THE OCEAN Begin Work on ‘Phanerozoic,” Due in October

The Ocean have announced that they have began work on their eighth studio record, Phanerozoic, due for release in October. The writing process has taken place over a long term, taking two and a half years now which isn’t much of a surprise given the band’s constant touring schedule.

Conceptually, Phanerozoic forms the missing link between Precambrian and The Ocean’s 2010 double album Heliocentric/Anthropocentric. The band has been doing a lot of rehearsing over the months of December and January to prepare for the first phate of recording which is about to take place imminently at Sundlaugin Studios in Iceland where artists such as Björk and Sigur Ros have previously recorded.

“We were looking for an isolated place in a cold and beautiful environment, to get us into the right mood for making this record,” commented band mastermind Robin Staps. “The new album will start off bleak, cold and heavy… and then evolve and diversify throughout the second half.”

Julien Fehlmann and Jens Bogren have been confirmed to return to the studio for the recording process, with Magnus Lindberg (Cult of Luna) set to help with the stringed instrument production.

“There is no reason to change a perfectly working formula,” Staps commented with regards to the choice of the production team. “We have been working with Julien since 2009, and Magnus has mixed about half of the records I have released on Pelagic. Jens did a terrific job with ‘Pelagial.’ and so we decided to bring all these gentlemen together this time.”