CCMusic.com

Deluxe two CD + DVD edition. The Berliners present an unusual live album that is a testimony of strange times: their Phanerozoic concept album performed live in it's entirety at a time when no shows were happening anywhere in the world. On September 25, 2020, in the middle of the global pandemic, The Ocean released their ninth studio album Phanerozoic II, the concluding episode of a conceptual trilogy that began with Precambrian 13 years before - and even without any touring to support the new album release, Phanerozoic II entered the official German album charts at #9. With no end of lockdowns in sight, the band decided to thank their fans for the support with 2 streaming concerts, performing both Phanerozoic albums in their entirety: Phanerozoic I was streamed live from Pier 2, a big hall in the port of Bremen, on March 25, 2021. With more than 1.500 tickets sold, it was the most successful show of the popular Club 100 streaming events series thus far. The day after this event, the band retreated to synth player and sound designer Peter Voigtmann's rural studio Die Mühle, just outside of Bremen. Here, the band rehearsed and recorded Phanerozoic II in it's entirety during the following 3 days. The performance aired on April 16 as part of the digital edition of Roadburn Festival, this year aptly named Roadburn Redux. Both shows couldn't have been more different: where the first part boasts with a pompous, mesmerizing lighting production on a big stage, the 2nd part is quite the opposite: intimate, almost cosy, focused on musicianship rather than performance. A stripped down setup in a dark barn, with moody, minimal but not any less efficient lighting.