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REVIEW: ICON UK

Danish music duo Syntaks, purveyors of a harmonic and ghostly sound comparable to that of Aphex Twin or Sigur Ros, are set to launch a fourth album in nearly as many years.

The long-awaited album – Nachtblende – is a labour of love that has been three years in the making. Speaking from a recording studio in Copenhagen, frontman Jakob Skott said: “It’s been an incredible journey and, despite the effort and time we’ve put in, it’s been worth every second.”

The group’s credentials include previously working with record label Ghostly International and cult indie and electronic label Morr Music. Before forming Syntaks in 2006, Skott was also a member of Danish band Causa Sui.

Syntaks has been dubbed one of Scandinavia’s best acts in the last decade. The band has nonetheless eschewed the mainstream and returned to a synthetic and expansive sound experimented with by trip-hop and edgier groups of the nineties and early noughties.

“If making picturesque or cinematic music seems like a concept of the past, Nachtblende is an attempt to rewrite history on its own terms,” said the group’s current signatory Parallax Sounds Records.

The duo’s latest album has been described as an “utterly compelling” mix of Cocteau Twins and My Bloody Valentine. The phrases “swirling arpeggios” and “dead-pan dusty quarter-time beats” have both been attributed to it.

A long and sumptuous offering from Syntaks’ new album, as singer Anna Cecilia revealed: “It’s a massive effort in terms of both style and length.”

REVIEW: CANDID MAGAZINE
Okay, so I’ll be honest, I’ve not heard much of Syntaks’ material, one thing I do know is, Nachtblende is the latest offering from the Copenhagen duo and on the first listen I was transfixed.

To me, the album was a seamless dream in the sense that I listened to it with complete ease and without distraction. I felt as though it was a soundtrack to my thoughts, that it would be a great aid to the making of profound discoveries. Anna Celilia’s ghostly sighs often brought goosebumps to my skin and the entire composition created an atmosphere that I believe, no other form of media can. It was so easy to get lost in the consonance and become hypnotised by the cacophony of sounds. Nachtblende symbolises luxurious escapism as tracks such as Lucertola and Oak Moon take you away from the irrelevancies that surround you.

You can tell by listening that this is not an album made by amateurs. It has an air of superiority, but is not in the slightest sense ostentatious. Without any doubts, it is on a whole different spectrum to the music which fills the mainstream charts. It seems advanced, cinematic in some ways, due to the emotion which oozes through the speakers.

 It is said that Syntaks draw inspiriation from the likes of Brian Eno and Steve Reich. I can definitely understand why. Nachtblende demonstrates the spectacular beauty of ambience and in a way, it signifies the power of music as a creative medium. Ruby Glass made me consider Syntaks as the rebellious younger sister of Brian Eno’s solo work and to stretch the family tree further, the cousin of Texan group, Explosions in the Sky.
This comment on the emotions and thoughts derived from Nachtblende doesn’t really do Jakob Skott and Anna Celilia any justice. Their work, as part of Syntaks, represents raw talent and a deeper understanding of what music can mean to a person. It’s safe to say that Parallax Sounds have a winner on their hands. Personally, I’m privilidged to have been able to experience what Syntaks have to offer. It isn’t just music – it’s a transgression of emotional expression through sound.

REVIEW: GAFFA MAGAZINE
Syntaks, which is part of the recognized environmental projects around the Causa Sui and Manual, is out with a new plate, which in many ways is an extension of Ylajali from 2009. Noise surfaces consisting of electronically manipulated guitars, pianos and synths drenched in oceans of reverb, lazily fremadhumpende beats and Anna Cecilia spherical, often wordless vocals creates a sound that is deeply romantic, almost lyrical, and sometimes it gets a little too much of it good in terms of what Michael Strunge described as dragging "heaven down to earth."

Ironically, now that Jakob is Skøtt drummer aforementioned Causa Sui, it seems to be rhythmic under-prioritized in favor of the spherical. Often they seem simple beats like a pale version of indieknægts groove.

