San Francisco dark alternative/post-punk band Octavian Winters have just released “By the Stars” via Stratis Capta Records. The digital single was produced by William Faith and arrives ahead of the band’s appearance at Wave-Gotik-Treffen in Leipzig, Germany.

“By the Stars” follows the March 2026 single “Elements of Air”. This new track moves more toward the band’s dream pop and ethereal darkwave side, with slower percussion, call-and-response vocals and melodic keyboard layers.

Lyricist and frontwoman Ria Aursjoen says: “The song has the feel of a sea voyage. The images for me were always ones of the vastness of the sky and the sea, and the feeling of the magnificent beauty of the world. The call and answer vocals are like two people calling back and forth across a valley. It’s meant to encompass that feeling of transcendence when you take a meta view of life and of the natural world, and just fall into the beautiful patterns of it all.”

Drummer Randy Gzebb adds: “I remember playing an all-ages show in Northern California, looked up mid-song and saw these two young goth girls at the front of the stage with tears streaming down their faces. That moment told me everything I needed to know about ‘By the Stars’. You know a song matters when it reaches people like that.”

“By the Stars” is available via Bandcamp, Spotify and most major digital music stores.

Octavian Winters perform at Wave-Gotik-Treffen in Leipzig on Friday, May 22, 2026. The band also just completed an April 2026 U.S. West Coast tour with Pink Turns Blue.

About Octavian Winters

Octavian Winters formed in San Francisco in 2022. The lineup consists of Ria Aursjoen on vocals and keyboards, Stephan Bryan Salit on guitar, Randy Gzebb on drums and Jay Denton on bass. In late 2021, Gzebb and Salit began writing after discussing a publishing deal for their earlier project Thrill of The Pull. Aursjoen joined the sessions in early 2022, and Denton completed the lineup soon after.

The band first worked as a recording project because live venues were still limited at the time. William Faith, known for Faith and the Muse, The Bellwether Syndicate, Christian Death and The March Violets, became the producer for the early material. Their first single “Ondine” appeared in March 2023, followed by “Undertow” in August 2023 and “Surreal” in September 2023.

Octavian Winters released the five-track EP “The Line or Curve” on October 13, 2023 via Stratis Capta Records. The EP includes “Ondine”, “Undertow”, “Surreal”, “Velveteen” and “Nebula”.

In 2024, Octavian Winters released “Nebula / Velveteen (Mark Pistel Remix)”. That same year, Ria Aursjoen also launched her solo project Aursjoen with “Nytår” and the William Faith-produced EP “Strand”, which included guitar contributions from Stephan Bryan Salit.

In 2025, Aursjoen recorded guest vocal work on The Funeral March material, contributing additional vocals to “It All Falls Apart”. She also appeared in the video for “Stars at Night”. Octavian Winters then released “Hermine” on August 12, 2025 and “Saints of Absolution” on October 1, 2025 via Stratis Capta Records.

“Elements of Air” followed on March 25, 2026. Like the recent singles, it lists William Faith for production, recording, mixing and mastering at 13 Studio in Chicago. “By the Stars” is the next step towards the band’s next EP, planned for summer 2026.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

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San Francisco post-punk outfit Octavian Winters release the digital single “Saints of Absolution” today (October 1, 2025) via Stratis Capta Records, accompanied by an official video. The track follows their August single “Hermine” and precedes a debut full-length slated for early 2026.

The download itself holds 2 versions, the normal version and the radio edit. Octavian Winters’ new song adds a sharper death-rock edge to the band’s ethereal/post-punk sound.

“‘Saints of Absolution’ is about false idols… the broader level of negative ideologies, and the individual level of envy, hatred and gossip,” Aursjoen says. “The intent is to make people think, to urge us all to not lose sight of our common humanity.” “I had the two main themes with the dissonance I desired when William made a suggestion that turned into the break that Ria takes flight over — what a glorious din,” Salit continues. “I’ve always been drawn to playing tom grooves that give the song a darker more primal feel,” Gzebb adds.

Octavian Winters perform at Bar Sinister’s Ghostly Halloween Ball (Los Angeles) on October 31, 2025; tickets and details are available via the band’s site/listings.

