Gris Futuro and the Black Horses: a Review of the “Nowadaze” Album

Gris Futuro: Rogelio Serrano x Eglė Naujokaitytė

The last time I was this obsessed with a darkwave duo was when I discovered the Americans Boy Harsher. I drove to their nearest show in Latvia and did what any civilized person does when faced with good darkness: I bought every vinyl record they’d ever released. And today, that darkness is finding its way back into my heart at a new address. My new favourites are Gris Futuro, a minimal synth and darkwave duo whose geography doesn’t fit on one continent. Vocalist Eglė Naujokaitytė (aka Egle Muk) from Lithuania sings here in four languages: Spanish, Lithuanian, English, and French. And shaping a dark world with synths and modular synthesis is Rogelio Serrano (aka Equinoxious) from Mexico. They met in 2021, and the album Nowadaze landed on November 7, 2025 via à La Carte Records. The only problem is simple and very human: I can’t go and buy all their albums yet, because so far there’s only one. But if this is the debut, I’m already standing in line for the next one.

And while I’m waiting, I introduce it in my next video the way I’m supposed to:

Nowadaze comes on vinyl in two versions: a clear pressing and one that looks like someone fired a blue laser burst straight into it. Naturally, I chose the second one. Vinyl, for me, has always been and still is a time capsule, and this one even deliberately breaks the ritual: there’s no usual A side and B side. There’s P and F. As in Present and Future. Conceptual, because this album is about the everyday fog of information, about algorithms that know us better than we know ourselves, about social networks that inflate our egos and leave nothing but emptiness inside. About longing for better times that maybe never even existed.

From the very first sounds of the intro, we’re pulled into a strange cosmic connection, and then the minimal synth and dark pulse start rising like a tide. The rhythm is dry and precise, the synths glow with cold neon, and above it all floats Eglė’s voice, sometimes sweetly hypnotic, sometimes almost retreating into shadow. And the higher that pulse climbs, the clearer it becomes that this record doesn’t ask for your attention. It takes it.

If you want to get to know Gris Futuro more closely, you’ll find their interview and live performance on LRT OPUS Jaunatis below.

And you can buy Nowadaze on Bandcamp.