Therefore, it is also nice when you manage to combine beats and music of the spheres, as the trio lise existing Lucertola or at best number plate Days Of Future Past, where hand-played drums supports the beautiful sky noise.
★★★★☆☆

REVIEW: SURFING THE STREAM

The last time we heard from Denmark's haunting dream-pop duo Syntaks was on their gorgeous single "Blue Sunshine", taken from the duo's Ghostly International-released album Ylajali. A return to the ambient-pop soundscapes continue as evidenced with the epic and complex layers that flow throughout "Shiftandshade Ahead". The Cocteau Twins influence also returns, but there''s a welcoming Boards of Canada feel with sequenced splices of drone and soaring vocals. This is music for an underwater slowdance.

REVIEW: UNDERTONER MAGAZINE
Jakob Skøtt belongs to the small group of young musicians from Odense, which almost created a scene around their own music. First as a member of Limp, since a member of Causa Sui and alongside his solo project Syntaks , which since 2009 and the album Ylajali have been a duo with singer Anna Cecilia. Musically, the kinship with another one of Odense's finest, Jonas Munk and his Manual project, nor so distant, while Rasmus Elm Rasmussen releases that aerosol is not as basking and lazy.

There are clear references to drømmepop and English shoegazer on Nachtblende. And these are dreamy landscapes built from wall to wall synths, driven by beats, sometimes trailing, sometimes more heavy and insistent, which is why Anna Cecilia's vocal work that seldom reaches more than to be another flat in the soundstage. It should not be perceived negatively, but more as an observation that only a few times, which is articulated words on the album - and when they arise, for example. in the duet "When Tomorrow Turns a Million" or "Oak Moon", they are extremely fluffy and almost incomprehensible. Just as the genre requires.

It's almost plush and painted with broad brush all the way through Nachtblende. Sharpest are the numbers where synth surfaces and vocals makes room for something melodic theme, providing a familiarity of an album that otherwise threatens to flow together into one mass. "Shiftandshade Ahead" does it by letting the numbers be a classic song structure, with verses and choruses, which both have a strong melody while a song like "Someone Else's Dream" opens with a melancholic piano theme accompanied by creepy mermaid song go again through whole number.

A few sites used a guitar, and its brighter tones are a nice change of pace to the extensive use of synths, as well can be quite heavy. In "Into Two" gets the guitar interplay of multiple layers of Anna Cecilia's voice that weaves in and out between each other, while the guitar reeling like a drunken man in the intro of "Days of Future Past" before the number is more rocking.

With a running time of 68 minutes, the listener is put on something of a test in time. And although the benefits and drawbacks of long album should not influence this review too much, pops up thinking anyway, while listening to Nachtblende. The idea behind the length may well be that it takes time to be enveloping the dreamy landscapes and the melancholy warmth that characterizes the album. But there are some tracks on the album, which drops a little dull, and some others who stylistic break with the overall mood. As a result, Syntaks is not entirely advantages over an hour of playing time.

It is especially centrist with tracks like "Oak Moon" and "Lucertola" which has neither a vocal melody or interesting beats to keep your attention. The structure Syntaks else has caught on in the beginning of the album, lost a little here. And "Days of Future Past" and especially "Journey to the Third Part of the Night" stands both tempo and with the aggressive guitars and drums so much out from the rest of the album that seems misplaced. Noted should be the beautiful surfaces with Anna Cecilia's voice, creating a wall of airy vocals on the latter.

Neither these rather negative aspects or the obvious inspiration from drømmepoppens classic sound of shadows, however, that Syntaks 'blend of synths, mermaid vocals and heavy beats several places, especially on the album's first half frames so fine spot that both the length and the slightly less successful passenger occupies only a bit of the overall impression.
★★★★☆☆

"Cool and chilled", "There's so much going on in Syntaks track and it's easy to listen to" - Emma (Labelled Independent)

"Danish two-piece create a fantastic brand of ambient electronica. who effortlessly reference all the great electro-shoegaze whilst creating a unique sound" - (The 405)

Syntaks are a Danish duo that makes shimmering electro-shoegaze for the post-rock set. Their new album, Nachtblende sounds like a darker blend of M83 and I Break Horses. That is to say, it’s really pretty damn good. The track "Oak Moon" is one of my favorites. It’s a melancholic lullaby with hazy vocals and twinkling synths. It’s worth your time for sure: