VELVET CHAIN
Space-age pop music laced with off-world sonic landscapes and inventive arrangement excursions.

is a musical collaboration between the U.S. band, "Velvet Chain," and the U.K. act, "Ashfelt." The first release is the self-titled EP, "Space Patrol," on the Freak Records label. The EP is currently available exclusively from the e-commerce section of Velvet Chain's website at www.velvetchain.com.

This collaboration came about through Velvet Chain's involvement in the 2004 release, "The Abduction of the Art of Noise," put out by the U.K. label, Iris Light Records, which also works with "Ashfelt." When the owner of Iris Light Records (Adam Sykes) sent Jeff Stacy some of the label's releases, the Ashfelt CD, "Fat Space Acid" stood out dramatically to him.

Jeff Stacy contacted Dave Younger of Ashfelt and asked if they would be interested in trading remixes of eachother's music. Dave agreed and produced the "Full Moon Space Cake Dub" remix of the Velvet Chain song, "Floating Away" (from the band's "Asteroid Belt" album). Jeff was so impressed with the uniqueness and originality of this mix that he contacted Dave and asked if he would like to do some further collaborations. Again, Dave agreed.

In the meantime, Velvet Chain's remix of Ashfelt material was taking longer and going through various stages of development, none of which were generating a finished product. Jeff's original concept was to take samples from Ashfelt's entire "Fat Space Acid" album and create an epic "Ashfelt Remix From Hell." He, in fact, did this, but was not entirely satisfied with the result. In addition, new compositions began to emerge from the various sections of the giant Ashfelt remix, and in the end, Jeff decided to break the whole thing up into separate songs. Two of these tracks will appear on the "Space Patrol" EP, and three others are currently being developed into Velvet Chain songs to appear on the band's next album.

While all this was going on, Ashfelt was creating a second remix, this time based on the VC song, "King of the Moon" (also from the "Asteroid Belt" album), and both parties had agreed to create "Space Patrol" and put out an EP. Ironically, Jeff Stacy was already working on his own remix of "King of the Moon," and both tracks are slated to appear on the "Space Patrol" EP.

By most standards of "pop" music, Velvet Chain is fairly eclectic and experimental. However, Ashfelt is more so by a factor of 10. While Velvet Chain maintains a large degree of pop sensibility within its modernistic style, Ashfelt's music is fairly devoid of pop structure in the classic sense, usually offering "sonic experiences," rather than traditional "songs."

This is perhaps the reason behind the creative interest between the two acts. Velvet Chain's music is eclectic enough to be receptive to much of Ashfelt's "sonic landscapes," and Ashfelt's music is so interesting sonically, that it is highly receptive to many of the elements within Velvet Chain's music, both traditional and non-traditional. Both acts are highly creative and original, and both had an artistic curiosity about the music that might result from a combination of the two styles.