Undertow by Octavian Winters
Undertow, was loosely inspired by Hans Christian Andersen’s classic tale of the little matchgirl, who 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. Aursjoen sees in this story another aspect of separation from the world and the darkness that comes out of it, a sort of ominous current capable of pulling someone away from all hope. “Could you join me here, could you find a way to melt the bones of the night?” Aursjoen sings, referencing the theme of isolation again, 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,” says Aursjoen.
Tracklist
| 1. | Undertow | 4:31 |
Lyrics
The winter stars are bright
Captive in the night’s soft velvet wings
In the mirror of the ice
A curve and then a line
Then the glass bell rings
Tracings of the heart
A loop that never ends
Delicate as light
Could you join me here
Could you find a way
To melt the bones of the night
Feel the pull of the undertow
How it draws you down down downward
(See all, forget all, forgive all, can’t you?
See all, forget all, forgive all now)
Credits
Ria Aursjoen: Vocals / Keyboards
Stephan Salit: Guitars
Randy Gzebb: Drums
Jay Denton: Bass
Written by Octavian Winters
Lyrics by Ria Aursjoen
Flare and Bloom Music BMI
Stratis Capta Records
Recorded at Studio OW, San Francisco, CA
Vocals recorded by Mark Pistel at Room 5, San Francisco, CA
Mixed and mastered by William Faith at 13 Studio, Chicago, IL
Produced by Octavian Winters and William Faith
License
All rights reserved.Tags
Octavian Winters was born into the ghostly isolation of San Francisco in 2022, during the third winter of the pandemic. Octavian Winters 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.