Finnish synthwave project Ferus Melek released the album Dreamers & Underdogs on 23 October 2026 on the project’s own imprint, Melek Records.
It is a seven-track instrumental record, written, produced and mixed entirely by Ferus Melek, and it lands almost exactly ten years after the project began in November 2016.
Unlike the albums Innocence and Decadence, this one has no big concept holding it together. In the artist’s own words it is “just individual fragments of life translated into the language of an instrumental synth music.”
The album notes are also disarmingly honest about where it comes from: “This is me giving up in 2026 and saying ‘I had a plan and it didn’t work out.’ Sometimes angry, at times disappointed, yet always believing in a better future. I didn’t fail, just learned more.”
Four of the tracks were already out before the album: The Underlying Tone in May, Common Detonator in June, Ghost Cue in August and Funnyboy in September. Dig Deep For The Diamonds, Mandelbrot and Sonus Tritonus arrive new with the full release.
Funnyboy also got the video above, a synthwave western shot in the Finnish village of Pinsiö and directed by Rauli Ylitalo. It is the second official Ferus Melek video filmed in Finland.
The notes close on the line that sums it up best: after ten years with the project, “it’s still great to be a dreamer and an underdog.”
Dreamers & Underdogs on Bandcamp – https://ferusmelek.bandcamp.com/album/dreamers-underdogs
Dreamers & Underdogs on Spotify – https://open.spotify.com/album/5SyWCCqEHOEohaaEHwM0fQ
Dreamers & Underdogs on Apple Music – https://music.apple.com/us/album/dreamers-underdogs/6821606961
Ferus Melek official site – https://www.ferusmelek.com/
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