Following a statement from his Facebook page, it has been announced that guitarist Jonathan Nido and drummer Luc Hess will leave The Ocean after their current European tour with Shining (NOR), Hacride and Tides From Nebula. The reasons include "artistic divergence", full-time commitment to a project which is not fulfilling anymore, among other things. Both of them, alongside bassist Louis Jucker, are part of the project Coilguns as well.

Jonathan Nido's statement reads as follows: "As some of you already know, this upcoming tour will be the last one for me and Luc as members of The Ocean. We will both quit the band permanently after the last show of the tour.

June 25th 2013, after careful consideration, Luc decided to let us know that he would not carry-on playing with The Ocean after this European headlining tour. 2 days later, I also decided that it was time for a change and have kindly told the guys that this upcoming European tour will be the last one I will play with The Ocean as well.

An official and more detailed statement from the both of us will be published after the tour. As for now, all I can say is that we both had the feeling it was the right time to take this decision and move-on. There are obviously a ton of reasons for that to happen now. That include artistic divergence, full-time commitment to a project that isn't 100% fullfilling anymore and other stuff like not wanting to deal with certain aspects/restrictions of what an established/touring act requires for its production and also the way things are generally working, especially on a personal level.

I don't think we were supposed to announce this anytime before the end of the tour for whatever reason, but Luc and I thought that people that have discovered / enjoyed this band with this line-up during the last 6 years would maybe appreciate to know that this will be the last tour with this line-up instead of just finding out about it when the tour is over. So yeah, come out to any of these shows and let's have a drink to celebrate whatever is next for both The Ocean and us!"

Source:	facebook.com
Band profile:	The Ocean