Son of the Velvet Rat – Solitary Company
“Haunting folk noir melodies!”—PASTE MAGAZINE
JOSHUA TREE, Calif. — Son of the Velvet Rat is the solo musical endeavor and masked identity of Georg Altziebler and his wife, Heike Binder. In 2013 the duo left their hometown of Graz, Austria for the endless highways of America, finally settling along the edge of California’s Mojave Desert, in Joshua Tree. Their new album, Solitary Company, will debut internationally on March 19, 2021 via Fluff and Gravy Records.
Situated at the vanguard of Euro-Folk Noir, their songs build on the cabaret traditions of Old World masters like Georges Brassens, Jacques Brel and Fabrizio De André, now fused with the dark Old Testament prophecy and Kabbalistic visions conjured by New World visionaries Townes Van Zandt, Leonard Cohen or Bob Dylan.
The result is like some exotic desert fruit — equal parts bruised pulp and scarified skin, set off against the crepuscular glow of the violet horizon or blood pooled on the desert floor — all delivered in what accidental fan Lucinda Williams calls Georg’s “great sexy-gravelly voice,” leavened by Heike’s translucent harmonies, like roses circling a tattooed heart.
The album opens with a faint sigh from the melodica before the band joins in. Everything is sparse — piano, organ, guitar, drums, double bass. A half-minute in, the legendary Bob Furgo’s violin takes over with a tune that’s equally Irish folk and “La Vie en Rose,” instantly placing us in that American/European world he used to evoke on those old Leonard Cohen records. “I’m the paintbrush, not the painter,” Georg Altziebler sings softly, setting the tone for ten story-songs that appear to tell themselves without effort. “I am just the singer, not the song / All I really did was sing along,” he deadpans.
“I’m gonna take Avalon to Landers Brew,” Altziebler sings on “When the Lights Go Down,” name-checking the road that leads to the bar where he and Heike have played many a show on a small semi-circular stage. We might be in a film noir (“Wash the blood away from your fingernails / Get rid of the gun on Sun Flower Trail”) or in the middle of a climate change-induced apocalypse. For all of its local references, this is far too surreal to be a folk record. Rather, it inhabits “a secret parallel world behind the clouds,” in the words of “Beautiful Disarray.”
While their previous long-player Dorado took them to the Culver City, Calif. studio location of producer Joe Henry, the new album was recorded mainly in the very landscape referenced in the lyrics — inside the Red Barn at the end of a dirt track near Morongo Valley, Calif. — a place filled with lovingly restored vintage amps, keyboards and recording gear by its owner and the album’s co-producer, Gar Robertson. Additional recording in Graz, Austria (by Fabio Schurischuster at Die Mischerei & Günther Kolman at Nasaomusic) seamlessly tie together the Old and New World visions that are intertwined at the core of the band.
Not many records manage to take the listener to so many places with such subtle tones and gestures. At Son of the Velvet Rat’s California performances you’ll see eccentric desert-dwellers mouthing their lyrics back at them. They have become an integral part of the Joshua Tree music scene, which holds this mysteriously charismatic couple of Austrian immigrants in increasingly high regard. On the evidence of Solitary Company, it’s easy to see why.
Press Materials
Credits
Produced by Gar Robertson & Georg Altziebler
Recorded by Gar Robertson at Red Barn Recorders in Morongo Valley, California.
Additional recording by Fabio Schurischuster at Die Mischerei & Günther Kolman at Nasaomusic in Graz, Austria & Steve Allen at Square One Studio in Franklin, Tennessee
Tape transfer by Jeremy Bernstein at Welcome to 1979 in Nashville, Tennessee
All songs mixed by Fabio Schurischuster at Die Mischerei in Graz, Austria, except for 11&9 mixed by Gar Robertson at Red Barn Recorders in Morongo Valley, California
Mastered by Fabio Schurischuster at Die Mischerei in Graz, Austria
String arrangement on Solitary Company: Eric McCann
All songs – words and music by Georg Altziebler,
except for Beautiful Disarray: Words by Georg Altziebler, Music by Josef Altziebler & G.A.
Track by Track Credits