Son of the Velvet Rat

Ghost Ranch by son of the velvet rat

Son of the Velvet Rat is the solo musical endeavor and masked identity of Georg Altziebler – sometimes shared with his wife, Heike Binder – who, having left their hometown of Graz, Austria and the cloistered safety of the Continent for the endless highway of America, finally settled along the edge of California’s Mojave Desert in Joshua Tree in 2013.

Situated at the vanguard of Euro-Folk Noir, these 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 (guests on two tracks on their 2011 release Red Chamber Music) calls Georg’s “great sexy-gravelly voice,” leavened by Heike’s translucent harmonies, like roses circling a tattooed heart.

On September 9th, 2022 at the Harrison House in Joshua Tree, Georg and Heike debuted a collection of songs that would later comprise Son of Velvet Rat’s Ghost Ranch studio album. A sacred space to present these new pieces, stripped-down to their most essential elements: two voices; one gruff and anchoring baritone, the other lifting in weathered hope, over six strings danced upon by Georg’s possessed spider-fingers, every note plucked with intention. A bare-boned outpouring, reverberating through the House like Midnight Mass in a rare church brave enough to explore the complexities of love.
That night, which ended with a refreshing baptismal monsoon as we walked out to our cars, would have to be preserved in the amber of memory until Georg and Heike would properly document the pieces at Gar Robertson’s Red Barn Studio in Morongo Valley the following spring ’23, before finishing the album in Austria.