Close your eyes. You may think Satan is singing. Open them: you’ll see a small masked woman, with dreadlocks down the her ankles, and without vocal effects. Close your eyes again: you’ll think of a heavy metal double kick drum set. Open them again: a gigantic, wrestling masked man is torturino a floor tom, a snare and a cymbal, standing up, no kick. Two people, half gear, enough to bring Hell.This is OvO. What they do is not easy to file. Not noise, not metal, not doom, not punk, not rock and roll, even if there’s a little bit af all these genres. Sure it’s not free, nor avant, and definitely not improv. For once, yes, we can really say we can’t file a band.
Their performances are legendary and brought them (from 2000 to nowadays), to play about 600 shows all over the world, from Europe to Mexico, from North America to Israel. They made records or tours or shows with, among the others, Nadja, KK Null, Thurston Moore, Jim O’Rourke, Rollerball, Thrones, SubArachnoidSpace, Zenigeva, Lightning Bolt, Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, Estradasphere, Steve Mc Kay, Trencher, Ludicra, Bill Horist, USA Is a Monster, White Mice, Cock ESP, Bastard Noise, Zu, Larsen, Kill Me Tomorrow, Murder Junkies, Jarboe, A Hawk and a Hacksaw…
Even if OvO is a difficult band to file, we can still see an evolution from “Assassine”’s total improv to “Cor Cordium”’s radical noise rock. “ABISSO” open a new artistic era for this duo, formed by Stefania Pedretti and Bruno Dorella. There’s a new richness in their sound, brought by the use of samples, drum machines, pads, field recordings and synths. “Cor Cordium” and the previous album “CroceVia” were a point of no return for their minimal rock challenge, engaged in making as much sound as possible with their very few elements: Bruno’s half drum set, Stefania’s guitar and her incredible voise. The new challenge is to go beyond it, using contemporary music tools to keep on being creative and evolve. For this step OvO had the priceless help of Giulio “Ragno” Favero at the mixing desk, Giovanni Versari’s mastering, and the friendly collaboration of Alan Dubin (ex OLD, Khanate, now in Gnaw) and Carla Bozulich with her full band Evangelista. After 13 years, OvO keep on experimenting, developing, pushing themselves into borderline territories, in a continuous purchase of the Extreme.
