Mark Pistel collaborates with Octavian Winters for new double single – ‘Velveteen’ remix video out now
Mark Pistel collaborates with Octavian Winters for new double single
American artist Mark Pistel (Meat Beat Manifesto, Consolidated) has joined San Francisco post-punk outfit Octavian Winters for the double single “Nebula / Velveteen (Mark Pistel Remix)”. Now his “Velveteen” remix also gets the video treatment thanks to filmmaker David Kruschke.
Mark Pistel is best known as founder of Consolidated and as a member of Meat Beat Manifesto since 1997. He has also worked with such artists as The Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy, Grace Jones, Therapy?, MC 900 Foot Jesus, Machines of Loving Grace, Hector Zazou, Mark Stewart, Lee Scratch Perry, Cabaret Voltaire’s Stephen Mallinder and Fishbone’s Angelo Moore.
Formed in 2022, Octavian Winters is guitarist Stephan Salit (Thrill of The Pull), drummer Randy Gzebb (Thrill of The Pull, Love Club), bassist Jay Denton and Ria (Amenti) Aursjoen on vocals and keyboards.
Pistel explains, “Randy Gzebb called me about remixing one of the tracks off ‘The Line or the Curve’ EP. I was excited to do so, as we’d recorded some of these vocals at my Room 5 Studio in San Francisco. I chose to do ‘Velveteen’ as I already loved the track with its fantastic vocal melody and Stephan’s unstoppable guitar hook! I took on the track with pulsing analog synths and a slamming dance floor beat for the clubs.”
The A-side to this 2-track release, called “Nebula” began as an experiment: “I kept envisioning a sort of “last day at the end of the world” — what would the sky look like? Would we know and understand what was happening? There is this broadly Gnostic idea of the universe as unfolding and unfolding through what are called Aeons, essentially levels of manifestation, until we get this world we live in here. I imagined this world reaching the fullness of its life, that whole cycle ending — and then everything reversing, refolding back to the start to make way for the next universe,” says Ria Aursjoen.
This is not the first time Octavian Winters has worked with Pistel. Their debut EP “The Line or Curve” (released in late 2023) was mostly recorded at his Room 5 Recording before being mixed and mastered it at 13 Studio in Chicago, and co-produced by the band and William Faith (The Bellwether Syndicate, Faith & the Muse, Christian Death). Octavian Winters’ members have a rich history of collaborating and touring with notable artists, including Nine Inch Nails, Killing Joke, Lords of the New Church, Savage Republic, Christian Death, The Frozen Autumn, Everything Goes Cold and Black Tape for a Blue Girl.
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