Microstoria is a side project of
Oval's Markus Popp and
Jan St. Werner of
Mouse on Mars. Combining
Oval's fetish for CD scarification with
MoM's odd instrumentation and breezy, subtlely inchoate arrangements, the pair's combined efforts come off much as one might expect. The group debuted with a pair of albums on the German Mille Plateaux label falling somewhere between the more engaging techno-exotica of
St. Werner's main focus and the sometimes gruelling abstraction of
Popp's. Both releases were reissued by Stateside post-rock imprint Thrill Jockey (
Tortoise,
Rome,
Trans Am), which also released the remix effort
Reprovisers in 1997.
Model 3 Step 2 was issued three years later. ~ Sean Cooper, All Music Guide