California-based post punk quartet Octavian Winters have revealed their new single “Undertow” alongside an accompanying video.
The track features on their upcoming debut EP ‘The Line of Curve’, due out on October 13 via Stratis Capta. Grab it here.
Born into the ghostly isolation of San Francisco in 2022, Octavian Winters is Stephan Salit (guitar), Randy Gzebb (drums), Jay Denton (bass) and Ria Aursjoen (vocals, keyboards), who together weave their visceral and ethereal sound into a texture all its own – of stories once told but half-remembered, under a dusk of shadows and stars, in an abandoned city under the winter moon.
Undertow is loosely inspired by Hans Christian Andersen’s classic tale of the little matchgirl. She stands outside a window on a winter’s night, separated from all sustenance and warmth. Ignored by everyone around, and unable to sustain herself after lighting all her matches for warmth, she freezes to death in the snow.
“Could you join me here, could you find a way to melt the bones of the night?” Aursjoen sings, referencing the theme of isolation, and the yearning for connection that will never come. “I think we have seen this dark ‘undertow’ overcome so many people in different and tragic ways during quarantine,” she says.
Watch the video below, directed, filmed, edited and produced by Jay Adams.
Drawing from darkwave and post-punk traditions, Octavian Winters dives into the ethereal, their layered music counterpointing edged grooves alongside lush synth textures and soaring vocal harmonies.
The Line or Curve Tracklist:
- Ondine
- Undertow
- Surreal
- Velveteen
- Nebula
Photo credit: Dina Marie Robinson
