Martin Baumann and Michael Freund are together Cøldstar, a musical project in which their love for sci-fi and the immensity of the universe is transformed into a kind of dark synthwave / electropop that is cobbled together with the help of vintage and ‚eighties‘ equipment. They collect the result, after a few singles and compilation contributions, on their debut “Cosmic Dust”, an album that can indeed be listened to as a kind of ‚back to the future‘ retro trip and along the way reinvents and redefines a genre such as electropop.

The collision with a more contemporary (in terms of label) genre such as synthwave also creates an impact. The possibilities and mystery of the universe are infinite and this Cøldstar also tries to wrap that up in his music. The atmosphere is dark red, with a romantic longing for a weightless float in this mysterious universe. The lyrics are more like descriptions of an astral traveler in search of his (final) destination. This results in the soft, somewhat melancholic touch of, for example, “When Night Falls” or “Tumbling” (see clip) that already sounds much more like contemporary electropop and where the synths almost generate the effect of stardust.

Here and there the songs are also dressed up with those retro robotic voices like in the sci-fi series of the 70s, it should reinforce that ‚feel‘ of that ‚back to the future‘ idea and in addition to the sense of melody, sharpen the ’soundscape‘ or was it ’spacescape‘ (no, not cake) somewhat. For me it results in a somewhat dreamy feeling, I also can’t help but think of the original ‚Battle Star Galactica‘ or ‚Buck Rogers‘, yes I’m old, series that also managed to arouse some fascination in the prepubescent that I was at the time.

All in all, the 10 songs of this “Cosmic Dust” are a nice excursion if you take the scarce time available for it. Electropop that, partly due to the density and thin sci-fi synth layers, a synthwave wink, is quite easy to digest and amuse. Electropop fans, this is one for you, just listen to “I See A Light”, “Last Dance” or the beautifully narrative “Time Machine”!