Via Negativa (in the doorway light) Xeno & Oaklander

The eighth and latest slate of refined retro-futuristic synth-pop by LizWendelbo and Sean McBride akaXeno & Oaklanderis named afterand inspired by"the study of what not to do, a negative image of apositive, the other side, the other:"Via Negativa (in the doorway light).Recorded in the fall of 2023 at their modernist Connecticut homefashioned into a two-story synthesizer laboratory and mixing studio,the album is uniquely visionary in spirit yet precision in execution, acontrast central to the duo’s enduring chemistry. Embryonic pianosketches were translated to nuanced modular systems, whichMcBride weighted with"harmonic padding,"tuned percussion, and aspectral transfer device capable of"rendering spasms of rhythmicovertonal filigree."Despite the technological complexity of their craft,emotively the songs require no deciphering–these are technicolorwidescreen anthems of the cybernetic age.

The eponymous opening track sets the pace, soaring sleekly overglittering synths and call-and-response vocals about arias, shatteredlight, and faces in stereo. From there the record expands andcontracts, cycling through a gallery of moods and masks, animated bythe band’s fascination with drama,"the idea of personae,"andtheatrical characters. Track by track, a murky, tragic backstoryreveals itself: forlorn figures navigating a treacherous mercury mine,alternately poisoned by fumes or buried in collapsing caverns. Thetension between Teutonic, utopian synthetic pop and lyrical narrativesof ghosts in silos, ruined mills, and the traumas of mineral excavationcreates a compelling friction, alternately futurist and obsolete,elevated and subterranean. Wendelbo describes the music’s polaritiesperfectly:"The heavy machinic din ofextraction in contrast with theenchantment of the mined precious gems and metals."