Ocoeur

The French experimental electronic project Ocoeur produces rich ambient environments that incorporate gentle classical touches along with understated glitch-infused IDM rhythms, a combination showcased on its 2020 album Everything. Born Franck Zaragoza, he felt drawn to music from childhood and started piano lessons at age eight. He soon began composing his own pieces, shaped by his classical training yet equally informed by ambient figures such as Vangelis and Brian Eno. An encounter with techno in clubs prompted an interest in programmed rhythms and introduced him to Murcof, Aphex Twin, and Boards of Canada, while film and video-game scores supplied further creative fuel. He trained in graphic design and later pursued it as his main occupation. After settling in Bordeaux as an adult, he adopted the Ocoeur alias—taken from the French au cœur, meaning “to the heart”—and issued his debut album Les Hommes Ne Savent Pas Voler (“Men Don’t Know How to Fly”) in 2010 on the Barcelona label Música Vermella. The record blended expansive ambient layers and delicate music-box melodies with crisp glitch textures and breakbeats, earning him widespread notice. He then joined the American imprint n5MD for the more expansive and lush follow-up Light as a Feather, released in 2013. Rather than overhauling his approach, he refined it release by release, adding greater detail and intricacy to the sonic constructions. A Parallel Life (2014) grew somewhat darker and more fractured, Reversed (2016) emphasized classical influences, and Inner (2018) moved toward pure ambient territory. Ocoeur’s sixth album, Everything, arrived in 2020 and marked a modest return of beats.