Mono / The Ocean Transcendental

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’s contribution, a 13 minutes song entitled The Quiet Observer, was inspired by Gaspard Noe’s controversial movie Enter 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…