The last decade has seen both a revival and evolution surrounding the genres of minimal synth, cold wave, dark wave and body music. While the music has always held a special place, personally, I can remember falling out of touch with the genres through the late 90’s and early 2000’s. The so-called “goth” community was still resting on its 80’s laurels and for the most part, innovation and new directions fell flat. Suddenly around 2010 the tide started to turn. We saw labels like Dark Entries and Minimal Wave begin to shine some light on obscure and rarely heard projects and a new generation of listeners became inspired.

In 2011, two university students in London named Ryan Ambridge and Alison Lewis formed Linea Aspera. After releasing a self-titled EP, the project quickly gained international attention. Ambridge’s infectious synths and Lewis’ ethereal vocals was huge rush of fresh air, helping to reinvigorate the synth-wave sound. Dark Entries would go on to release the duo’s first LP on vinyl and tracks like “Synapse” became an underground hit, resonating through dance floors from London to L.A.

As quickly as the project rose, in 2013 it suddenly dissolved and disappeared. Since that time, Linea Aspera has taken on an almost mythic status, with fans around the world continuing their love affair with the music and the genres seeing an incredible revival reaching all corners of the globe. And then, last year, like a flickering light in the dark, the duo resurfaced with an appearance on Dark Entries’ Preservation Bias compilation and that has lead to a full fledged reformation including early shows around Europe and finally with the announcement of a brand new album, LP II. Today, we are thriled to premiere “Solar Flare” and to mark the upcoming album (out September 7th), we present a great interview with the pair where we talk history, the new album and more. (see below).

The Brvtalist: So let's start with probably the most burning question on everyone's mind: after a 7+ year hiatus, how/why did Linea Aspera reform?

Ryan Ambridge: I think the most obvious catalyst would have been being approached to put out the Preservation Bias compilation with Dark Entries, necessitating a listen back to our old recordings. I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed some of the songs, and thought that perhaps the project was due more attention than I had been paying it in previous years. This coincided with a renewed interest in synthesizer music, and I found myself with new demos that I could only imagine being completed as Linea Aspera songs. Myself and Alison were speaking more due to the compilation plans (I can’t remember if we had upcoming concerts at this time) and so I raised the possibility of writing new material, we both felt positive about it and very quickly started working on a new album.

Alison Lewis: The idea of a reunion show stemmed from the compilation, and once a few shows were booked we decided to write the new tunes. Credit goes to Josh Cheon for suggesting the live reunion! I have to admit I thought I was dreaming when I received the email from Ryan saying he was down to play shows again. It made me very happy.

TB: Before the pandemic shut down the world, you already played some shows. Tell us about being back on stage together and what those first shows were like.

Alison: They were invigorating, to say the least. After so many years of being alone on stage I hadn’t walked off one feeling quite so elated in a very long time. Sharing the experience made it so much more pleasurable.

Ryan: I think these recent concerts have been great and we’ve had a good time performing. We’ve both improved as musicians which has made the shows more fulfilling, and I’ve been moved by the positive response. I look forward to playing again when it is possible to do so.

TB: I think it's fair to say that in 2011/2012, the project was at the forefront of what we now know as the latest synth-wave/body music revival. Talk a little bit about where the music/community/"scene" was back then and where it is now. The good, the bad and the ugly.

Ryan: We started the project while both living in London, at a time when there were a lot of great club nights with a focus on these styles of music. I have to admit I’ve been much more out of touch with these scenes until we started to play live again last year.

Alison: At the time I don’t think we really knew what we were getting into. We were just two university students making what we wanted to make without thinking very far beyond the club nights we were attending. I guess what put us at the forefront was just the fact that we weren’t trying very hard to be anything in particular so we ticked those two rare boxes of being both naïve and authentic. I’m not sure what to make of the ‘scene’ nowadays. There are a select few artists getting most of the attention for exceptionally mediocre music, and there’s even more mediocre music no one cares about at the other end of the attention spectrum. I wonder if maybe artists just don’t have the time our resources to dedicate to the craft to really create something exceptional anymore. We live in such an age of distraction and the hustle is exhausting. I don’t have any urge to participate in the circus anyway. We’ll do our own thing – it worked well enough 7 years ago.

Linea Aspera - LP II (2020) *artwork by Niall Greaves

TB: Let's talk about the new album, simply titled LP II. What can you tell us about the release and any concepts or themes covered?

