No need to beat around the bush, THE RISE OF THE SYNTHS, a co-production between Castell&Moreno Films (Spain) and 9am Media Lab (USA) by Spanish filmmaker Ivan Castell, is a must see for all synthwave lovers! Narrated by a master of cinema, full of Easter-eggs, featuring great artists from the movement itself, the documentary is a real space-time travel! Fasten your seatbelts, you’re in for a ride full of 80’s nostalgia and Underground Electronic!

The Rise of the Synths isn’t just another documentary. The artistic direction is faithful to the era, and so is the original content made of small fiction excerpts, just like a real film. It’s a film where the subject is showed and told, but with 2 different dimensions. A charismatic character drives off in a Delorean as the night falls, pink neon lights flash in rhythm with the music, mythical movie scenes remind you your teenage days, and arcade games just put on the screen all the flavor of the era!

Let us put it simply: only Kavinsky’s missing from the list, because ALL the geniuses of the Syhtnwave scene are here! The crew did an amazing job at gathering such a A-list of guests for the film. First of all, it’s the director of The Thing, Escape From New York, Halloween namely John Carpenter who’s opening the documentary as a narrator, but stars of this musical genre like Valerie Collective, Power Glove, Carpenter Brut, Perturbator, Gunship, The Midnight, Electric Youth, Miami Nights 1984, Lazerhawk, Nina, Waveshaper, Robert Parker or even 80s Stallone come into play very quickly! You’ll also have the chance to see interviews of Ten from NewRetroWave, Aeron from Vehlingo or even the guys behind Drive Radio. A heavy list of experts!

Concretely, it’s a cool mashup of interviews of different artists and bands to whom the same questions have been asked, but thanks to the way it’s edited, it actually feels like a big discussion to which we’re invited and are delighted to listen to the guests’ answers and viewpoints as they onboard you towards a personal approach to their craft. And, from time to time, you’ll discover what the intro character is up to with his Delorean, and large-scale scenes from the mind of Ivan Castell!

And for your information, there is an amazing pre-album called « The Rise Of The Synths: The Companion » that Lakeshore Records published in June 2017 as a product related to the project. Available on Bandcamp, Amazon, Itunes, Spotify… Today Lakeshore Records releases the Original Motion Picture Soundtrack composed by OGRE, now available on Bancamp & Amazon.
Let’s take a look: