Description
In october 2025, Oscar Powell, the London-based artist renowned for his audacious take on techno, decided to surprise his audience with an offering that defies conventions. After his encounter with a profound personal loss, Powell channeled his grief, addiction, and eventual recovery, into an enveloping piece of work titled ‘We Do Recover’. A spectral reflection of his life’s tumultuous phase, each track in this album tells a unique story compelling listeners to embark on a personal voyage into the depths of despair and, ultimately, the dawn of redemption.
“We Do Recover” is not just an album, but Powell‘s narrative of resilience through a heartrending phase of his life marked by the untimely departure of a lifelong companion in 2024. The mournful event pushed the techno maestro into a significant existential crisis, with him grappling with addiction and grief. As he astutely remarks, the album constitutes an expressive journey into his process of self-reclamation and the inherent challenges in the journey.
From a sonic perspective, “We Do Recover” offers an exquisitely synchronized flux between riotous experimentation and profound minimalism. It subtly echoes traces of his innovative work, the a ƒolder project, and the super-synthetic “Piano Music 1—7” conceived under the banner of Editions Mego. Nonetheless, this particular album diverts from the logical rigor of such projects, harnessing the potentiality of synthesized sound not for abstract enlightenment but personal redemption.
The album’s opening, “All These Feelings,” allows listeners an intimate glimpse into a mental landscape echoing under the glow of countless synthetic stars. Gradually, the linear narrative starts to falter, and one can discern the sonic manifestation of emotional agony in “Relapse,” and the silently echoing grief in “Afterlife.” “Newborn,” “So Rivers Plunge,” and the paradoxically titled closing piece “The Bitter End” are earnest attempts to intimate a silent resurgence of hope amidst the seeming chaos.
“We Do Recover” distinguishes itself not only as Powell‘s debut solo album on his label, Diagonal Records but also as a testament to the evolving maturity of his musical genius. By navigating the treacherous waters of pain and recovery, he establishes his commitment to eschewing the transient trends in the world of music. Powell’s journey is reminiscent of the fortitude exhibited by other music maestros such as Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails or Thom Yorke of Radiohead, who have used their art, not just as a medium of expression, but also a path for personal healing. This album is Powell’s reassurance to himself and his listeners that time, indeed, holds the power to mend, rebuild, and recover. More than a collection of tracks, it is an authentic narrative of human resilience.
