Swedish synthpop duo Split Vision released their new ten-track album BetaCity on 6 November 2026, a love letter to the golden age of European synthpop.
Where the previous album, Echoes of a New Spell, explored the early Depeche Mode sound, BetaCity turns to early Alphaville and the world of Forever Young. Not by recreating songs, but by working with the same kinds of instruments and production techniques.
The palette is pure early-eighties: a Roland Jupiter-8 for leads and pads, PPG Wave 2.3 wavetable bass, Linn LM-1 and LinnDrum rhythms, and a string orchestra playing delicate arpeggios on top.
The album opens with “Shadows on the Wall”, a picture of divided cities from Berlin to Stockholm, before “Cold War”, whose lyrics label manager Stig Wintendorff wrote back in the 80s. The uptempo first single “Out of Nowhere” brings the lighter side, while “Laufen durch die Strassen” wanders through night-time Hamburg and “Drums of Freedom” closes on a hopeful call for peace.
Split Vision formed in Kristianstad in 1985 as the partnership of school friends Dan Hansson and Henric Palmqvist, and the two reunited in 2019 to build a growing catalogue rooted in classic 1980s synthpop.
Bandcamp – https://splitvision.bandcamp.com/album/betacity
Streaming – https://orcd.co/betacity
Official Video – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5nPDo3MSbrs
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