Split Vision release ‘Cold War’, the second single from ‘BetaCity’
Split Vision releases the synthpop single “Cold War” on 2 October 2026 via Town And Towers Records, the second single from the album “BetaCity”.
Swedish synthpop act Split Vision release the single “Cold War” on 2 October 2026 through the Danish label Town And Towers Records. The track is the second single from the band’s upcoming album “BetaCity”, due on 6 November 2026 on streaming, CD and vinyl.
“Cold War” follows “Out of Nowhere”, released on 10 September 2026 as the first single from “BetaCity.” The new track moves into darker territory than its predecessor. Sequenced synthesizers underpin lyrics that revisit Cold War-era paranoia, isolation and secrecy as a metaphor for conflict and uncertainty. The lyrics were written by the band’s label manager, Stig Wintendorff, in the 1980s. The chorus repeats the song’s central image: “Dancing in the shadows of the Cold War night.”
The single’s cover artwork draws on Cold War-era imagery: masks, military hardware and Soviet-style visual motifs.
Split Vision’s ‘BetaCity’ album
Split Vision’s previous album, “Echoes of a New Spell” (2025, Town And Towers Records), drew on the synthesizers and recording approach associated with early Depeche Mode. “BetaCity” turns instead toward the early sound of Alphaville. Town And Towers Records describes the album’s sound as combining “warm analogue synthesizers with colder digital textures, wavetable sounds, sequenced bass lines and atmospheric pads.”
Recommended for fans of Alphaville, Depeche Mode and Erasure.
About Split Vision
Split Vision formed in Sweden in 1985, when two teenage friends started writing synthpop with influences from Depeche Mode, Yazoo, Erasure and Pet Shop Boys. Two more members joined, and the four-piece played discotheques in North Eastern Skåne and appeared on regional radio and talent shows through the late 1980s. Platinum Records released the single “How Will I Ever” in 1988, and “So Many Times” became a minor hit in Sweden before the group disbanded.
Dan Hansson and Henric Palmqvist, two of the original members, restarted Split Vision in the spring of 2019 to write new material rooted in the band’s 1980s sound. “We wanted to take the audience on a journey back to carefully carved arpeggios, that smell of Moog and Yamaha DX-7,” the band said of that return, describing music with “strong melodies performed by a distinct lead and backed by a contemporary vocoder.” The result, “Among the Stars,” arrived on 1 October 2020, with lyrics and soundscapes that reference the cosmos.
Split Vision signed to the Scandinavian label Town And Towers Records in 2022 and has released several singles and EPs since. A music video for “Lust,” directed by Norwegian filmmaker Öystein Thorsen, followed in August 2024 and won awards at the New York Tri-State International Film Festival and the KHIFF Krimson Horyzon International Film Festival in India. The band has also toured as a support act for the British group China Crisis. “Echoes of a New Spell” followed in 2025, and “Out of Nowhere” opened the “BetaCity” campaign on 10 September 2026. “Cold War,” released 2 October 2026, is the second single from that album, due on 6 November 2026 through Town And Towers Records.
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