Fatamorgana / SDH

Fatamorgana is a synth-pop duo who specialise in a variant of electronic post-punk that is both dreamy and danceable. Formed in Barcelona in the summer of 2017, the project sprang to life from the hearts and minds of Patrycja Proniewska and Louis Harding. What began as a bedroom project of sorts (monophonic synthesizers, 4-track cassette recordings) Fatamorgana soon blossomed into a functional live unit.

Early 2019 saw the release of their debut full-length ‚Terra Alta’, an 11 song LP full of sharp, hook-filled numbers, off the back of which the group toured extensively over Europe and North America.

With 2022’s ‚Ahora Aquí, Todavía No’, Fatamorgana continue to hone their craft, dishing out beats, hooks and atmospherics in generous servings, and whilst it retains much of the stark minimalism of their first LP, this time, it somehow feels deeper, more lush and considered. Clearly influenced by music from the 1980s – synth-pop, new wave, post punk – Fatamorgana manage to create a sound that avoids standard retro manouevering, landing instead on something distinctly their own – an album made from cold sounds, that in their union become warm. Arecord that could just as easily soundtrack an afternoon’s solitary contemplation as a night on the dancefloor.

https://fatamorganabarcelona.bandcamp.com

SDH (Semiotics Department of Heteronyms) is the new project of two key figures of the synth-wave / industrial scene of Barcelona. Andrea P. Latorre and Sergi Algiz, founders of the Cønjuntø Vacíø label and also in the experimental post-punk band Wind Atlas, unveil a new project more oriented towards pop music. SDH is change, alteration, distortion, metamorphosis. Their synth-pop songs, sprinkled with EBM and techno, are mysterious, obtuse and suggestive. The new SDH record, ‘Fake Is Real will be out June 30th on Avant! Records.