Orshina releases new full-length record

Tel Aviv-based artist Lior Golan’s music has become a way of confronting life at its most difficult as opposed to finding a means of escape. Working under the name Orshina, the guitarist, producer and rock artist has developed a highly personal approach to electronic music, building soundscapes that draw on struggle, loss and recovery. His work forms in a space where emotion meets ambitious production, transforming painful experiences into expressions of dtermination while retaining a sense of hope.

In Israel’s experimental music scene, Orshina represents an uncompromising creative voice whose music finds strength in facing uncomfortable truths. Influenced by the groundbreaking sounds of Carbon Based Lifeforms, Pink Floyd, Infected Mushroom and Shpongle, Orshina brings together elements of various musical styles and expansive, intricately constructed arrangements. These influences provide a platform for a sound that’ss as concerned with emotional expression as it is with sonic exploration.

No viewing production as an end in itself, Lior uses it to communicate experiences that are difficult to explain through words alone, resulting in music that draws listeners into an intensely personal world while leaving room for them to recognise their own struggles within it. Such emotional honesty takes on an especially profound significance with Orshina’s second album titled Requiem for “NOVA”.

Following the release of his debut record, Rebirth, in 2021, the artist returns with a project shaped by devastating personal loss and collective trauma. The album follows the loss of his beloved sister and many close friends, transforming grief into a work of remembrance that seeks to honour those no longer present. It’s a release born from circumstances that are difficult to comprehend but its purpose extends beyond documenting pain. Through music, Orshina attempts to create something that might offer comfort to others who are navigating their own experiences of loss.

Conceived as both a memorial and a message, Requiem for “NOVA” carries the context of its subject matter throughout its creation. Recorded primarily in Orshina’s personal professional studio, with the drums and mixing completed at Leon Sound Pro, the album brings together a range of musicians to support its emotional and musical ambitions. Violinist Maianne Tur, drummer Roey Brosh, and vocalists Idit Eshel and Shiran Tzfira all contribute to the record, adding different dimensions to a project based in personal testimony.

The process of making the album was itself a demanding psychological experience; tears, breakdowns and exhaustion became part of the journey, reflecting the difficulty of revisiting profound grief while attempting to give it an artistic form. Set up by “Graveyard Blues,” the album drifts into focus with airy instrumental tones, intricate percussive taps and sweeping textures, forming a dreamy soundscape that slips into a mellow groove of pulsing synth notes, sliding guitar elements and steady percussive march.

“Bread & Circus” follows with the swell of hazy textures, crafting a spacey sonic voyage of prog rock-tinged vibes where rustling drums propel twanging guitar notes and colourful electronic elements. “Hell in Paradise” flows with the drift of elegant tones before the mellow snap of drums adds a lilting rhythmic sway, forming a hypnotic and truly mesmerising sonic journey that progresses with delicate melodies and a subtle sense of hope.

With “Rest In Music,” the soft march of rhythm carries bubbling synths, graceful strings and intricate tones as smokey vocal samples pepper the arrangement with flickers of emotive thoughts. “Dressed up for the Devil” forms an immersive scene of gliding synth lines and sparse percussive shots before flowing with gliding rhythm and soothing orchestral instrumentation, offering a dazzling instrumental experience.

Closing the album with “Holocausts and Slavery,” the swell of emotive instrumental tones is met by the punch of drums and atmospheric flutter of lead guitar as the track builds towards an anthemic rock-inflected crescendo, offering a spectacular finale to the album. With Requiem for “NOVA”, Orshina offers music as an act of remembrance, ensuring that those lost will not be forgotten via a truly personal response to grief but also an attempt to turn that grief towards compassion, connection and hope.

Listen to Requiem for “NOVA” below