Alaska In Winter

Brandon Bethancourt originated the enigmatic and far-flung indie pop endeavor Alaska in Winter during the first years of the 2000s while residing in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Its title traces to an academic term he completed in Alaska, the setting where he first captured tracks inside a secluded cabin. After coming back to New Mexico he enlisted several indie rock associates—Beirut’s Zach Condon, A Hack and a Hacksaw’s Heather Trost, and violist Rosina Roybal, who had performed in the Kanye West symphony—to expand the Alaskan material into finished form. The resulting debut, the spacious and atmospheric Dance Party in the Balkans, whose title evoked a raw Eastern European character, appeared on the U.K. label Regular Beat in 2007.