Alpine Decline on Loving Synths and Becoming a Trio
By Andrew Chin
Reinvention is nothing new for Alpine Decline. Rising from the ashes of Los Angeles quartet Mezzanine Owls, the married duo of guitarist Jonathan Zeitlin and drummer Pauline Mu released three striking discs within a year before disappearing to Beijing five years ago.
Now firmly established within the capital city’s indie scene, the band have gained a member and completely changed tack on their seventh album, Life’s A Gasp!
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Describing the record as a “love-hate letter to Beijing,” Zeitlin admits that “as strangers, we’re already seeing everything as metaphors or symbols, already imagining things as caricatures of reality.”
While he’s reluctant to delve specifically into the disc’s lyrical tropes, Zeitlin praises Beijing’s music scene as “warm and welcoming.” He recalls discovering kindred spirits at the experimental Zoomin’ Nights events, once held at the late livehouses D-22 and XP.
Through those connections, the band has formed a tight bond with P.K. 14 frontman Yang Haisong. While Yang was only on production duty for the four albums Alpine Decline has previously recorded in China, he now joins the group on Life’s A Gasp! as their bassist.
The disc ditches the tape-machine experimentation and psychedelic blues of 2014’s Go Big Shadow City in favor of a more live energy, synth-led sound, and the band fully embrace their Eurorack modular synth system (for music tech enthusiasts, this is a type of synthesizer that creates different sounds by physically connecting patch chords to its separate specialized modules).
While synthesizers have always been part of the group’s musical DNA, Zeitlin admits that “the process of overdubbing layer after layer of synthesizers in the studio is decidedly un-magical.”
“Modular synths let us do all the layers on an album in one live studio take,” he explains. “It’s a setup that is more like a performance on an instrument than some esoteric recording art.”
“We wanted to record all the ‘rock instruments’ live before adding the surrounding modular superstructure. That combination gave us a unique opportunity to use a live approach to recording while still giving the album an intensely textured landscape. It’s the sound of three very live, warm human bodies beset by very alien, mechanical forces.”
To show off both sides of the album, Alpine Decline will be touring the nation as a trio, stopping off at School on July 2. In select cities (including Beijing on July 3 at fruityspace) they will also perform a special modular synth show, before heading to North America in October.
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“It’s almost impossible to perfectly recreate sounds on the modular, which makes it more exciting to play live,” Zeitlin says.
“When you see people playing guitar and drums while singing songs, you are able to contextualize what they are doing. When we play modular shows, it may take people longer to classify what we are doing and put it in a box. They may even begin to question the experience itself and whether if we are making music or doing something else all together.”
Live Show: July 2, 9pm, RMB60-80. School, 53 Wudaoying Hutong, by Andingmenwai Dajie, Chaoyang 朝阳区五道营胡同53号（6402 8881）
Modular show: July 3, 8.30pm, RMB40. fruityspace, 13 Meishuguan Dong Jie 美术馆东街13号
Photo by Nevin Domar.
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