British/Swedish indie-rock four-piece Ocna are back with their latest offering ‘When’; a beautifully stunning reflective piece rife with majestic tropes and symphonic sounds.
More slow-building and fluid than their debut single, ‘Can’t’, Ocna’s second release shows a band aiming for ethereal heights and branching out into glistening electronica to get there. The track seamlessly blends acoustic and electric guitar, bass guitar, live drums, and synths to create a sound encompassing feelings of loss and coming to terms with how to deal with it.
The song begins simply with an acoustic guitar and waltz-like keyboards, sounding vaguely like the Doors in orbit, but grows bigger with the addition of more layers including a bass sequencer and drone synths. Fiona Robertson's acrobatic vocals soar above what gradually becomes a hypnotic wall of sound, with Matt Burns' metronomic drumming giving form to Dale Hudson's cascading keyboards and Karl Nilsson's luminescent guitar. Speaking about the track, the band said: “‘'When' is about grief, the struggle to rebuild after losing someone, and regret for failing to spot warning signs.”
Ocna combines electronica with chiming guitars and spiralling synths to create powerful indie rock music that’s uplifting, epic, and at times ambient. Formed in 2019 in the English coastal city of Brighton, the band consists of Fiona Robertson (vocals), Karl Nilsson (electronics, programming, guitar, lap steel), Matt Burns (drums) and Dale Hudson (guitar, bass, synths).
Ocna likes music that creates its own world, immersing the listener in sounds that reflect joy, sadness, a sense of ease, or uneasiness. The band has influences ranging from contemporary musicians such as School of Seven Bells, Beach House, and Big Thief, to classic acts including Joy Division, Cocteau Twins, and Scott Walker. Ocna released their first single, "Can't", in March 2022, securing glowing write-ups in publications including Clout, Music Existence, Unrecorded, Mystic Sons, FMS, and Rough Online.