Interstellar Seance :: Synaptic Cliffs

What began as an ordinary box of records arriving at work quickly turns into a strange trip down the rabbit hole of Synaptic Cliffs—a label where extraterrestrials, electronic music legends, immaculate vinyl and one very elusive artist called pdqb somehow all make perfect sense.

 

The box that changed everything

“Robert, there’s a box there for you.”
“Thanks. I’ll grab it on the way back.”

I generally have records delivered to work. Living in Spain, a lesson worth learning quickly is to avoid the post-office unless you have some nostalgia for Soviet Union like queues.

“Robert, don’t forget that box.”
“No, I’ll be back down.”
“Why don’t you take it up with you, out of the way then.”
“Right.”

Searing Summer heat means that certain jobs, such as carrying boxes up and down flights of stairs, are to be done in one’s own time. But, for some reason, the downstairs gang wanted this box out of sight and out of mind.

A nondescript box. Heavy with records, innocent nonetheless. Name. Address of sender. All run of the mill. Perhaps it was the contents; that somehow the sender’s supernatural aura had seeped out from its cardboard cage and given the secretarial staff the heebie-jeebies. Inside, the world of Synaptic Cliffs.

Although the return address reads Sascha Dornhöfer, there’s a sense that Pandora herself has put this collection of records together. Nothing chaotic, something mysterious, mystical and bordering on magical.

Speaking with Dornhöfer is easy, a pleasure. Pinning down the central artist of Synaptic Cliffs, pdqb, is a story like few others.

“pdqb is essentially a character – or maybe something else entirely” So, you are pdqb? Yes, no and maybe. “pdqb is an extraterrestrial who is 127 years old,” and it appears Dornhöfer is “currently possessed by it.” So, you are? “Maybe I’ve only been making music for a few years. Maybe I’ve actually been making music for 30 years. Maybe I’ve already been known under another name. Maybe I’ve been a major producer for other artists. Nobody knows, and nobody is going to find out – at least not through me.”

Can you catch heebie-jeebies?

This is the story, and Synaptic Cliffs is full of stories. Dornhöfer won’t be held to facts about who he is “because ultimately, this is supposed to be about the music. I don’t want the music to be reduced to a person, a biography, or a recognizable identity. And if people do try to connect everything to a person, then I’d rather give them something so completely absurd that nobody can really make sense of it.”

And through the looking glass we go.

The label’s style is as difficult to define as its founder. Essentially, the epicentres of this multiverse are pdqb and Perzeptiverdampfkesselqualmtbesinnlich. “pdqb is the main act, mostly electro, but also disco and techno. Perzeptiverdampfkesselqualmtbesinnlich is basically everything else: ambient, experimental stuff, post-punk, scores, soundscapes, that kind of thing.”

Ambition is mixed in with the abstract. Opening its doors in 2024, Synaptic Cliffs is now clocking thirty releases across all media with a clear focus on vinyl.

Terra firma.

Solid ground can also be found when it comes to the connections that pdqb’s music has made with other artists. Legowelt was drafted in for two stellar remixes on the inaugural release Wet Dreams of Jesus Christ with the electro, sci-fi warmth of the original dipped in the delightful haze of Wolfer’s machines. And the names keep coming. Alva Noto, Rolando of Underground Resistance fame, Egyptian Lover, Felix Da Housecat, Umwelt and Roman Flügel with a show-stopping take of “Senftgurken-Prämenöde.” There are also collaborations, the Diskmind EP with Scape  One, Guilty Pleasures featuring DMX Krew. And the names keep coming. Reimaginings by Dopplereffekt on Sermons of the Electrofying Messiah. 8½ Bit Replays, a chirpy remix album of the stunning chiptune frolics of 8½ Bit, brings together modern electro masters like PRZ, Galaxian, CEM3340, Dark Vektor and Mesak. New collaborations are on the horizon. Orlando Voorn, Heinrich Dressel and most recently with Edward Ka-Spel, the singer of the Legendary Pink Dots.

And… breathe.

Where were we?

Right, ascending Synaptic Cliffs.

“The original compositions are, of course, primarily aimed at the headphone connoisseur listening at home. The remixers are then, so to speak, responsible for the club side of things – although they’re never explicitly commissioned to make something club-friendly. Everyone gets more or less full artistic control. Just like Egyptian Lover, Felix Da Housecat, they can do whatever they want with the track. Of course, you discuss things with each other, but that’s basically how it works.”

Just as intriguing as the audio is the visual. The records are beautifully produced, the audio quality singing from the grooves. Art is central. Elaborate swirls and speckled patterns adorn coloured vinyl with sleeves printed to superb quality. And, just like the music, collaborations abound.

 

“Most of them are seriously high-profile artists, people like Maurizio Cattelan (he did the taped banana, an artwork which sold for millions), and Adam Pendleton, and I somehow manage to convince them to get involved”

My semi-formed journalistic instincts begin to twitch. Extraterrestrial entities, ok. Million dollar earning modern artists. Hhhmmm??

“By the way, Diskmind (Scape One‘s Quantum Mechanics) was played at Dior’s Spring/Summer Haute Couture show in Paris this year, which made us incredibly happy, because it fit the show perfectly. I’m also a huge fan of Jonathan Anderson.”

Wait, maybe my colleagues were on to something. What has this box pulled me into?

Fantastical? Supernatural? Whatever this story is, this label, it is definitely one of a kind. Searching for a handrail, let’s get back to the music.

“We see ourselves as a premium label. That means no cutting corners anywhere. We work with the best mastering engineers, the records are pressed to the highest possible standards, and the artwork is treated with the same level of care. Everything is done properly.”

This is undeniable. But there is also a serious sense of fun to these proceedings. A tongue-in-cheek playfulness that seems to have been lost with the stony-faced seriousness of electronic music or the financial strains of running a label.

Dornhöfer is a storyteller, a raconteur who playfully leans into the mysterious with the mischievousness of a boy. The narrative he has woven around Synaptic Cliffs is ever evolving, ever shifting as the imagined somehow takes form.  And that form is very exciting. A label led by a character of boundless energy, an imprint without boundaries, a platform to connect artists and bisect time and space.

“I feel another pdqb attack coming…

…over and out…”

Visit https://synapticcliffs.bandcamp.com