Title : The Blind Deaf Stone
Artist : Orla Wren
Formats : Double 10” Lathe Pressed Vinyl by Bladud Flies, CD, Digital
Label : Time Released Sound (US)
Date : 2021
“It felt like my every neurone was enveloped in the softest organic life. Nurture.”
G.M.Dickson
“A beautiful album, very proud to have been involved.”
Michael Lawrence|Bladud Flies
“Disarmingly beautiful.”
Marisa Joaquim Lourenco|Kunstkamera curator of dreams
“Very moving.”
Mark Daniel Kuykendall|Wild Mountain Studios
“The record truly stands out in a sea of like-minded projects for the masterful sound collage layering.
Wren treats his synthesizer with the patience of a craftsman — it cannot be overstated that every sound comes from one instrument.
The forced reductionism in arrangement might turn into an exercise of noticeable restraint in other hands, yet Wren ultimately bends the synthesizer to his will instead of the other way around.
There is an allure to the blatant symmetry of each track running exactly 12 minutes, especially considering how the arrangements come off as completely freeform.
Wren’s highly calculated methodology starkly opposes this peaceful mode of operation.
The full 48 minutes drift by in a pensive hum that would elevate nearly any visual stimuli attached to it.
The Blind Deaf Stone accidentally evokes Talk Talk’s last two records in its uncompromising vision of organicism.
When everything in our lives feels uncomfortably slowed down, Orla Wren offers up a healthy argument for paying attention.”
Josh Hughes|A Closer Listen
”With Orla Wren you step into an ecological microcosm, where small details are magnified and so that the invisible is suddenly right in front of you.
An intimate and richly detailed whole, which manages to connect with nature in an organic way, as if you are a microbiologist in the digital world.
A subtle yet exciting beauty.”
De Subjectivisten
“Any release by Orla Wren is an opportunity for celebration, and this is no exception....
Using a more stripped-down setup, Tui brings a life to phrases and sequences- the 'buzzing of life' that is evident in his music is still at work-
whether its the 'living field' rustle of his first album "Butterfly Wings Make" or ‘closeness' from this collection,
the background hum of simply being alive is evident...and we cherish the opportunity to add to permanent playlist...ss/tm/am.
Favorite track: life in the minus __ closeness as lyricism/shifts the water inside/this coat called mine.”
Stephen Spera|Editions Vaché
TRS Press Release _ 'Our first release of 2021 sees the return of much beloved English musician Orla Wren.
Recorded in, inspired and infused by his home in the wilds of the Scottish countryside, his first album in 5 years
is entitled "The Blind Deaf Stone" and is a paean to a certain pastoralism, and to the life of this somewhat secluded artist.
What makes this record of particular interest is that it was made entirely with one monophonic synthesizer,
an analog study in radical reductionism.
The four longform tracks are distinct excursions into a personal landscape of organic and broken melodic meanderings...
the slapping spokes of a bicycle ridden through the tall grass, the swish of the walking stick, the buzz of the fly on the manure and the mysteriously subtle drone like chattering and burbling of the deepest countryside.
Plaintive...melancholic...beatific...this is the loveliest of soundtracks to a simple life well lived away from the maddening crowd, and without regret.
This release will be available in a very limited edition of 55 double 10" lathe cut vinyl, pressed by Bladud Flies in Wales.
There will also be a limited CD version in an edition of 100 copies, glass mastered by Monotype Pressing in Poland.’
Colin Herrick|Time Released Sound