SoftWave release ‘Wake Up (Cicero Remix)’, a single remixed by the Pet Shop Boys-produced Scottish synthpop artist
Danish synthpop duo SoftWave release “Wake Up (Cicero Remix)” on 18 September 2026, the second single from the remix album “things we’ve remixed”.
Cicero, the Scottish synthpop artist whom Pet Shop Boys signed to their Spaghetti Recordings label in the early 1990s, has remixed Danish synthpop duo SoftWave. “Wake Up (Cicero Remix)” comes out on 18 September 2026 as a self-released digital single, mastered by Nordic Music Group, with cover artwork by Jason Stetson. A pre-save link is live.
The remix returns a favour. SoftWave’s friend and collaborator Barney Ashton-Bullock, working for Cherry Red, introduced the duo to Cicero, and SoftWave went on to remix his 1992 single “Love Is Everywhere”, a track produced by Pet Shop Boys with Neil Tennant on backing vocals. Their version appeared on 29 September 2023 on the 3CD 30th anniversary expanded edition of Cicero’s album “Future Boy”, where it sits on the “Ciceroddities!” disc next to four other new remixes of the song and live recordings from Heaven in 1991. Three years later Cicero takes the controls for SoftWave. The duo describe his version as one that “brings a distinctive retro synthpop and Italo-disco flavour to the track, while preserving the melody and emotional core of the original.”
“Wake Up (Cicero Remix)” is the second of three singles leading up to “things we’ve remixed”, SoftWave’s remix album due on 23 October 2026. The first was “Supernova (Aspra Remix)”, released on 21 August 2026 and made by Aspra, the solo project of Marsheaux’s Sophia Sarigiannidou. The album collects nine remixes by producers from six countries and marks more than a decade of the duo’s collaborations.
From ‘Aspire’ to ‘things we’ve remixed’: the history of ‘Wake Up’
The original “Wake Up” first appeared on the five-track EP “Aspire”, released digitally on 14 October 2022 and reviewed on Side-Line as “Aspire”. SoftWave described it at the time as the song for people who cannot get out of bed early. A year later the track was carried over to the album “things we’ve done”, out digitally on 13 October 2023, on CD through Electro-Shock Records on 20 October 2023 and on vinyl on 21 June 2024. Jerry Olsen wrote the music and played the synthesizers, Catrine Christensen sang and wrote the lyrics, and Nordic Music Group’s Jacob Cederberg mixed and mastered the album.
A remix compilation after every release has become a habit for the duo. “Together Alone The Remixes” (2017) followed the debut EP with nine remixes from six countries, and “Game On 1Up” (2019) reworked the debut album with twelve remixers, among them former Human League member Ian Burden. “things we’ve remixed” is the third such collection.
About SoftWave
SoftWave formed in Denmark in 2014 as the duo of Catrine Christensen (vocals, lyrics) and Jerry Olsen (synthesizers, production), working out of their own Blue Orange Studio. They mix classic British-styled synthpop with dance-pop and name Erasure as an inspiration. The debut EP “Together Alone” came out on 27 May 2016, followed by “Together Alone The Remixes” on 15 February 2017 and a remake of “Everything Change” for the Danish Electro Vol. 01 compilation in February 2018.
The debut album “Game On” arrived in April 2019 on digital, LP and CD, preceded by the singles “Something Is Missing”, “No Need To Hide” and “Galaxy Of Stars”; Side-Line reviewed the vinyl edition of “Game On”. The remix album “Game On 1Up” followed on 19 November 2019 and was reissued on CD by Electro-Shock Records on 1 October 2020 with a live bonus track recorded at Rockefeller in Oslo, where SoftWave supported OMD on the Scandinavian leg of the “Souvenir” tour in February 2020 (Side-Line review: “Game On 1Up”). In 2021 the duo produced two remixes for Andy Bell‘s “Club Torsten!” LP on Cherry Red, and on 11 June 2021 they released the single “System Failure”.
The EP “Aspire” (14 October 2022) was followed by the Christmas single “Will It Ever Be Christmas Again” on 1 December 2022, co-written with Barney Ashton-Bullock, and by the second album “things we’ve done” in October 2023. That same autumn SoftWave’s remix of “Love Is Everywhere” appeared on Cicero’s “Future Boy” expanded edition. A 12″ vinyl EP of the Christmas single, with a radio edit, an interview and a new remix, came out on 24 November 2025. The remix album “things we’ve remixed”, opened by “Supernova (Aspra Remix)” in August 2026 and continued by “Wake Up (Cicero Remix)” on 18 September, is due on 23 October 2026.
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