Alison: We wrote it between August last year and March this year. The lyrical themes cover my life during this time period, linking the most emotionally salient experiences to concepts in quantum physics and astronomy through the titles. I found it comforting to zoom out and scale up in order to really lean into the insignificance of it all, since a lot of what was happening really wasn’t very pleasant, involving extricating myself from a very toxic and emotionally abusive relationship and learning some terrible things about myself and others in the process. I find it fascinating to think of how emotions are such a core element of being human and have so much sway over our behaviour, yet we seem to understand more about the furthest reaches of outer space and the interactions between the smallest particles in the physical world than we do about how to gracefully handle the turmoil of our own existence and relate to one another. The multiverse theory also occupied my mind a lot over the last year, as I wrangled with major life choices it was nice to imagine a universe existed for every decision ever made. The track we’re sharing today, ‘Solar Flare’, is a song I wrote for my sister, with whom I have a very complex and intense connection. More generally speaking it’s a song about watching someone you love and look up to suffer unjustly.

Ryan: Regarding the sound of the album, the instrumentals are a reflection of how my tastes have developed since we made the first one. Certainly less ‘dark’ influences, and more of a focus on discotheques.

TB: After the long break, what was it like recording together again? Did the process stay the same or did you have a new approach?

Ryan: As we live in different countries this time, we needed to record separately. I would send an instrumental, Alison recorded the vocals and then I mixed the album. We were meeting to play live for the majority of the process however so we had opportunities to collaborate in person, at least to discuss ideas and the direction the album was going in.

Alison: I think the biggest update to our process since 2011 was the addition of a Dropbox folder, and I use a condenser mic and a purpose-built pop shield to record vocals rather than a Shure SM-58 and pantyhose stretched over a coat hanger.

TB: While I've got you, I should also ask about the lockdown. Aside from the devastation of being unable to tour, how has it been for you?

Alison: At first I was excited for the changes that such an event could inspire in the world, and relieved at the vast swathes of precious free time that stretched out before me with no need to go anywhere. However as the months have ground on, I noticed my mental health became quite deeply affected by loneliness, the uncertainty of the future and difficulties faced by so many all at once. I felt a bit of a collective depression descend and spent a couple of weeks seriously struggling to function. Finally that’s fading out into hope again, and I’m particularly inspired by the global movement against racism that’s risen from the ashes of a multitude of tragedies. This really could be the beginning of massive and necessary changes to all facets of society. I really hope it doesn’t lose momentum.

On a personal level, I can also reflect positively on how the total lack of travel has allowed me to deeply reconnect with Berlin and the friends within it. I fell back in love with this city and I’m very grateful to be riding out the pandemic here among such wonderful people. I also had enough time to write and produce an album all by myself, so that was cool.

TB: Do you think we might see some good come out of this (speaking about live music)?

Alison: What I hope for most is that it reignites passion for the live music experience through gratitude that it can exist at all. The endless tour machine of the pre-corona-era was unsustainable and exhausting, and I’m glad to see an end to that. A focus on local scenes and artists rather than total world domination by a jet-setting hype-fueled few would be a nice side effect of the travel restrictions.

I also hope to see a greater appreciation for recorded music, perhaps expressed through paying for it rather than expecting it for free and thereby forcing creators to recoup their losses through perpetual touring. Live shows should be a meaningful and special occasion, not a constant expectation.

Ryan: It’s very hard to speculate or plan for the future, but I worry about the financial impact on independent venues and businesses that have been unable to open.

TB: Alison, since Linea Aspera, your Zanias project has also made a big impact and brought you around the world. Do the two projects feed off each other or are they totally distinct worlds for you? Will we continue to see more Zanias in the future?

Alison: The return of Linea Aspera has breathed new life into Zanias by freeing it up to be a project where I can explore different styles of music production without any pressure to sound a certain way. When Zanias was my primary project that pressure was creatively rather crippling, and it felt like nothing I ever did was appreciated in the same way because most people only wanted that one sound from me. I’ve been far more productive lately since I now finally feel I have permission to do whatever I want, so I’m pushing myself more to create a signature sound that’s produced very differently from Linea Aspera. There will certainly be more Zanias in the future since I just finished writing an album, though I’m not sure what the live situation will be with that. Performing with Ryan has reminded me how much nicer it is to have someone else on stage with me, and my new material was produced in a way that will be difficult to translate to a live setting. I’ll certainly continue releasing music and DJing under that name for the foreseeable future.

TB: I know this is a tough question these days, but what's coming up next?

Alison: Our new album will be released on the 7th of September, and my new Zanias album will follow either at the end of this year or the beginning of the next. We have tour plans for the autumn that will be rescheduled to the spring if the situation doesn’t improve.

Ryan: Hopefully we can start playing live again not too long after the album release. Outside of Linea Aspera, I will be finishing new solo work and preparing upcoming releases for my Lust Pattern label.

Thank you to Alison and Ryan for speaking with us. LP II is out September 7th on vinyl + digital formats and you can pre-order the record now on Bandcamp.

-JRS