OTTAVEN
"Sequenze per raffigurazioni mentali" c36
REVIEWS

(click on the magazine names for review links)

VITA LWEEKLY #1053
by FdW
Repetition is also at the basis of Giovanni Donadini's project Ottaven, who is a 'former
member of the band and co-worker as With Love, WW, Lake Dead, Mortal Tape, Magic Towers, Utat and Forum I', none of which I ever heard. It is not easy to guess what he uses, sound wise; I would think there is quite some electronics at play here, but the press text also mentions field recordings, voices and objects. If so, these are transformed quite a bit I think, and fed mainly through some analogue synthesizers, set on circular mission of repetition. The music is more on the same level throughout, more so than the Bruital Orgasm one, and seems to be taking it's cues from the world of old school industrial music. Piercing synth with minimalist rhythm, all fed through some crude sound effects, of which reverb and delay are it's main occupants. You feel trapped inside this massive industrial lot, full on action of conveyer belts, alarm clocks, machines grinding away and everything is closing in on you; you are looking for the way out, but that's not going to happen easily.