Xeno & Oaklander 'Via Negativa (in the doorway light)'

The eighth and latest album from Xeno & Oaklander, 'Via Negativa (in the doorway light)', explores "the study of what not to do" with refined retro-futuristic synth-pop. Recorded in their modernist Connecticut home, fashioned as a synthesizer laboratory, Liz Wendelbo and Sean McBride translate embryonic piano sketches into nuanced modular systems, blending harmonic padding, spectral devices, and rhythmic overtones. Despite its technological complexity, the album delivers emotive, widescreen anthems of the cybernetic age.

Opening with the eponymous track, "Via Negativa (in the doorway light)" explores dramatic personae and haunting narratives of ghosts, mercury mines, and industrial trauma. Songs like "O Vermillion" and "Actor's Foil" alternate between bilingual odes, cosmic dancefloor classics, and strutting EBM sensualities, blending synthetic utopian pop with themes of enchantment and despair. With 15 years of focused artistry, Xeno & Oaklander continue to mine the axis of technology and poetry, crafting melodies steeped in myth and modernity.