About Octavian Winters

Octavian Winters formed in San Francisco in 2022. The lineup comprises Ria Aursjoen (vocals, keyboards), Stephan Salit (guitar), Randy Gzebb (drums) and Jay Denton (bass).

Early releases in 2023 included the singles “Ondine,” “Undertow” and “Surreal,” followed by the five-track EP “The Line or Curve” on October 13, 2023. In April 2024, the band issued “Nebula / Velveteen (Mark Pistel Remix).”

In 2025, they released “Hermine” on August 12 and now “Saints of Absolution”. The forthcoming album is planned for early 2026. The band’s recordings are released via Stratis Capta Records, with production credits on recent work to William Faith.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

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San Francisco post-punk outfit Octavian Winters has unveiled their new single “Hermine”, produced by William Faith and available digitally from August 12 via Stratis Capta Records. The track, first written for their debut album scheduled for early 2026, marks a return to the band’s harder-edged sound.

Order “Hermine” on Bandcamp.

The single opens with a dense wall of sound and explores themes inspired by Hermann Hesse’s “Steppenwolf”, reflecting on the fragmented psyche and self-acceptance. Vocalist Ria Aursjoen says, “Hermine was wonderful to write and sing because it has a real no-holds-barred energy about it. I was also able to revisit some of my metal roots, in terms of vocal delivery, which was both fun and cathartic.”

Drummer Randy Gzebb described the track as “moving forward with unstoppable momentum”, while guitarist Stephan Salit explained, “I started out writing this as an homage to Geordie Walker (R.I.P.) but it took on a life of its own.”

“Hermine” was produced, recorded, mixed, and mastered by William Faith at 13 Studio in Chicago.

The band will perform at A Murder of Crows Festival in New York on August 30, sharing the bill with Pink Turns Blue, Vision Video, and Ritual Howls, and at Bar Sinister in Los Angeles on October 31 for the Ghostly Halloween Ball.

About Octavian Winters

Formed in San Francisco in 2022, Octavian Winters consists of guitarist Stephan Salit (Thrill of The Pull), drummer Randy Gzebb (Thrill of The Pull, Love Club), bassist Jay Denton, and vocalist/keyboardist Ria Aursjoen (AURSJOEN).

Their sound blends visceral post-punk with atmospheric textures, often drawing on urban narratives and nocturnal imagery. Their debut EP “The Line or Curve” (2023) launched them into the post-punk scene, followed by the Mark Pistel collaboration single “Nebula / Velveteen” (2024). Their debut album is slated for release in early 2026.

The band’s members have toured and collaborated with artists including Nine Inch Nails, Killing Joke, Christian Death, Lords of the New Church, Savage Republic, The Frozen Autumn, and Black Tape for a Blue Girl.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

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(Photo by David Kruschke) San Francisco-based artist Aursjoen presents her debut single “Nytår”. The new single comes complemented by a video created by filmmaker David Kruschke.

Aursjoen is the project of Ria Aursjoen, who is vocalist and keyboardist for the post-punk outfit Octavian Winters, who released their debut EP “The Line or Curve” in 2023, followed by their 2024 “Nebula / Velveteen” single with electronic-industrial legend Mark Pistel (Meat Beat Manifesto, Consolidated). A classically-trained singer and multi-instrumentalist, her musical past is steeped in genres ranging from Celtic and Nordic folk to darkwave and progressive metal.

Her debut “Strand” EP is slated for release on November 15 via Stratis Capta Records and was produced, recorded, mixed and mastered by William Faith (The Bellwether Syndicate, Faith and the Muse, Mephisto Waltz, Christian Death) at 13 Studio in Chicago. For this material Aursjoen is joined by Octavian Winters bandmate Stephan Bryan Salit contributing dynamic and atmospheric guitars on two songs.

This first single “Nytår”, which means “New Year” in Danish, was written on New Year’s Eve of 2022. Ria Aursjoen says this about the origins of “Nytår”: “This song started when I was experimenting with a slow-moving string arrangement that captured my imagination and made me think of walking down a dark road in winter, against the wind. The more I saw the image in my mind, the more it reminded me of Denmark, where I spent years as a child. It especially reminded me of how the world looked and felt when I would go out with my ice skates in the winter twilight to skate on the pond near my house at the outskirts of Copenhagen, so I wrote the lyrics in Danish. Midwinter in Denmark is very dark and very cold with short days. You spend time dreaming of the spring returning, waiting for it. My memories of that time as well as the language itself transported me back to those feelings and guided the way the song evolved both lyrically and musically.”

