AURSJOEN is the haunting creation of San Francisco artist Ria Aursjoen (Octavian Winters), a classically-trained singer and multi-instrumentalist whose roots stretch deep into Celtic and Nordic folk, darkwave, and progressive metal. For Want Of offers a second glimpse into her debut Strand EP, slated for release on November 15 via Stratis Capta Records. It follows her ethereal first single Nytår: both tracks steeped in sensual mysticism, a nod to her Scandinavian heritage. Each is rich with cinematic orchestration, where the spectral and sensual collide.
Ria’s synesthesia—where sounds take shape in vivid colors and textures—has shaped her singular musical vision. As a child, she devised her own notation system based on her visual perceptions, composing in a language few others could understand.
Her music breathes with reverie, layered and lush, a sweeping blend of darkness and light. Both For Want Of and Nytår wrap around the listener like a delicate veil, revealing their secrets slowly.
For Want Of begins with a tender piano line, soft and sparse, like the first stirrings of a secret. From that quiet, it builds, swelling into a symphonic surge. The vocals rise and intertwine, layered like thoughts that twist and tangle in the mind, sometimes opposing, sometimes overlapping. There’s a haunting beauty in the way it all unfolds, each note revealing more of Aursjoen’s range. Her voice moves effortlessly between ethereal whispers and powerful cries, showcasing her ability to balance fragility with force. It’s a track that grows, not only in sound but in emotion, as it reaches its stirring peak.
“What I really love is to create music that is more than the sum of its parts, where the interplay (either harmonically or rhythmically) between different motifs gives birth to something extra, something “meta” that you can’t predict or engineer,” says Aursjoen. “I think those two states of feeling did that in my life too… a different self, a new era was born for me out of that ice and fire.”
For Want Of was written several years ago, according to Aursjoen. “I had just moved into an empty apartment with a baby, a toddler, a bag of clothes and a cooking pot. It was surreal — one of the most difficult transitions in my life and I had layers of feelings that should have been irreconcilable, even though they existed together. On one hand, I felt empty desolation, and yet at the same time a fiery fullness that felt like a wild animal trying to break out of my heart. I tried to express these in the song as the contrast in vocal delivery as well as in the references to winter/ice and fire – references that show up as part of my lyrical lexicon in other songs as well. Instead of switching off from one to another, I layered them so that you hear them running together, to mirror how it felt internally.”
The accompanying videos were created by filmmaker David Kruschke.
Watch “For Want Of” below:
Nytår stirs in the deepening dusk of an eternal winter evening, with shards of ice whipped through the biting wind. A lament, low and lingering, echoes the weight of the cold, the grip of the dark. Nytår—Danish for “New Year”—was written on New Year’s Eve 2022, a time when the world felt half-awake, still shaking off the pandemic’s shadow. Yet, Ria captured a spark of hope, a promise of warmth and light returning from that cold, still night. But as the song swells, like the first blush of dawn breaking over a frozen landscape, Aursjoen’s voice rises in solemn invocation. Her words, bright and burning, summon the return of light and warmth, calling the sun from its slumber. The chill retreats, the frost softens, as her voice carries the promise of renewal through the bitter night.
“Initially I had storyboarded another concept, and David Kruschke and I were working on the locations,” says Aursjoen. “But Octavian Winters went on tour, and I was unavailable to shoot the video until we were too close to the release date to make it work. The day after I got home from tour, David and I went out to the coast near San Francisco and shot the video as we felt it. This turned out to be a great decision because I was so exhausted from the tour and it was so hot (we filmed during the October heat wave) that I didn’t have the time or energy to overthink any of it — and what we ended up capturing was a much more untethered performance that felt very true to myself.”
Watch the video for “Nytår” below:
Beyond her music, Ria Aursjoen’s talents stretch into the realms of writing and visual art. A published writer and gifted artist, she claimed two national art competitions before turning nine and illustrated a children’s book. Today, she creates much of Octavian Winters’ striking artwork, using inks and parchment vellum to craft intricate, palimpsest-style pieces.
Strand was shaped and sharpened under the skilled hands of William Faith (The Bellwether Syndicate, Faith and the Muse, Mephisto Waltz, Christian Death) at 13 Studio in Chicago. Ria teamed up with Octavian Winters bandmate Stephan Bryan Salit, fusing their creative forces to give Strand its haunting, powerful pulse.
Listen to the Nytår single below. The Strand EP (out November 15 via Stratis Capta Records) is also available for pre-order.
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