MONO and THE OCEAN announce the release of a split EP titled “Transcendental” for October 23, 2015 release via Pelagic Records!
Mono & The Ocean. 2 bands from very different cultural origins, Japan and Germany… yet spiritually akin and connected by many similarities: a cinematic approach to music, based on lengthy, escalating compositions… the fact that both bands have existed for more than 15 years and released multiple albums since their inception; that they have toured many times around the globe, visiting off-the-beaten-track territories like Siberia, New Zealand, South East Asia and South America; and finally their shared passion for double albums, such as The Ocean‘s ?Heliocentric / ?Anthropocentric, and Mono‘s ?The Last Dawn / ?Rays Of Darkness.
It only makes sense that these two bands will now tour together – and release new music just in time for their extended European run, in form of a split LP. Two songs, only one by each band but 24 minutes of new music altogether.
The Ocean have gone through lineup changes since the release of their 2013 opus Pelagial: Drummer Luc Hess was replaced by Paul Seidel, and Australian guitarist Damian Murdoch took Jonathan Nido’s place. This recording is the band’s first output featuring these new members, as welll as cello player Dalai Theofilopoulou and piano player Vincent Membrez, who already played on Pelagial. The band will take this extended lineup to the stage on the upcoming tour. The Ocean‘s contribution, a 13 minutes song entitled The Quiet Observer, was inspired by Gaspard Noe’s controversial movieEnter The Void. The movie tells the story of a drug dealer getting shot in a Tokyo toilet while tripping on DMT, and entering what is referred to as the ?intermediate state according to the Bardo Thodol, the Tibetan Book Of The Dead: the book, which has been a source of inspiration for many writers, artists and musicians from John Lennon to Aldous Huxley, describes a state immediately after a person’s death, when the intellect of the dead person must face its own illusions, in the form of peaceful and wrathful deities, in a protracted psychedelic experience. Only if it manages to expose these horrifying guises as products of its own imagination, can it escape the eternal cycle of rebirth. Noe leaves it open as to whether protagonist Oscar’s death and the following metaphysical experience are actually happening – or whether he is simply tripping…
Mono, who have toured relentlessly since the release of 2014’s double release The Last Dawn / Rays Of Darkness, address similar topics with their contribution, an 11-minutes song entitled Death in Reverse. The song serves as a trailer for the upcoming 9th Mono album, which is scheduled for an early 2016 release through Pelagic Records. Guitarist and main song writer Takaakira Goto comments:
“The theme of this track is life and death and regeneration. Even when our bodies decay and decompose, our souls will prevail unchanged. Our bodies will act as seeds for the next generation, while our souls will journey together into our new eternal life. This is the story we want to explore with our next album, a portrayal of our journey through life towards death; from living out our lives proud and high, to bodies immolating, infused with precious memories… and through the vast, noisy tunnel of space, we become pure souls – a single drop of water in the fountain of life.”
LA-based German cover artist Florian Bertmer was commissioned to transform these themes into cover art. The split EP will be released on a single 12 slab of vinyl in different colours, matching Bertmer’s lucid illustration, as well as on CD and digitally worldwide through Pelagic Records.
MONO + THE OCEAN + SOLSTAFIR on tour:
12.10.2015 DK Aarhus Voxhall
13.10.2015 NO Oslo Vulkan Arena
14.10.2015 SE Stockholm Debaser Medis
16.10.2015 FI Turku Klubi
17.10.2015 FI Helsinki The Circus
18.10.2015 RU St. Petersburg Zal Ozhidaniya
19.10.2015 RU Moscow Volta
21.10.2015 LT Vilnius New York
22.10.2015 PL Warsaw Proxima
23.10.2015 DE Berlin Heimathafen
24.10.2015 NL Leeuwarden Romein (Into The Void)
25.10.2015 BE Antwerp Trix
26.10.2015 DE Cologne Live Music Hall
27.10.2015 DE Wiesbaden Schlachthof
28.10.2015 DE Munich Backstage
29.10.2015 I Bologna Locomotiv
30.10.2015 I Mezzago Bloom
31.10.2015 F Lyon CCO Villeurbanne
01.11.2015 ES Barcelona Bikini
02.11.2015 F Toulouse Le Metronum
03.11.2015 CH Lausanne Les Docks
04.11.2015 CH Zürich Harterei
05.11.2015 F Paris Trabendo
06.11.2015 UK London Electric Ballroom
07.11.2015 UK Leeds Damnation Fest
08.11.2015 Gr Athens Fuzz Club
09.11.2015 Tr Istanbul Garajistanbul
