German atmospheric post-metal collective The Ocean released their live album »Phanerozoic Live«, out now via Metal Blade Records
German atmospheric post-metal collective The Ocean has just released their massive live album »Phanerozoic Live« this Friday, November 26th, 2021 via Metal Blade Records.
Their »Phanerozoic« concept album was performed live in its entirety. Watch full performance videos for »Phanerozoic I« and »Phanerozoic II«!
The Ocean – »Phanerozoic I« (Live from Pier 2 in Bremen):
01. The Cambrian Explosion
02. Cambrian II: Eternal Recurrence
03. Ordovicium: The Glaciation Of Gondwana
04. Silurian: Age Of Sea Scorpions
05. Devonian: Nascent
06. The Carboniferous Rainforest Collapse
07. Permian: The Great Dying
The Ocean – »Phanerozoic II« (Live at Roadburn Redux):
01. Triassic
02. Jurassic | Cretaceous
03. Palaeocene
04. Eocene
05. Oligocene
06. Miocene | Pliocene
07. Pleistocene
08. Holocene
From Metal Blade Records:
On September 25, 2020, in the middle of the global pandemic, The Ocean released their 9th studio album »Phanerozoic II«, the concluding episode of a conceptual trilogy that began with Precambrian 13 years before – and even without any touring to support the new album release, »Phanerozoic II« entered the official German album charts at #9. With no end of lockdowns in sight, the band decided to thank their fans for the support with two streaming concerts, performing both »Phanerozoic« albums in their entirety: »Phanerozoic I« was streamed live from Pier 2, a big hall in the port of Bremen, on March 25, 2021. With more than 1.500 tickets sold, it was the most successful show of the popular “Club 100″ streaming events series thus far. The day after this event, the band retreated to synth player and sound designer Peter Voigtmann’s rural studio Die Mühle, just outside of Bremen. Here, the band rehearsed and recorded »Phanerozoic II« in its entirety during the following three days. The performance aired on April 16 as part of the digital edition of Roadburn Festival, this year abtly named Roadburn Redux.
Both shows couldn’t have been more different: where the first part boasts with a pompous, mesmerizing lighting production on a big stage, the 2nd part is quite the opposite: intimate, almost cosy, focused on musicianship rather than performance. A stripped down setup in a dark barn, with moody, minimal but not any less efficient lighting. “We wanted to give people two totally different experiences”, says band leader Robin Staps. “In Bremen, we had the chance to record a proper Ocean live show, the way people know us. We played facing towards the front of the stage, to an invisible crowd, essentially to a huge empty room… but we knew people were watching, even if we didn’t see them. There was the same rush of adrenaline right before going on stage as you get before going on at any big open air festival… maybe with a little extra anxiety added, because knowing that so many people are watching you without being able to see them yourself was super weird.”
“We wanted to give people 2 totally different experiences with these 2 shows. »Phanerozoic I« was streamed live from a venue in the port of Bremen, with big lighting production, kind of the way people know us. For »Phanerozoic II«, we wanted to do something more cinematic visually, and at the same time more intimate. We wanted to capture the feeling of the 6 of us in a relatively small, confined space, facing each other, in a circle… without a stage or a crowd being any part of this equation. It was March and the room that we spent the whole day in was cold, but that was part of the vibe. We had to warm up our fingers constantly.” comments the band.
»Phanerozoic Live« is a live album like no other – it is a live album that was recorded in a cultural vacuum, a bizarre time that we will remember for the rest of our lives: a time when the world as we knew it suddenly stopped spinning. It is a live album that does without all the qualities that we usually appreciate about a live album: without the sounds of a cheering, exited crowd. But it is the very absence of this, it is the eery silence between the songs that reminds us of what we miss most, and that gives these recordings a rare intensity and power.
Bojan Bidovc // music enthusiast, promoter, misanthrop and sometimes a journalist as well