Model 3, Step 2

Model 3, Step 2 is a new studio album from digital specialists Microstoria, Markus Popp (Oval- innovator of augmented digital audio realities) and Jan St Werner (Mouse on Mars-the world's leading electronic structuralist pop group, and Lithops-the silent power plant of hybrid music arts).

Model 3, Step 2 is their most accessible collaboration so far. Still it is utterly impossible to trace their extremely manipulated sounds and compare them to anything else. Did anyone hear the guitar?

Considerable time has passed since their critically acclaimed initial releases init ding (1995), _snd (1996) and their collaborative cd reprovisors, in which tracks were rearranged and appropriated by a diverse group of musicians (Stereolab, FX Randomiz, Jim O'Rourke, C-Schulz & Hajsch and others). Popp has been busy writing new Oval music and working with Oval Process software and installations such as Skotodesk and Public Beta. Werner has toured extensively with Mouse on Mars and released several records on his Sonig label. The time apart has allowed them to diversify the source material and compose tracks individually in a much more deliberate way than previously.

Model 3, Step 2 consists of nine excursions into the world of downtempo speedcore. On all tracks source material was selected and created by Popp and Werner together. The duo gives to these abstract but always physical bodies of sound by shaping them into a song structure. It is an entirely individual way of understanding and presenting music. Even though their songs are precisely edited and arranged, Microstoria finds empathy among musicians whom play free music or jazz because of the broad tonal range and the shared desire to explore and exploit possibilities.