While contributing no actual compositions or productions to the album, Thomas Bangalter of Daft Punk was asked by the band to help in the same advisory role.

Zdar produced three of Phoenix's prior albums and gave advice to the band regularly, even on records he did not produce. The album was inspired by Philippe Zdar of the band Cassius, who died in 2019. Christian Mazzalai said that despite his initial concerns of making something while being surrounded by 'too much beauty', the band 'couldn't stop producing music' and that they wrote 'almost all' of Alpha Zulu within the first 10 days. Laurent Brancowitz said the band 'felt it would be a fantastic adventure to create something out of nothing' in an empty museum. Phoenix began recording the album during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 at the Musée des Arts décoratifs studio, which is located within the Louvre Palace in Paris. The band embarked on a tour in support of the album, which visited North America, the UK and Europe in late 2022, with another tour of North America set to commence in August 2023. The singles 'Identical', 'Alpha Zulu', ' Tonight', and 'Winter Solstice' preceded the album. Self-produced by the band, it is their first album since 2017's Ti Amo. Alpha Zulu is the seventh studio album by French indie pop band Phoenix, released on 4 November 2022 through Loyauté and Glassnote Records.

Wolfgang amadeus phoenix album cover