THE OCEAN / PSYCHONAUT / POTHAMUS

As part of the "Solaris" album tour, The Ocean will visit Latvia

On December 10, the influential German post-metal band The Ocean (also known as The Ocean Collective) will return to Riga as part of the tour for their new album Solaris. One of the opening acts will be the current Belgian trio Psychonaut.

Since the end of the pandemic, The Ocean have been on an intensive touring schedule, playing more than 100 shows a year on every continent except Antarctica, and their new twelfth album Solaris marks a symbolic return home for the band - the opening track is named after the geographic coordinates of the band's Berlin studio and rehearsal space. The album itself was recorded at the legendary Hansa Studios in Berlin, where cult records such as David Bowie's Low and Heroes, Iggy Pop's Lust For Life and Depeche Mode's Construction Time Again were once made. This environment and the teamwork have directly influenced the album's sound, which was created as a shared process of experimentation and exploration, continuing the band's long-running course of concept albums. This time, the album is inspired by Polish writer Stanisław Lem's cult novel Solaris and the intelligent, living ocean described in it.

The biggest change with the new album is the expanded The Ocean lineup - Enrico Tiberi, a virtuoso pianist and multi-instrumentalist, whose contribution now adds and highlights the band's signature atmospheric post-metal with the sound of celeste, grand piano and electric organ, as well as vocalist Lane Shi - formerly the singer of the US band Elizabeth Colour Wheel.

The evening will open with the Belgian sludge and post-metal trio Pothamus, while special guests Psychonaut, who in recent years have rapidly established themselves on the European heavy music scene and at the biggest genre festivals. Their style - dense, psychedelic post-metal with influences from 1970s rock music - will serve as a logical and powerful introduction to the evening's main guests.