JOCÉAN ‘EPHEMERA’
Photo credit: Burke Mulvany
JOCÉAN Shares Transformative Nature-Inspired EP EPHEMERA
It’s such an inspired and transformative experience listening to JOCÉAN’s handpan playing. The intentions and intuitive flows in her music have found a perfect balance to maximize the impact while remaining interconnected yet independent.
EPHEMERA is a unique project that documented a truly blissful moment that connects nature, mind, and instrument. The EP is recorded live in a large French country manor overlooking the San Juan Islands.
As an instrumentalist and percussionist who has been immersed with master musicians growing up, JOCÉAN brings a unique perspective to the way instruments encourage and inspiring compositions. This keen connection/relationship between music and their instruments channeled itself into the natural vibrating, ringing harmonics that the handpan produces.
They echo and come in waves, weaving into this intuitively shifting soundscapes as if communicating within the music. “Handpans speak to me and whisper to me what they want to sing. My purpose on this earth is to birth these songs into the world by deeply listening and then sharing them with the world,” the artist revealed.
“After the Rain” depicts the world after a storm where the sun eventually penetrates the heavy clouds. The track sets its scene naturally in the lingering thunder and light condensation. The warm, radiating sun feels fresh and shy in the beginning, yet it slowly transforms the distressing energy, deepening and empowering.
At times, the track intensifies, bringing a blossoming, solidifying golden feeling before it again dims and calms. Just like the ever-changing nature of sunray, wind, and the forest, the track invites you to witness the shifting energy, shadow, and feel through the flowing tempo, rhythm, and textures.
“What You Seek” is about surrendering to the universe and the unknown, trusting the path and divine orchestration, allowing time to slow down. The shift in tonality from “After the Rain” to “What You Seek” is simply amazing. “What You Seek” has an insightful, bright sound that is deeply connected and grounded to nature and the universe. It permeates the rigid surface with its radiating, healing energy.
“Ma” is inspired by the Japanese term of negative space in art where one constantly searches for complexity, filling it up with sounds and instruments. The track pauses compulsive, obsessive energy, transforming the space with its spaciousness and stillness.
