as a dreamscape first creating some tense in the first track "Sidéral" with the absorbing sound of the underground spiced with some recordings made in open air. Unfortunately it will strand soon in some whirling distant sounds not touching the listener anymore. It is just there to fill up the room with some pleasant woolly sounds to lull you into a state of dreaming.
Let Revisited come over you like a sound blanket and enjoy its mesmerizing nature. This is the best way to experience this Orvo CD. The different tracks are recorded on different locations. However the diversity of locations is very interesting like a museum and a cathedral you can not hear the real difference of these characteristic locations and all the tracks are sounding quite similar without much dynamics. Personally I think there is much more possible with this interesting concept to make this journey into a real adventure. Orvo made it all pretty relax with soundscapes leading you into a state of trance or dreaming awake which is a pretty experience. Drifting on this cloudy atmosphere Orvo brings me back to the music in the last track called "Ukok" with an eastern atmosphere with melody and vocals entwined.
Revisited is a nice album to let your mind slip away for a moment but musically there is not much shocking happening.
(6.5)
Frans De Waard in Vital Weekly:
"The first is a new work by Ovro, one of the few female laptop artists. Since 2003 she has had some releases, mainly on Some Place Else, but also (not reviewed here) on Kning Disk. For Revisited she uses field recordings made during a 2006 tour through Russia. The seven pieces which result from this are dark, spooky affairs of ambient/drone music. All generated through (lots of) processing on the computer, stapled together into some nightmare like music. Hauntingly dark stuff, but I must admit not always the greatest around. Very fine, very solid work, but sometimes one wished there was happening more in a track and that it somehow didn't seem like one is hearing some very obvious time stretching sounds. The dark trip doesn't fit the mood of summer day entirely, but would do well at night, I think. Not bad at all, not great either."