FATA MORGANA

On their new album Fata Morgana, an illusory trip of emotion and confrontation, Belgian duo schntzl conjure mirages of fleeting realities while diving headfirst into a trance-driven, confrontational digital sound.

Fata Morgana unfolds like a hyper-visual journey, constructing enveloping dreamworlds through trance-infused live electronica. Yet trance here is present not in form but in essence—an intensity, a state of being. It may stir the same emotions as club music, but schntzl express them in a language entirely their own. Kitsch loops, improvisation, and distortion bend their music into illusions that dissolve and reappear, creating sonic worlds that never settle into habitual patterns.

schntzl’s live shows are whirlwinds of absurd energy and fearless improvisation. They take on the sound of Belgian ’90s trance kitsch with a voracious appetite for implosion. Their jazz skills and sense of Dada intertwine with the euphoric melodic builds and arpeggios that typify the bumper car music of yesteryear, creating a sound that is more futuristic than retro—exploratory, exciting, and brimming with Belgian surrealism.

Where their previous record Holiday (cortizona, 2023) breathed warmth and chamber-like intimacy, trance here is no longer a hidden seed but a flood—sharp, raw, insistent. Fata Morgana feels retrofuturistic, like a dream refracted through the lens of a videogame—at times exotic, at times liberating from simulated loopholes. An album of illusions and ruptures, it invites the listener into soundscapes that never stand still, where confrontation and play are inseparable, and every mirage dissolves only to reveal another.

Each track carries traces of improvisation, live exchange, and the restless joy of invention. At its core lies the playful spirit that has defined schntzl from the beginning. Their sound is built on joie de jouer—the thrill of discovering new sounds, of pushing each other to the edge, of walking the tightrope between leading and following. When imbalance threatens to take over, they counter with bold strokes, reshaping each other’s ideas in real time, turning contrast into dialogue.

Benjamin Ikoma “The horse is an archetype of freedom, instinct, and movement. It embodies the unconscious forces that propel us forward—the pure life drive, the intuitive energy that carries us even when we don’t fully understand it.”

Echoes of Giant Claw and Oneohtrix Point Never resound in the hyper-digital synths, while the drums carry the raw edge of Astrid Sonne. And yet, what emerges is unmistakably schntzl—confrontational and playful, sentimental and brutal, always shifting between illusion and reality.