Oval (band)

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Oval
Background information
Origin	Germany
Genre(s)	Minimal techno Glitch ambient techno experimental techno post-rock
Years active	1991 to Present
Label(s)	Thrill Jockey (US) Mille Plateau
Associated acts	So
Members
Markus Popp
Former members
Sebastian Oschatz Frank Metzger

Oval is an electronic music group founded in Germany in 1991. The band's original members were Markus Popp, Sebastian Oschatz, and Frank Metzger, though Oschatz and Metzger left the group in 1995. All three are regarded as pioneers of glitch, a genre of music that simulates skipping audio. Disdaining the use of synthesizers, Oval instead deliberately mutilated CDs by writing on them with felt pens, then processed the palette of fragmented sounds to create a very rhythmic electronic style.

Markus Popp continues to release albums under the name Oval. The most recent are the back-to-back albums Ovalprocess and Ovalcommers. Frank Metzger has released some singles with Mego and the internet label Falsch and has started a collaboration with Rossano Polidoro and Emiliano Romanelli from "tu'm" in 2003 that is called Steno, while Sebastian Oschatz is an interaction designer with Meso, a German media design collective.

In 2001 Björk sampled the track "Aero Deck" (from the 1994 album Systemisch) on her Vespertine album.

In 2003, Popp released a record on Thrill Jockey together with the Japanese singer Eriko Toyada. As a duo they were called So, and their record was self-titled.