A Deep Dive into Alaska in Winter

No, I am not talking about literally diving into Alaska in the dead of winter. That would be foolhardy at best, and frostbite-inducing at worst. I’m talking about one of the best bands you’ve likely never heard of, Alaska in Winter – one of my favorites for close to 15 years now. (CW: mental health, suicide mentioned within, caveat lector)

Prolegomena

First of all, what is Alaska in Winter? Alaska in Winter is a solo project by the elusive Brandon Bethancourt, who, as far as I know, has spent most of his time making music in Albuquerque, New Mexico (with a detour to Alaska and even Berlin). As far as the legend goes, the name stems from a winter he spent in, you guessed it, Alaska, making music in an isolated cabin. That music, The Cabin Sessions, has thus far never been released (what a shame!). Brandon’s music is synthy, poppy, vocoder-drenched, and full of energy and meaning at the same time.

Where did I hear about his music? Well, Brandon happens to be friends with another musician, Zach Condon, better known as the frontman of indie band Beirut. I got into Beirut in around 2007-08 after hearing their music, specifically “A Sunday Smile” and “Postcards from Italy,” on Stephen Merchant’s XFM radio show, The Steve Show. I learned about a lot of great new music on that show, but Beirut is one of the only ones that’s stuck with me to this day, IIRC.

I am not sure how I heard about AIW, though. I think through getting into Beirut, I found out that Condon guested on AIW’s “Close Your Eyes - We Are Blind,” the closer of AIW’s debut album Dance Party in the Balkans. IIRC, I heard that track and I was hooked. It has Condon’s trademark ukulele with some synths mixed in, and is a song of ethereal beauty. If I close my eyes (sorry for the pun), I envision a solemn circle of shadowy figures, standing in the darkness under the flashing, mesmerizing aurora borealis. It’s really quite lovely. So that was my gateway.

Another act associated with AIW is A Hawk and a Hacksaw; band member Heather Trost has collaborated as part of AIW at times, but I don’t honestly know the extent of her contributions. I tried getting into A Hawk and a Hacksaw before, but it just wasn’t my thing, unlike Beirut and AIW.

What kind of music is it?

So that’s an interesting question. As I see it, Brandon’s music is the other side of the coin to Beirut. Beirut’s always described themselves as “Balkan pop” – soulful, indie pop with influences from Turkish and Greek folk music. Beirut’s music is full of eclectic acoustics, including French horns, trumpets, ukulele, and others. AIW leans hard into synthpop, using keytars and synths and lending everything a glorious ’80s vibe. Vocoder is also liberally used, which may or may not be your thing, but I actually really enjoy its use in AIW’s music.

AIW’s music is also darker, befitting a winter in Alaska, of course. While Beirut sings of love and French cities, and how “the light’s always in season,” AIW embraces the more melancholy side of life. But it’s a beautiful darkness and I think they complement each other very well. It’s a shame that there aren’t more collaborations (to my knowledge) than “Close Your Eyes - We Are Blind” (and the later reworking “We Are Blind and Riding the Merry-Go-Round”).

Beginnings

AIW didn’t spring ex nihilo, though. There was a very early iteration of what would become AIW called Rap. Brandon and his friend Hari Ziznewski formed the duo and put out just a few songs. I don’t know how I found out about them, but it was after I got into AIW. Ziznewski, as well as Condon, can be seen in Brandon’s bizarro short film Futurecoder parts 1 & 2. I would link to it, as it used to be on YouTube, but searching just now, I can’t seem to find it. It’s a fun little film though.

Rap’s limited catalogue can actually be found on Myspace, of all places. If you’re enterprising, you can rip the songs using rtmpdump (easily available on Linux). “Sega Song” has a really fascinating video with a great live performance. And “Keytar Love 1986” is a very synthy precursor to the AIW bonus track “A Love Note from Your Piano” (more on that later). Those are the highlights; I actually rather enjoy “Computer Hangover” as well. I don’t even know when the music came out, so it’s marked as 200x, giving the terminus post quem as 2000 and ante quem as 2010, naturally.

Another early project was called Opion Somnium, which released one full-length album, Operae Spererae / Opus Somniferous (the first part being pseudo-Latin, I guess?), in 2004. The name suggests opium (< Gk. ὄπιον [opion], diminutive of ὄπος [opos] “juice”), of course. I bought a copy and it’s actually quite nice. Very ethereal and atmospheric, and the final track contains a hidden track, an early version of AIW’s sophomore album’s track “Keep Your Boots Clean And Everything You Step On Is Dirt” (the latter is better, IMHO).

Debut

I started at the beginning, of course (I am kind of a completist). AIW’s first album, Dance Party in the Balkans, came out in 2007, a year after Beirut’s Gulag Orkestar and the same year Beirut’s sophomore album The Flying Club Cup came out.

Just so you know, AIW put all his music on his YouTube channel, so you can easily peruse it for free. And if you’d like to throw some money his way, you can buy it on Bandcamp as well.

