Son Of The Velvet Rat

SotVR is the alter ego of Austrian songwriter Georg Altziebler. Mostly together with his wife Heike Binder Altziebler has released seven albums - acclaimed by critics in Europe and the USA. Collaborations with greats of the Americana scene such as Joe Henry, Lucinda Williams, Ken Coomer (ex-Wilco) or Victoria Williams prove SotVR’s international reputation.

On 22 March 2016, In March 2024, SotVR’s new album “Ghost Ranch” was released on Fluff & Gravy Records/Portland, OR. The album was recorded at the Red Barn Recorders studio in Morongo Valley, California. Among others, such illustrious guests as Marc Ribot on the guitar, Jolie Holland as a back-up singer and on the violin or Jay Bellerose on the drums have participated. Nevertheless, instrumentation is as economical and transparent as never before at SotVR. The sound may sound superficially “American”, the songs themselves elude geographical assignments.

The album title “Ghost Ranch” does not refer to a place, but a state of off-time falling. They are sketches on the way, songs from the perspective behind the windshield, when the gaze wanders and the soul has no goal. This new album has a sad magic overall that Hank Williams might mean when he says “the silence of a falling star”. I hear the record again and again. And then again.

from the "Ghost Ranch" liner notes by Ernst Molden