If there’s a single guiding motif to Love Theme’s debut record, it’s the melancholic throb of love learnt and love lost; a descent that tumbles and slips through the overall feeling of looking back.
Comprised of Alex Zhang Hungtai, formerly of Dirty Beaches and who made a recent appearance on win Peaks, along with Austin Milne and Simon Frank, the new group’s work follows a travel narrative, moving across a series of landscapes reflecting the innate experiences of death and resurrection, like a memory morphing as it is observed.
Produced over the course of a year in Montréal, London, LA, Hong Kong and Taipei, the album takes cues from its surroundings and offers a vivid atmosphere. The aching wane of saxophones
create a melancholic halo above the mixed percussion and synths, like the distorted echoes of Coltrane tumbling through the neon lights and dark alleyways of Kowloon at night. It’s a bizarre lust
for life that’s divined from equal parts dislocation and invigoration, a potent remedy that Love Theme can call their own. We spoke with the group about their self-titled debut, available now from
Alter Records, the production process, upcoming tours and city life.