Orshina Turns Profound Grief into a Powerful Memorial on ‘Requiem for “NOVA”’
Orshina’s ‘Requiem for “NOVA”’ is a very personal record, born out of the sheer grief of loss and the need to find some meaning in the aftermath. It was released on 7th October 2026 and is a memorial to her sister and her friends as well as a message of remembrance to all those affected. The emotional content of the record is absolutely inseparable from the music. The process of making it was a very difficult psychological journey involving a lot of crying, breakdowns and sheer exhaustion. Each song was a step in the process of trying to work through the grief and find some comfort and a little bit of hope. The six tracks are all very much about the subject of loss and the album is titled ‘Graveyard Blues’, ‘Bread & Circus’, ‘Hell In Paradise’, ‘Rest In Music’, ‘Dressed up for the Devil’ and ‘Holocausts and Slavery’. It’s a record that is as much about the loss of her friends and sister as it is about the wider suffering and the inherent contradictions of the world.
Orshina is a potent mix of psychedelic, electronic and rock. The sound is very much inspired by the ambient electronic of Carbon Based Lifeforms, the grandiose experimentalism of Pink Floyd and the psychedelic vibes of Infected Mushroom, Miktek and Shpongle. That gives you a very broad musical palette on which to build an album that is essentially about feeling rather than any particular answers. Maianne Tur (violin), Roey Brosh (drums), Idit Eshel and Shiran Tzfira (vocals) all contribute to the arrangements and the blend of electronic and live instruments is very much a feature of the music. Most of the album was recorded in Orshina’s own professional studio with the drums and mixing done at Leon Sound Pro. It’s a very much a collaborative effort and the music has the intensity of the experience that it came from.
At its heart it’s simply a plea ‘help me heal the world”. It’s not an album that’s trying to hide the pain or to offer some easy comfort. It’s an album that’s been created through the process of grief, anger and exhaustion and which has turned that state of utter brokenness into an act of remembrance. The refrain “WE WILL NEVER FORGET’ is the emotional core of the project and that’s what it’s all about. It’s a very difficult album to listen to but it is also a very poignant statement from an artist who is using music as a way of remembering, of enduring and of perhaps helping others to feel less isolated. ‘Requiem for “NOVA”’ is a very personal project which is ultimately about something much wider, something of compassion and healing.
“Orshina turn[s] a very deep loss into a very powerful musical memorial, a voice for grief and yet one that is still holding on to the belief that music can be a force for healing in the world.”
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