Longrunning minimal wave duo Xeno & Oaklander have announced Via Negativa (in the doorway light), their first album in three years, which will be out November 15 via Dais. The album was named for and inspired by “the study of what not to do, a negative image of a positive, the other side, the other: ‘Via Negativa (in the doorway light).'”
Liz Wendelbo and Sean McBride made the album in 2023 at their home studio in Connecticut, with McBride starting with piano that had been augmented with “harmonic padding,” tuned percussion, and a “spectral transfer device capable of rendering spasms of rhythmic overtonal filigree.” From their they added their signature synths and rhythm boxes, many of which McBride built himself.
The first single is the album’s title track, a signature Xeno & Oaklander noir banger, with call-and-response vocals from Mendelbo and McBride. You can watch the video below.
Xeno & Oaklander will celebrate the new album with a NYC show at TV Eye on December 20. In February they’ll play the Netherlands’ Grauzone Festival alongside ADULT., High Vis and more.
Via Negativa (in the doorway light):
Via Negativa (in the doorway light)
Mercury Mind
The Unknown Side
Lost & There
Actor’s Foil
Magic of the Manifold
O Vermillion
Strange Fellows