Spacesynth
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Spacesynth is instrumental Italo-disco and synthdance with sci-fi melody, vocoder accents, rolling electronic bass, laser-like leads, and drum-machine propulsion. It is cleaner and more European-disco-rooted than modern synthwave, but it supplied a large part of synthwave's space-age DNA. The mood is cosmic, arcade-like, melodic, and proudly synthetic.
History
Spacesynth formed in the mid-1980s from Italo disco, space disco, synth-pop, and European studio projects. Laserdance, Koto, Proxyon, Cyber People, Hypnosis, Rofo, Rygar, Syntech, and later Kebu or Galactic Warriors kept the vocabulary of instrumental space themes alive. The style never became a mainstream Anglo-American genre label, but collectors, ZYX compilations, Discogs communities, and modern retro-synth producers preserved it as a key ancestor of outrun, retrowave, and melodic synthwave.
Defining artists
Essential listening
Sources
- Studio.se Laserdance interview
- Space Sound Records spacesynth history
- ZYX Italo Disco Spacesynth collections
- Discogs release listings