May 2022. In an abandoned hotel in Aulus-les-Bain – a mountain village in the French Pyrenees – stands an old piano. Poltrock sits down at the instrument and carelessly plays a few notes. This was the start of a creative process that would last five months.

Poltrock explores his horizons in that godforsaken place. There, he decides to record his four pianos, crudely and honestly, and then edit them with tape effects, cassette loops and old, analogue effects devices. The melodies are intimate and compelling, the sound is confrontational and intense.

In search of a new sound, Poltrock also enlists the Sun*Sun*Sun String Orchestra – a string ensemble that has shared stages and studios with the likes of Einstürzende Neubauten, John Cale, Belle & Sebastian and Cinematic Orchestra. The quartet manages to inspiredly capture Poltrock’s fragile, intimate and whispered ideas on tape.

Five years after the acclaimed trilogy Mutes, Moods & Machines, there is now the diptych Aulus I (May 2023) and Aulus II (November 2023). Aulus I is the soundtrack to a non-existent, dystopian film with long, drawn-out soundscapes dominated by strings. In Aulus II, the focus is on four pianos: sometimes sweet, hopeful and healing, at other times erratic and moody, but always equally deep and honest.