Listen to MKDVB’s cosmic take on Christmas from 2018

Originally released in 2018, ‘Cosmic Christmas’ by Sacramento-based artist MKDVB (pronounced M-K-Dub) is an album worth revisiting as a curious listening ritual for this time of year.

Framed as a Christmas concept album—“but maybe less cheesy”—it takes inspiration from old New Age holiday cassette tapes, drifting comfortably into ambient, kosmische, and experimental synth-pop territory.

The result is a sound that feels gentle yet slightly uncanny, built from slow-moving pads, digital choirs, and soft rhythmic pulses.

Throughout the album, familiar and nostalgic melodies are stretched and re-voiced through a palette of hardware including the Synthstrom Deluge, Sequential Prophet Rev2, Roland V-Synth XT, Juno-106, and various Elektron Analog instruments. This combination gives the music a warm, tactile quality while keeping it subtly off-kilter.

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Opening track ‘Sleigh Ride (When Stressings Turn to Blessings)’ leans into warm synth textures, while ‘LDB/POE’ reframes the Bowie/Crosby pairing with floaty ambient electronics, soft guitar plucks, and restrained percussion.

The album also bestows upon us original pieces such as ‘Cosmic O’ and ‘Turn Your Blessings Into Bliss’ that move further into drifting ambient space and are paired with improvised analogue video synthesis using a Vidiot system.

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Even moments like ‘Auld Lang Syne (Elf Party)’, featuring saxophone processed through Eventide effects, feel oddly intimate.

‘Cosmic Christmas’ exists in the space between nostalgia and experimentation; familiar enough to comfort, but still strange enough to surprise

Listen to the entire album complete with visuals by MKDVB below.

Amira Waworuntu is Mixmag Asia’s Managing Editor, follow her on Instagram.

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