The album starts out with “The Homeless and the Hummingbirds,” talking about pretty much exactly that. (A song on an album years later, “Speedboat to Homelessness,” mashes this up with the later track “Speedboat to Heaven”; it’s excellent). The second track, “Your Red Dress (Wedding Song at Cemetery)” is jaunty and also ethereal. His singing sounds like a disembodied voice. The video for this track is quite strange, with Brandon dancing around, unsurprisingly, at a cemetery holding a red dress. I can’t find the video for it on YouTube anymore.

Other highlights include “Balkan Lowrider Anthem,” which is a jam, and has a great video. “Lovely Lovely Love” is melancholy (“You always hurt the ones you love…”), and “Staring at the Sun” is also great. “Horsey Horse” is pretty oddball and oddly sombre; there is a Pt. 2 and Pt. 3 even for this on other albums. The album closes sombrely with “Close Your Eyes - We Are Blind,” but powerfully. Some versions include the bonus track “A Love Note from Your Piano,” which is a reworking of Rap’s “Keytar Love 1986” in, of course, piano, with full lyrics, and it’s long, and lovely.

No Sophomore Slump

AIW almost immediately followed up his debut with 2008’s Holiday. The cover is ridiculously kitschy and has a silhouette of Brandon holding a keytar. I love this album. As Dance Party ended, Holiday starts with a reworking of Dance Party’s closer called “We Are Blind and Riding the Merry-Go-Round.” It’s a little more upbeat and just a different vibe, but it sets the mood for the album.

The album, as far as I’ve heard, is steeped in Berlin club culture, and reflects German dancey electronica. The real banger is the 2nd track, “Berlin.” Instead of evoking Berlin, this track evokes the desolation of winter, but also laser light shows. The video for this is amazing. Holiday is just full of hits IMHO. “Speed Boat to Heaven” is great: “My speedboat goes much faster than yours…” and he also talks about how we’re all in the same “speedboat to heaven” (As I mentioned above, the mashup of this on a later album is fantastic).

A lot of the rest of the album is 2- and 3-part songs. “Highlander” parts 1 and 2 are really interesting. Part 1 talks about love and loss and how immortal Highlanders have to watch their loves grow old and die. He also talks about his Highlander crew “rolling 40,000 deep,” which is hilarious but also kind of epic. A two-part ode to Highlander? Sign me up.

After a little break (“Knorrpromenade”), we get to a trifecta: Streetgang parts 1-3. The first two tracks are all buildup. I get a strong Warriors vibe from these tracks in general (part 1, “my streetgang…” and part 2, “You’re so tough…”). Very atmospheric in general and super synthy. However, it all builds up to part 3, which is the triumphant climax. My ex, when I played it for her, said “it sounds like I just beat Koopa’s castle or something.” I guess I can see that – it has that kind of vibe, but it’s also badass. (Part 3 is reworked later into a marvelous version with lyrics; the original doesn’t have lyrics and is just instrumental; more on that later).

I mentioned “Keep Your Boots Clean and Everything You Step On Is Dirt” earlier as a reworking of an Opion Somnium track. I think this is the better song honestly. A remix of “Close Your Eyes” and then “Horsey Horse Pt. 2” close out the album. Solemnly gorgeous: “Maybe when you die, I’ll see you floating in the sky…” Totally different vibe from the first version.

Lasers and Robot Wings

Two years later, AIW took a hard left turn and went back to a glorious retro 1980s setting for 2010’s Space Eagle (the motion picture soundtrack). Billed as a soundtrack for a movie that never existed, the album cover has the Moon, maybe Venus (?), and Saturn against the backdrop of space, and an eagle flying by in the middle, and a grid of lines at the bottom. It’s retro and simultaneously super futuristic.

The first track is called “Metroid” and immediately evokes the gloomy title screen music of Metroid. The title track, “Space Eagle,” is pretty epic. “Your tears are crystals…. I love your robot wings….” It’s so bizarre but awesome at the same time. The rest of the album is also great (“Airwolf,” clearly based on the bizarro ’80s helicopter-themed TV show Airwolfe, is quite fun as well), but the title track is really the standout for me. The album as a cohesive whole is quite lovely. I really like Space Eagle but it’s strangely not my favorite; I like the earlier and later stuff, but it definitely has its place.

I remember ordering this album when it came out. It initially came out only on cassette tape, which I know is ridiculous, but I ended up ripping it to WAV and then MP3. It fit the retro theme, certainly. Eventually a digital version surfaced, though, which is probably better quality, but the tape was kinda cool.

2011: the end?

2011 saw four releases from AIW, all of which I bought at the time and deeply enjoyed: 3 EPs and one LP. These were an eclectic quad of releases, to be sure. I don’t precisely remember the order of the first 3, but the last one I do remember. I’ll go in the rough order.

