Xeno & Oaklander | Hus 7

Artist: Xeno & OaklanderDate: Wednesday 25 NovemberDoors: 19.00Live from: approx. 20.00Venue: Hus 7Age limit: 13+ accompanied by a parent or guardian / 18+, read more about the age limit: https://slakthusen.se/aldersgr…

The eighth and latest album of refined, retrofuturistic synthpop from Liz Wendelbo and Sean McBride, aka Xeno & Oaklander, takes its name from and is inspired by Via Negativa (in the doorway light) – “the study of what not to do, a negative image of something positive, the other side, the other”.

The album was recorded in autumn 2023 in their modernist home in Connecticut, which has been converted into a two-storey synth laboratory and mixing studio. It is visionary in spirit yet precise in execution – a contrast central to the duo’s long-running musical partnership. The first, still unfinished piano sketches were transformed into nuanced modular systems, which McBride supplemented with “harmonic padding”, tuned percussion and a spectral transfer unit capable of “reproducing spasms of rhythmic, overtone-based ornamentation”. Despite the technical complexity of their craft, the songs require no emotional interpretative work – these are Technicolor widescreen classics for the cybernetic age.

The self-titled opening track sets the tone, gliding elegantly over shimmering synths and call-and-response vocal phrases, with references to arias, shattered light and faces in stereo. The album then expands and contracts, moving through a whole gallery of moods and masks, animated by the band’s fascination with drama, “the idea of different personalities” and theatrical characters.

Track by track, a dark and tragic backstory emerges: abandoned figures navigating a treacherous mercury mine, alternately poisoned by fumes or buried in collapsing mine shafts. The tension between synthetic pop with a German, utopian slant and lyrical stories of ghosts in silos, derelict mills and the traumas of mineral extraction creates a captivating friction – by turns futuristic and obsolete, exalted and underground.

Wendelbo aptly describes the music’s contrasts: “The heavy, mechanical roar of extraction stands in contrast to the enchantment of the gemstones and metals being brought to the surface.”

From bilingual tributes to bloodstones (“O Vermillion”), via cosmic dancefloor classics in chrome (“Lost & There” – “The present can never feel real / So many pasts converge beneath the scorching sun”), to cheekily sensual EBM expressions (“Actor’s Foil”), Xeno & Oaklander once again prove that they are masters of the axis between technology and poetry, tangled cables and synaesthesia, melodies and myths extracted through 15 years of focused artistic creation.

Their muse remains gilded and gleaming, polished in red and silver, and tuned to “what cannot be observed, the unfamiliar, what is not seen directly”.

“Ghostly presences and shifting emotions permeate the confined space, creating stark and primordial images that evoke a profound sense of isolation and uncanny unease.” – Post-Punk (review of Magic of the Manifold) “Magic of the Manifold is minimal synth in its purest and most vibrant form, showing Xeno & Oaklander at their purest and most exciting.” – FILTER “A tactile take on minimal synth, with a collection of nostalgic rhapsodies embracing a newfound warmth.” – Pitchfork, review of Vi/deo (2021) “Vi/deo is a subtle tribute to the memories, fantasies and dreams that carry us onwards.” – AllMusic, best electronic albums of 2021 “McBride is an inventive programmer who coaxes new sounds from decades-old equipment, and Wendelbo has never sounded more appealing. She draws you closer while keeping you at arm’s length. Almost 20 years after they began, Xeno & Oaklander still make the past sound like the future – when the future seemed cool.” – BrooklynVegan, review of Vi/deo