‘Belligerence’, the second single off The Ocean‘s highly anticipated 12th studio album Solaris, is a heavy one. It makes reference to the band’s older albums while imbueing it with a fresh sense of intensity.
New vocalists Enrico Tiberi’s vocals deliver a familiarity and energy that is sure to resonate with long-time fans of the band. Meanwhile, Lane Shi (Otay:Onii) who used to sing for the American band Elizabeth Colour Wheel adds a new direction to The Ocean sound, comprising elements and experience as a musician and performance artist who has appeared at events such as CTM, Biennale or as part of Florentina Holzinger’s polarizing opera Sancta. When Shi‘s and Tiberi‘s voices meet in the harmonized verses, it’s moments of unprecedented beauty.
‘Belligerence’ draws parallels between the cosmic explorations of Tarkovsky’s 1972 film Solaris —the inspiration behind the band’s new album— and the explorative nature of artists and current-day political leaders. One of the last lines of the lyrics of Subatlantic, the closing track of Holocene is ‘prepare for departure’ – invoking the idea of a group of survivors embarking on a ship to take them away from a sinking mothership earth, to build a new place to live in space.
Stream ‘Belligerence’ here: https://orcd.co/theocean-solaris
The band comment:
“Belligerence is a song about the culture of arguing and about the destructive force of contained anger and belligerence as a trait of character, often transfigured as an attribute of reason and a critical mind.”
Pre-order Solaris here: https://orcd.co/theocean-solaris
Track list:
1. 52°30’11” N, 13°26’12“ E
2. Departure Song
3. Light Pollution
4. Simulacra
5. Belligerence
6. Ultima Esperanza
7. Milk Of My Dreams
8. 51°28’30” S, 73°6’11” W
Solaris is an album that tells a story of cosmic escapism: a journey on that ship, which is essentially a celestial rescue boat escaping from a metaphorically sinking Mother Earth. The rescue boat can be imagined as a historic naval vessel, and the lyrics and episodes of the album make reference to the real-life explorers of the past who set out to discover (back then) unknown continents and uncharted territories: Da Gama, Magellan, Sir Frances Drake, as well as the Polar explorers Amundsen, Scott, Rasmussen etc.
The stories of these historic journeys all share similar elements: storms, disease, wreckage, power games, personal rivalries, egos, belligerence, mutiny, finally the quest for truth and justice. While most explorers initially had noble motives and were driven by a limitless spirit of exploration and discovery which was stronger than the many hardships suffered along the way, their legacy is often stained with cultural imperialism, genocide and tales of dictatorial leadership.
Far from being a glorification of male, white explorers who sought to colonise unknown worlds, or a romanticization of patriarchal constructs, Solaris draws a line between these extremely driven explorers and present-day political leaders. It poses questions of the shadowy darkness of being a “great” leader, it queries the very notion of a divine calling and the cost of following such an instinctive pull. It also traces the shape of these psychological patterns into the creative world and applies the same lines of enquiry to creative forces. Can exploration be redefined to be conceived as a process of silent observation, documentation and learning, rather than bequeathing our own ideas and values on others?
The album serves as a critique of the underlying motives and psychological dispositions of an explorative mindset and a thirst for power. It is an existential questioning, a probe of reason of the general purpose of technological advance, in the specific light of the destruction of our habitat. It’s a dystopian outlook into a future where Earth has become uninhabitable – not despite, but as a direct consequence of human intelligence, as the foundation of technological advance.
Solaris will be released via Pelagic Records on 25th September.
The Ocean Line-up:
Robin Staps – guitar, vocals
Mattias Hägerstrand – bass
Jordi Farré – drums, percussion
Enrico Tiberi – vocals, keys
Lane Shi – vocals
Emmanuel Jessua – guitar
Marco Gennaro – guitar
In addition, the following musicians performed on this record:
Thorsten Quaeschning – keys
Orestis Zafiriou – keys
Simen Eifring – trombone
Jiawei Zhang – vibraphone
The Ocean online:
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