Everything began when a couple of my friends teased me in IRC to join their planned band. They would not believe that I can't make music, and I had to show them that I really couldn't do anything at all.
Satu Karhumaa, also known as Ovro (Unconfirmed: 16.5.1970 - ) is a dark ambient... experimental... Well, a musician, or if you are a musician yourself and get riled up when I call her that or actually like the term sound artist, that works for some as well. My classification skills can't quite put all her albums into one hole. In spring 2003, she started to make music in the way that is described above, using basic tools: her voice, a cheap, malfuctioning microphone and basic wave editors. This resulted in Malice in Underland which consists of her very own voice in different forms. The album is sold out and it's sad because I'd really like to hear it. From what I've heard, it's quite minimalistic.
I played violin in the third grade, but they kicked me out of the group.
But yes, I'm going off rails. So, one of these people that heard the results of Ovro's documenting that she couldn't make music was Niko Sirkiä (or Skorpio Sirkiä, I don't know) who also makes music by the name Niko Skorpio. I think you can connect the dots here and yes, Malice in Underland was released on his label Some Place Else (which is also a pretty good webstore if you like weird, experimental noise - hint, hint) in late 2003.
Late 2005, Gegendurchgangenzeit (It's a lot easier to spell than you'd think!) was released. Or more specifically, re-released: The album was originally released as a "limited edition of one" to Niko Skorpio, who then persuaded Ovro to release it officially. Have I ever told you about how I hate jewelboxes? My Gegendurchgangenzeit (I will keep typing that, just to prove that I'm awesome and whereas my German sucks, at least I can write the words correctly) has a crack in the front. Luckily Some Place Else has gone more and more for digipaks and such.
The church bells on Gegendurchgangenzeit are made of my breathing. It might've been easier to record real church bells, but it wouldn't have been the same thing.
But to get back on the subject, Gegendurchgangenzeit (Ha!) was something that probably resembles dark ambient the most. The name is, by the way, actually very hard to interpret and not correct German. It's meant to be "Going through time of Hard Times" according to her: it sounds stupid, but mind you, she only translated it to Finnish, in which it sounds a lot better. The liner notes say that the listener should "try different volumes for different effects". Gegendurchgangenzeit (Damn, I'm good!) is a an imaginary soundtrack, designed to be listened in one go. The track names give some guidance for your imagination, but you should "sit back, relax and let your mind go". Quite surprisingly, it's a live recording from December 9th, 2004, from Some Place Else's now gone Living Room (Turku) and was released (I mean that one copy release) to stop from looping in Ovro's head. According to an interview, however, there was no audience, so it's a studio live that wasn't made in an actual studio.
The next release, in 2006 had already been in the making since Malice in Underland was released. The other half, anyway: Mosaick the Serpent / Vipera Aurea is a double EP. Worth mentioning that it's not a jewelbox (all my thanks to SPE for that) and even more so, it has vocals. I have a hard time placing an album with vocals to the dark ambient genre, but if some vocals can fit dark ambient, it's these. They do manage to be a bit silly at times (some have accounted that for humour - I don't know) but Niko Skorpio's tale of "she never went to Paris" in "Equation Impossible" (Liner notes: "Ovrian take on a love song"!) is quite creepy. In a good way, obviously, if you listen to this kind of music in the first place. The Vipera Aurea side is so frontal I'd just leave it undefined. SPE also says it's magico-religious or something like that, but I never let it differ my opinion on the record in any way.
The next Ovro release will be the first non-SPE, a 7" on Drone Records. Unless something comes up, it will be named Horizontal / Vertical. She makes most, if not all, of her album artwork herself. Songs often feature someone from the "SPE crowd" (I just made that up, and if it starts to be a regular expression, I want my cred) like Niko Skorpio or Mockingwyrd. She is also a member of SPE ensembles Hæretici 7o74 (also known as SkorpiOvro and Skorp-i-Ovro) and Kaaos in Eccentris. The name Ovro stands for Ouroboros and upon research, she found out that it is also the abbreviation of Owens Valley Radio Observatory, which reseaches the Big Bang echoes from space.
Discography
Quotes (all said by Ovro herself) and some information from Voima magazine. Translated myself.