The Ocean Collective Loses Two Members
Well, this sucks: The Ocean’s current European tour will be their last with guitarist Jonathan Nido and drummer Luc Hess.
Nido and Hess have been with the band since 2007 and 2008, respectively, so this news is no small deal. The current lineup has been steady since 2009 (when vocalist Loic Rossetti joined), recording Heliocentric, Anthropocentric and Pelagial together. Essentially the whole “Collective” idea peaked with 2007’s stunning breakthrough Precambrian (check out the insane list of participating musicians here), after which these guys became the permanent band. Now bassist Louis Jucker is on hiatus while he finishes school and these two guys are out for good. Having just seen The Ocean play a 75-minute set in Brooklyn and seeing/hearing how well this lineup gelled, it’s a major bummer.
Robin Staps has always been The Ocean’s creative center, though, writing most of their music, so I can’t imagine the band’s sound will change all that much (if at all). At this point I feel as if Rossetti has become an integral member too — The Ocean’s fans, this one included, love his voice — so I’m glad he’s sticking around as well.
One bit of good news here: anyone who became worried that Rossetti might be leaving the band when they performed instrumentally in Germany earlier this month can presumably rest easy. If Rossetti were leaving the band that news probably would’ve been released now. Here’s Nido via Facebook explaining his and Hess’ decision to leave:
As some of you already know, this upcoming tour will be the last one for me and Luc as members of THE OCEAN. We will both quit the band permanently after the last show of the tour.
June 25th 2013, after careful consideration, Luc decided to let us know that he would not carry-on playing with The Ocean after this European headlining tour. 2 days later, I also decided that it was time for a change and have kindly told the guys that this upcoming European tour will be the last one I will play with The Ocean as well.
An official and more detailed statement from the both of us will be published after the tour. As for now, all I can say is that we both had the feeling it was the right time to take this decision and move-on. There are obviously a ton of reasons for that to happen now. That include artistic divergence, full-time commitment to a project that isn’t 100% fullfilling anymore and other stuff like not wanting to deal with certain aspects/restrictions of what an established/touring act requires for its production and also the way things are generally working, especially on a personal level.
I don’t think we were supposed to announce this anytime before the end of the tour for whatever reason, but Luc and I thought that people that have discovered / enjoyed this band with this line-up during the last 6 years would maybe appreciate to know that this will be the last tour with this line-up instead of just finding out about it when the tour is over. So yeah, come out to any of these shows and let’s have a drink to celebrate whatever is next for both The Ocean and us!
Dates for The Ocean’s current European tour can be found here.
Here’s a track by Coilguns, a band that features Nido, Hess and Jucker:
[via Heavy Blog]