B-Sides and Other Missed Opportunities was a collection of just that: b-sides and eclectic remixes and reworkings of earlier tracks, with some new tracks thrown in. There’s a 12" version of “Berlin,” which is great, of course. “Horsey Horse the 3rd” is a great, super electro-reworking of “Horsey Horse Pt. 2” with lots of beats and bass. I’ve already mentioned “Speedboat to Homelessness” which is also great. However, “Streetgang 3 (Live Vocal Version)” is the crown jewel of this particular album. It’s “Streetgang Pt. 3” with full lyrics and they are absolutely ridiculous. “And we won’t back down from any dance-fight…” It gives me Warriors and West Side Story vibes, but also oddly makes me think of the Zoolander dance-off. It’s so ridiculous but also awesome. The latter half of the album is remixes by others (a remix of “Airwolfe” by Hari Ziznewski, inter alia) and I like them, but none are particularly standout IMHO. Not saying they’re not good, but the album is very front-loaded I think.

The next two EPs are a lot darker. Suicide Prevention Hotline is, of course, rather dark given its title. From what I gleaned from AIW’s Facebook page at the time, where Brandon was fairly candid about his mental health struggles, he was working through some shit at the time. The two standouts on this album are “Demons” and “Divine Miscalculations,” IMHO. “Demons” speaks of isolation: “I’d rather have my own hell than to be with you…” He’d prefer his inner demons to dealing with other people, it seems. “Divine Miscalculations” asks how could there be a loving God with all the pain and suffering in the world (which speaks to me as an atheist, but yeah). “Downward Spiral Dial Tone” ends the album on a downer note (the hotline has failed, maybe?).

Memorex Floppy Disk’s CD came inserted into a 5 1/4-inch floppy disk, which was pretty kitschy and cool packaging. I still have it somewhere! This was a very small 2-track EP with some very gloomy tracks: “Darvon Cocktail” and “Leap of Faith.” AFAIK, Darvon is a painkiller (“With a handful of medication…”), and the album cover has a bottle pouring out a bunch of pills. “Leap of Faith” is also a fairly gloomy track. Both are suicide-themed. As I said, as far as I know, this was a gloomy time.

December Compositions was released right around December 2011. All tracks are instrumental and quite lovely. The album cover shows a sunset over snowy mountains. It’s all very atmospheric and wonderful. None of the tracks have names, they’re just all “December Composition #1” &c. And it’s a nice way to end the catalogue, honestly. It ends with a whimper, but what a triumphant whimper, if it is one.

Loose Ends / What’s Next?

There are a few scattered singles floating around that I’ve collected over the years: “Don’t Get Out of Bed,” “Haytron 2500,” The Coldest Day in the World," and “You Will Be Alone.” I don’t know much about any of them, but they’re good, and I don’t think they belong to any album, but are just one-offs.

I mentioned above that AIW’s page seems to have some newish music on it, which is news to me. I might have to buy the Remixes and the Sun Allergies album; Sun Allergies seems to be yet another moniker for AIW – maybe it is the next iteration? I hope he keeps putting out music in some form. As far as I understood from FB posts and posts on his website, he wasn’t able to make ends meet just making music, which is really sad, since his music is really great and brings joy and comfort to a lot of people.

Epilegomena and Final Thoughts

I’ve been an avid collector of AIW media since I got into them in around 2007-08, as I mentioned, and most of it petered out around 2011 with December Compositions. As I mentioned above, there appears to be some new content out there which I’ll have to check out.

So you may be asking, why did I write this? Why does this music matter at all to me? That’s a difficult question. When I got into AIW, it was a sort of “second Renaissance” for me in terms of my music taste. Among Beirut and all the other music I was getting into at that time, including dark ambient, which I fell for hard around that time as well – AIW was just another lovely find in the haystack.

And the music is kinda goofy at times, but I love that he doesn’t take himself too seriously, and seems to have fun with it. And despite it being often melancholy, there is a great deal of joy and light in the music, even if it’s buried deep at times. He obviously loves making music and it shows. And he’s good at it! The music is sophisticated, harmonious, catchy, the lyrics are ridiculous yet fun, but at the same time, sometimes very deep and profound. The worldview contained in the music is again often very melancholy, but it’s a world you can access and familiarize yourself with, and come back to like an old friend.

I used to be one of those “music is life” types. I still am to a certain extent, but I don’t think I’m that serious and self-important about it like I used to be. Music is fun and it brightens up life, and gives meaning to many people, and everyone finds something different within it. AIW is a band I have always deeply appreciated and enjoyed, and wanted to share some of my appreciation and love for them with you all and explain what makes them so special to me – even almost 15 years after I discovered them. (Random, but Deltron 3030 came out over 20 years ago and my spouse and I both still think it rules; Dr. Octagonecologyst is almost 30 years old now, and I feel the same about it, though it’s not aged quite as well as Deltron 3030).

In any case, thank you all for reading. If you have any questions about AIW lore, I’m happy to impart whatever else I know if I can. Check out the music, though – I think you will enjoy it! Cheers.