Search - Alaska in Winter :: Dance Party in the Balkans

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 Hack And A Hacksaw (a Neutral Milk Hotel side-project), and Rosina Roybal (who played viola in the Kanye West symphony), and thus finished the album Dance Party in the Balkans.

Brandon takes much of his influence from all his early years of growing up in the (American) South West, immersed in the musical low-rider culture of Santa Fe, New Mexico, as well as a slight Arabian influence on the part of his parents and their Byzantine church music. He has recently toured the US and Canada with Beirut in 2007.

Bethancourt's live show consists of him alone on stage with a full band projected behind him - each member is him playing a different instrument, recorded beforehand.