Aursjoen comes from a familial line of musicians, her grandmother Lillian an opera singer and grandfather Morris a singer and self-taught multi-instrumentalist. Having taught herself to play piano by ear at age three, she considers it her instrument of choice for songwriting; “I have been playing for as long as I remember, so piano feels like an extension of myself, a native language if you like.”

Nevertheless it was singing that unlocked something even more powerful within her: “The neighbours would complain about me singing loudly outside their windows while I waited for the school bus. They told my mother they didn’t know what I could possibly have to sing about that early in the morning. Fortunately, my mother never took the complaints seriously and never tried to discourage me. She has been my biggest supporter, and a great friend, and I wouldn’t be here today as an artist if not for her.”

As someone who has synesthesia, a rare neurodiverse condition in which senses overlap, Aursjoen experiences sound as visual structures, colours and textures. “I avoided regular music notation as much as I could. I coaxed my mother (a great sight reader) into playing my piano homework. Then I’d listen and learn it by ear – eventually my piano teacher discovered I had been faking note reading and I had to buckle down and really learn it… I am glad I did, but I still find it clunky and unintuitive, and still write music in my personal system of notation.”

As of today September 10, “Nytår” is available everywhere digitally, including Bandcamp. The full “Strand” album, out November 15 via Stratis Capta Records, is already available for pre-order.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

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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.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

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(Photo by Dina Marie Robinson) The San Francisco post-punk outfit Octavian Winters presents their new video for “Velveteen”, lifted from their debut 5-track EP “The Line or Curve”, recently released via Stratis Capta Records. In the lead up to the EP, the band released the singles “Undertow”, “Ondine” and “Surreal”.

Randy Gzebb explains the tone of this song: “Racing down a gloomy freeway on a grey evening, you walk up an alleyway and duck into a smokey casino, filled with like-minded people, an intense air of anticipation building as everyone gets ready to turn themselves loose, their insecurities, anxieties filled with emotions with driving drums and bass with serrated guitars, desperate vocals playing in the background.”

“We had just started working up the music for what would become Velveteen in the summer of 2022 and I was out in Vegas for a few days. I had driven out into the desert, musing on inspiration for lyrics, and was on my way back into the city when the signs for the casinos, shows and strip clubs started popping up. The idea for the lyrics coalesced then — there was an air of desperation in all the lights and billboards, a false lure to feel… good. To indulge in fantasy. The lyrics are about people trying to claim their dreams through escape, by avenues that lead down a rabbit hole of despair,” says Ria (Amenti) Aursjoen.

Here is the video for “Velveteen”.

The new material was recorded in San Francisco by Mark Pistel (Meat Beat Manifesto, Consolidated) at OW Studio and Room 5 Recording. Produced by Octavian Winters and William Faith (The Bellwether Syndicate, Faith and the Muse, Christian Death, The March Violets) the EP was mixed and mastered at 13 Studio in Chicago.

About Octavian Winters

Formed in San Francisco in 2022 the band draws from darkwave and post-punk traditions. 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.

“The Line or Curve” EP is out everywhere, including via Apple Music, Spotify and Bandcamp. The band plays Sacramento’s Cafe Colonial (with Ashes Fallen) on November 8.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

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Out today is “Undertow”, the newest single for the San Francisco-based post-punk outfit Octavian Winters. This is the follow-up to their debut single “Ondine”.

“Undertow” is loosely inspired by Hans Christian Andersen’s classic tale of the little matchgirl, standing 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.

“Undertow” previews their debut EP “The Line of Curve”, recorded by Mark Pistel (Meat Beat Manifesto, Consolidated) with production, mixing and mastering by William Faith (The Bellwether Syndicate, Faith and the Muse, Christian Death, The March Violets), whose credits include Jarboe, Clan of Xymox, Bootblacks and Autumn. “The Line or Curve” EP will be released on October 13 via Stratis Capta Records and will have 5 tracks.

Formed in 2022, Octavian Winters draws from darkwave and post-punk traditions.

Below is the video for “Undertow”.

Below is the first single “Ondine”.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

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