Metal, Hardcore, Indie, Rock
Many bands would not have made a comeback. Post-metal visionaries The Ocean lost two-thirds of their members between 2022 and 2025, and the lineup that produced the popular albums “Phanerozoic I” (2018), “Phanerozoic II” (2020), and “Holocene” (2023) began to disband, as per Blabbermouth. Only founding guitarist, songwriter, and lyricist Robin Staps, long-time bassist Mattias Hæstrand, and new drummer Jordi Farré (also of Crippled Black Phoenix) remained after a triumphant final bow at Hellfest last year honouring this band that had endured for more than ten years.
The most ambitious record of The Ocean’s 25-year history, “Solaris,” marked the rebuilding and reemergence of those who choose to stay instead of giving up. Based on the late Soviet filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky’s masterwork of the same name, it is a nearly 70-minute trip to the stars and back. “Light Pollution” is the first single from this upcoming album. It starts off with well-known synth textures that smoothly relate to “Holocene,” its predecessor, before progressively gaining speed and taking a distinct turn. A towering, slow-burning conclusion of symphonic grandeur, oppressive heaviness, and muted rhythmic complexity marks the song’s climax.
The song opens with Enrico Tiberi, a new vocalist. In addition to a celestial body’s gravitationally curved trajectory, orbital motion in water can also refer to the elliptical or circular paths that water particles take as waves pass through, transferring energy without actually moving the water forward (a reference to early scenes in the movie “Solaris”). “Light Pollution” examines the dangers of modern technology as well as people’s increasing fixation with virtual reality. But do the numerous social and technological developments of the past few decades actually signify progress?
We’ve witnessed several communication revolutions throughout the 20th and 21st centuries, but have we actually become any better at communicating? Has there really been forward movement, or has the motion been orbital — have we merely been treading water? Light pollution symbolizes the transparency of the postmodern age, permeating everything and everyone. Everything is constantly visible; we’ve lost the darkness to hide in, and with the relentless glare of communication, we’ve also lost our privacy. – Robin Staps
The Ocean have hired filmmaker Craig Murray (Mogwai, Converge) to develop a narrative arc for the music video for “Light Pollution” that blends the words of the song with the introduction of new vocalists Lane Shi and Enrico Tiberi. The visual accompaniment to “Light Pollution” is elevated to a cinematic level by Murray’s meticulous attention to detail, which is on par with The Ocean.
Craig is a one-man army every detail of the film exists in his head before he starts to shoot, he’s got hand-drawn sketches of every single scene. He gets up at 6:30 to make molds, shoot and direct, and he’s still up at 2 a.m. glueing tentacles or smearing slime and sand over faces. He’s a machine. – Robin Staps
A new chapter in The Ocean’s 25-year existence begins with their 12th studio album. Loïc Rossetti is replaced by vocalists Enrico Tiberi and Lane Shi (Elizabeth Colour Wheel, Otay:Onii), while Marco Gennaro and Emmanuel Jessua of Hypno5E join on guitar. Thorsten Quaeschning of Tangerine Dream contributed modular synthesisers to the band’s “Solaris” album, expanding their creative circle. Once again, “Pelagial” and “Phanerozoic I” and “II” were mixed and mastered by Jens Bogren. “Solaris” is The Ocean’s most audacious album to date. It’s thematically intriguing, musically daring, and has a lot to say about the world we live in. The band has actually made a comeback, and they’ve done so in a beautiful manner.
Tracklist:
The Ocean is:
Robin Staps – guitar, vocals
In addition, the following musicians performed on this record:
Mattias Hägerstrand – bass
Jordi Farré – drums, percussion
Thorsten Quaeschning – keys
Enrico Tiberi – vocals, keys
Lane Shi – vocals
Emmanuel Jessua – guitar
Marco Gennaro – guitar
Orestis Zafiriou – keys
Simen Eifring – trombone
Jiawei Zhang – vibraphone
