Spacesynth is a highly melodic strain of Italo-Disco that emerged in the early 1980s under the heavy influence of Space Disco, Progressive Electronic and Hi-NRG. At first it was only a progressive instrumental version of Italo-disco, but under the influence of futuristic aesthetics, spacesynth eventually acquired its own unique sound. Spacesynth inherits the classic Italo-disco formula with melodic synth riffs and four-to-the-floor beat, but with a special focus on the synth side and characterized by its big
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Spacesynth is a highly melodic strain of Italo-Disco that emerged in the early 1980s under the heavy influence of Space Disco, Progressive Electronic and Hi-NRG. At first it was only a progressive instrumental version of Italo-disco, but under the influence of futuristic aesthetics, spacesynth eventually acquired its own unique sound. Spacesynth inherits the classic Italo-disco formula with melodic synth riffs and four-to-the-floor beat, but with a special focus on the synth side and characterized by its big, swirling, euphoric melodies and catchy riffs. Recordings often use modulated synth lines, synth-brass chords, LinnDrum samples, and cosmic sound effects, whilst vocals are used sparingly; recordings are typically instrumental, use brief vocal samples, or make use of vocoders.
Early blueprints were set by tracks such as Space's "Magic Fly" and Vangelis's "Pulstar" in the previous decade. Falling on the Italo-disco and Hi-NRG bases, the spacesynth sound became big in Italy in the early-to-mid 1980s, especially with groups such as Cyber People and Hipnosis. Spacesynth of that time could often be heard as purely instrumental stuff on standard Italo-disco albums or soundtracks, examples of which are Kano's "Ikeya Seki" or "Cut and Run" by Claudio Simonetti.
In the second half of the 1980s, spacesynth acquired its classic formula, primarily shaped by Anfrando Maiola and Stefano Cundari's group KOTO and the numerous projects of Michiel van der Kuy and Rob van Eijk, including Proxyon and Laser Dance (whose album Future Generation becoming the most successful and influential spacesynth release in the history of the genre). Their style, strongly influenced by early Eurobeat, features a distinctive lead pulsating octave bassline and emphasis on thrashing chords, synth arpeggios and rich percussion, as well as characteristic sync leads, sharp bells, orchestra stabs, active use of the vocoder and “marker” presets from the Ensoniq ESQ-1/SQ-80, E-mu Emulator and Korg M1 synthesizers with a lot of different effects such as reverb and delay.
Spacesynth suffered a decline of interest in the 1990s, partly due to the widespread popularity of other EDM styles House, Techno, Eurodance, and Trance. At the same time, spacesynth gained immense popularity among demosceners and Tracker Music composers, leading to the emergence of Doskpop, a fusion style between spacesynth and Demostyle, which was often heard in Commodore Amiga and IBM PC demoscenes, as well as in some early 1990s video games. This, alongside the original 1980s boom, influenced a new generation of spacesynth musicians and producers in the 2000s and beyond, including Galaxy Hunter, Everdune and Electron.
