As a science fiction-obsessed child of the 1980's, William Brittelle has long found dystopian landscapes to be a source of fascination and mangled nostalgia. In 2017, on a whim, he visited Fort Tilden, an abandoned army base on the bleeding edge of Queens, and was immediately captivated. He shortly joined a local arts organization and was given access to a studio in one of the former barracks. Though lacking heating and running water, the room gave Brittelle year-round access to the surrounding world of corroding munitions bunkers, vined covered hangers, and pristine beaches. On a frigid January beach walk Brittelle happened upon a shipwreck, his prints in the sand and snow the only within sight, and began to imagine a backstory to the scene. Over the following two years, Alive in the Electric Snow Dream emerged - a swirl of vintage synths, pop vocals, saxes, guitars, noise, screams, and strings outlining a dreamlike, first person apocalyptic vision. A mix of terror, wonder, adrenaline, and exhaustion, the piece, in eleven blistering minutes, explores a full range of psychedelic emotion. A companion piece to the recently Grammy-nominated "Psychedelics" for Roomful of Teeth (the two were written concurrently), Snow Dream presents Brittelle's collage-like compositional style at its most extreme and enveloping. Recorded during the pandemic with the support of the Metropolis Ensemble, Snow Dream features Jenn Wasner (Wye Oak, Bon Iver) and Eliza Bagg (Roomful of Teeth, Lisel) on vocals, Immanuel Wilkins on sax, Ben Cassorla on guitar, Paul Wiancko (Kronos Quartet, OWLS) on strings, and Brittelle on synthesizers, percussion, and electronics. Snow Dream was mixed remotely by Zach Hanson (Bon Iver, S. Carey), the Wisconsin-based mixing engineer responsible for Roomful of Teeth's Grammy-nominated Rough Magic and Spektral Quartet/Julia Holter/Alex Temple's Behind the Wallpaper, both released last year.

The B-side of Snow Dream contains Dido's Lament (Revisited), a feminist retelling of the Dido and Aeneas myth anchored by Henry Purcell's famous aria "When I am Laid in Earth" (aka "Dido's Lament"). Originally premiered by Wild Up and Zola Jesus in January 2019 on the Ecstatic Music Festival, the piece again features Jenn Wasner on vocals alongside stunning appearances by the hardcore singer AJ Santillan and the fiercely talented Holland Andrews. Andrews threads in the original aria throughout the 10-minute epic, culminating in a stunning and brutally cathartic re-interpretation of Purcell's original. Metropolis again forms the ensemble, adding Brad Balliett on distorted bassoon.

All sales proceeds from the Snow Dream EP will go directly to New Amsterdam, a Brooklyn-based non-profit artist service organization, in perpetuity. Cover art is an original piece by Brock Lefferts.