*150 copies limited edition* With Poiesis, the Scottish sound artist o[rlawren] continues his careful dialogue between nature, memory, and technology. Issued by Dronarivm and Fonodroom as the second half of a simultaneous double release alongside The Intimate Overlap, this work captures the spirit of transformation embedded in its title—an act of making that transcends its materials. Recorded over several years between his Dumfries & Galloway studio and field locations across Portugal and Scotland, Poiesis situates itself at the porous boundary between physical sound and poetic imagination.
Where its companion album gravitates toward introspective domestic atmospheres, Poiesiswidens the horizon. The record unfolds through the gradual accumulation of modular tones, field gestures, and fragmented motifs that yield a slow, breathing coherence. Each composition—titles like “physis,” “hand plants,” and “biocentric equality”—reflects on the interdependence of human craft and ecological rhythm. o[rlawren]'s tactile approach to electronic texture remains central: sounds grow and decay organically, embracing imperfection as a compositional force. Collaborating with Portuguese photographer Carina Martins and writer Rui Ibañez Matoso, the project extends beyond sound into a kind of multimedia contemplation where image, text, and tone form a single, gestural ecology.
The album’s design mirrors its sensitivity. Packaged in a six-panel soft-touch digisleeve, accompanied by a 10-page Leporello-style booklet of photographs and notes, Poiesis embodies a physical warmth often absent in electronic releases. The music itself feels intimate yet expansive, combining close-mic environmental detail with spatially fluid synth lines that seem to hover just beyond reach. Listeners may detect echoes of lowercase improvisation, acousmatic composition, and pastoral ambient, yet the result is unmistakably personal—restless, humane, and quietly radical in its refusal of hierarchy between machine and organism.
In Poiesis, o[rlawren] has built an auditory ecosystem—an artefact of careful listening rather than spectacle. Its resonance lingers not through volume but through the integrity of its tone, the patience of its evolution, and the sincerity of its craft. For those attuned to the subtle poetry of sound, the album offers a profound reflection on how art can grow from attention, coexistence, and care.
