Brooklyn minimal wave/electronic/synthwave duo Xeno & Oaklander have announced the release of their new album ‘Via Negativa (in the doorway light)‘.
To coincide with the announcement, they have also shared the title track as well as its accompanying video. The record will be out on November 15 via Dais Records. Pre-order your copy here.
Recorded in the fall of 2023, the eighth and latest slate of refined retro-futuristic synth-pop by Liz Wendelbo and Sean McBride aka Xeno & Oaklander is named after and inspired by “the study of what not to do, a negative image of a positive, the other side. The album is uniquely visionary in spirit yet precision in execution, a contrast central to the duo’s enduring chemistry.
The title-track sets the pace, soaring sleekly over glittering synths and call-and-response vocals about arias, shattered light, and faces in stereo. From there the record expands and contracts, cycling through a gallery of moods and masks, animated by the band’s fascination with drama, “the idea of personae,” and theatrical characters. Track by track, a tragic history unfolds: lonesome humans traveling a perilous mercury mine, either poisoned by fumes or buried in falling caves. Wendelbo describes the music’s polarities perfectly:
“The heavy machinic din of extraction in contrast with the enchantment of the mined precious gems and metals.”
Check out the title track below, followed by the album’s artwork and tracklist.
Xeno & Oaklander ”Via Negativa (in the doorway light)” Tracklisting:
- Via Negativa (in the doorway light)
- Mercury Mind
- The Unknown Side
- Lost & There
- Actor’s Foil
- Magic of the Manifold
- O Vermillion
- Strange Fellows
Photo courtesy of Dais Records
