Mt. Onsra have revealed a further taste of their forthcoming album with a supremely meditative track titled ‘Universal’, which is out today with accompanying music video. It’s the latest to be revealed from the album ‘Sacred Time’ which will be out 28th June via the pair’s own South of Devon Records.
Russell Cleave says “I had the idea of making a song at the BPM of a relaxed heartbeat to create something more meditative so I set the metronome off and started working out a part. It felt like breaking out of this one hypnotic riff would break the meditation. So we kept it simple with one part that just shifts in dynamic to give the illusion of change.” As the other half of the duo Simon Allen says, “Timeless, connected, interdependent…..that’s the universe and we are a tiny tiny part of it.”
Mt. Onsra will be self-releasing ‘Sacred Time’, as they did with 2022 debut album ‘Written in Silence’. However, this record came to life in actual person at a studio, rather than how they recorded the first, totally remotely over Whatsapp during lockdown. Both talented multi-instrumentalists with a wealth of experience, at the core of this project is a love story of two friends floating in and out of each others’ lives. Mt. Onsra’s music is an emotional release, the sound of searching; for meaning, for connection and understanding, with second album ‘Sacred Time’ delving further into these soul-searching avenues. Raw and intimate, orchestrated and loud, there was never any plan, there was no strategy. The process in the studio was equally organic and Allen even felt the need to sojourn back to his own home setup when it came to recording vocals, in order to keep them raw and intimate.
The first track to be revealed from the forthcoming album was its expansive opener ‘Emergent’ which rumbles, at first quietly but ultimately weightily out of the gates. It was spun by Daniel P. Carter on the BBC Radio 1 Rock Show. The accompanying music video is loosely based on the pair’s experiences in their last years of school as academia went out the window and their focus shifted solely onto music. The idea of having a female protagonist in the vid came from their experience of having many female friends as into death metal as they were. This cut was followed up by the intensity of ‘Fever Dream’, which earned a coveted spot on the weekly Kerrang! Chart.
Allen and Cleave first met back in 1995. They formed a band. They moved to London. They split up and went their separate ways. For the next 20 years, the duo would stay in sporadic contact but without a music-making connection. The global pandemic hit and the pair decided to write a song together, remotely. That 1 song turned into 10, which in turn became Mt. Onsra’s debut album ‘Written in Silence’. This record is the sound of the duo’s respective lockdowns and was released by them in 2022. The pair never met up physically when making this album, going through the process entirely remotely. They never discussed a genre or specific influences for the project but rather just wrote exactly what came out. There were no words at all between them throughout the process, as they simply sent files back and forth. Only once the album had been completed did the duo have a video call together.
During their 20 year arc, musically the pair had diverged. Cleave formed Brotherhood of the Lake & Helpless, releasing multiple albums, touring across the globe and were celebrated by the BBC Radio 1 Rock Show, Kerrang! & Metal Hammer. Allen, on the other hand, released a solo album under the name Esay – ‘Hundreds and Thousands’ was produced by Tom Dalgety (Royal Blood, Dinosaur Pile-Up, Killing Joke). During this sojourn, he also became a Bath Folk Festival Award Winner and played in alt-country outfit Littlemen. The genreless expanse of Mt.Onsra provides a space and time for both men to connect to something bigger.
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