"Berlin Ceased to Spark Joy": Cold Wave Purists Lebanon Hanover Talk Breaking New Ground

"Absolutely, we’re delicate creatures" – cold wave duo Lebanon Hanover doesn’t beat around the bush when asked how to best describe the temperament that encompasses their sound, one that finds smoldering romance pitted against icy synths and static cynicism. Swiss-born Larissa Iceglass and British William Maybelline take joint duties on vocals and synths while otherwise playing guitar and bass, respectively, a dynamic that has seen the duo become one of the most prominent cold wave bands of this generation. Their post-apocalyptic pop music, chock-full of bloodless vocals, jagged guitars, and menacing basslines call to mind everyone from Siouxsie to Joy Division. It’s a disciplined sound that’s genuine and committed to its austerity, and will hit the Beijing stage at Omni Space on Wednesday, Sep 4.

The pair kicked off their courtship in Sunderland, UK, drawing inspiration from the 1980s French cold wave and the torchbearers of that scene like Trop Tard and Trisomie 21, as well as the tumultuous and deeply sober musings of novelists like Thomas Bernhard. They also mined poetry for themes of loneliness, detachment, and disillusionment as well as their surroundings, from murky UK forests to the pined streets of Berlin. The result is a delicate balance and push and pull between the dark and the light, which the band ascribes to "a flourishing of what we feel... all the music we make comes with therapeutic value." 

Today, that therapy now takes place in Greece, where the band has lived for the past year and a half. "The ancient vibe is still in the air... I feel an energy like no other place and at every corner here there's folk music. It is bliss to my ears and definitely goes deep, as Berlin and other parts of Germany ceased to spark joy after a while."

This much is evident in their recent video for "Petals" off their fifth LP Let Them Be Alien, an amateurishly shot (on VHS, of course), self-aware piece of endearing goth-pop set in the parks of Athens, where the band’s label Fabrika Records is located. As one season gives way to the next, Iceglass lies in the purple-hued fallen flowers and ponders "absent is joy when you're not around." A love song that’s not afraid to wear its blackened heart on its sleeve, there’s a rebellious sadness at the core of it all, an inescapable desire to dance through the peaks and valleys of our emotions. As the band states: "Be part of music and music will be part of you."

Whether or not Chinese audiences will react sympathetically to Lebanon Hanover remains to be seen, but the duo is more than excited to "witness the energy of the culture first hand and not just through a screen."

Catch Lebanon Hanover at Omni Space this Wednesday, 8.30pm. Tickets are RMB 180 on the door or RMB 150 advance.

Want more music in your life?
There are over 100 gigs happening in Beijing over the coming weeks.

Photos: Isolde Woudstra, courtesy of Lebanon Hanover