From 2022 to 2025, post-metal visionaries The Ocean lost two-thirds of their members, with the lineup that made fan-favorite albums Phanerozoic I (2018), Phanerozoic II (2020) and Holocene (2023) stripping itself away. After a victorious final bow at Hellfest last year celebrating this lineup that had lasted for over a decade, only founding guitarist, songwriter and lyricist Robin Staps, longtime bassist Mattias Hägerstrand and new drummer Jordi Farré (also of Crippled Black Phoenix) remained.

Those who stayed could easily have called it quits, but instead, they rebuilt with and re-emerged with Solaris, which is the most ambitious album of The Ocean‘s 25-year career. A near-70-minute journey to the stars and back, it is based on late Soviet filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky’s masterpiece of the same name.The first single from this upcoming album is “Light Pollution,” which begins with familiar synth textures that connect seamlessly to its predecessor, Holocene, before gradually picking up momentum and moving in a different direction. The song culminates in a towering, slow-burning finale of orchestral grandeur, suffocating heaviness, and subdued rhythmic complexity.

New vocalist Enrico Tiberi sings at the beginning of the song. Orbital motion is not only the gravitationally curved trajectory of a celestial body; in another context alluding to early scenes in the film Solaris, which is orbital motion in water refers to the circular or elliptical paths water particles follow as waves pass through, transferring energy without moving the water itself forward.

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