Solaris, The Ocean's 12th studio album is one that honours the progress of the band to date and imbues it with a fresh sense of intensity. Featuring members from six different countries in the core line up, The Ocean returns to its collective formation and is able to draw on the experiences and talents of a pool of extraordinary musicians. After taking a different route with previous album Holocene, the expansive and organic sound of Solaris is once again the work of Swedish producer Jens Bogren, who already mixed the band's most popular albums Pelagial and Phanerozoic I and II.
The new album introduces vocalists Lane Shi and Enrico Tiberi, as well as guitarists Emmanuel Jessua and Marco Gennaro, who join founding guitarist Robin Staps, longtime bassist Mattias Hägerstrand, and drummer Jordi Farré. Each contributes their own unique flair to bring to life the near-70 minute opus that marks a new high point for The Ocean in terms of ambition and narrative scope.
For the recording, they expanded the circle further still to incorporate the contributions of Thorsten Quaeschning of Tangerine Dream on modular synths, Greek composer Orestis Zafiriou (Playgrounded) who also contributed electronics and synths to the record, and Simen Eifring of Norwegian post rock act Spurv on trombone. The album was tracked at the legendary Hansa Studios, Berlin, where David Bowie's Low and Heroes, Iggy Pop's Lust For Life and Depeche Mode's Construction Time Again were recorded. Within the studio walls, Solaris became a living, breathing testament to the power of exploration and teamwork.
With new vocalist Tiberi being a virtuous piano player and multi-instrumentalist, the tones of the celesta, grand piano, Rhodes and Hammond became an integral and idiosyncratic component of the Solaris sound. The Ocean's signature atmospheric post-metal is embellished by the adventurous spirit of their new members, as well as the contributions from the excellent guest musicians.
The CD and 2LP gatefold sleeves are each crafted from 360g special cardstock and finished with red metallic hot-foil stamping on both the front and back.
The CD includes a 6-panel fold-out booklet, while the 2LP w/in printed inners comes with an additional A2 poster.
