Alaska In Winter feat. Zach Condon of Beirut

Alaska In Winter

It looks like this one may have slipped past Drake this week, so I thought I’d mention the new release from Alaska In Winter on my own. I’m definitely a fan of the guest musicians involved, though I’m not 100% sure about the final product. You can listen on MySpace to a couple of tracks and judge for yourself. Here’s how the PR department describes the project.

Alaska In Winter came about when art student Brandon Bethancourt spent a semester recording music in an isolated cabin on the south coast of Alaska. Upon arrival back in New Mexico, he teamed up with Zach Condon of Beirut, Heather Trost of A Hawk And A Hacksaw and other friends, and thus began work on his album. Brandon, the group’s songwriter, takes much of his influence from his early years of growing up in the American Southwest, immersed in the musical low-rider culture of Santa Fe, New Mexico, as well as slight Arabian influence on the part of his parents and their Byzantine church music.

Dance Party in the Balkans is a rich album with various musical colors. He started programming using the recording software “Audacity” and managed to get a hold of a keyboard and started recording a lo-fi pop album in his tiny cabin out in the middle of nowhere Alaska, during the winter, and thus the project, “Alaska In Winter” was created.

DOWNLOAD: Alaska In Winter Mix (mp3)

A video and Alaska In Winter UK and European dates after the jump.

“Your Red Dress” – Alaska In Winter

Alaska In Winter 2008 Tour Dates
Apr 06 2008 Head Of Steam Newcastle, UK
Apr 08 2008 Brudenell Social Club Leeds, UK
Apr 09 2008 View 2 Gallery Liverpool, UK
Apr 10 2008 93 Feet East London, UK
Apr 12 2008 Flapper & Firkin Birmingham, UK
Apr 15 2008 Le Botanique Brussels, Belgium
Apr 16 2008 La Flêche d’Or Paris, France
Apr 19 2008 L’Intermediare Marseille, France
Apr 22 2008 Astra Stube Hamburg, Germany
Apr 24 2008 Duncker Berlin, Germany
Jun 06 2008 Organ Reykjavík, Iceland