Venus Theory’s auras:lichen is the latest release in the free auras series for Decent Sampler (also free), and it extends the developer’s run of exceptionally emotive instruments.
Decent Sampler is available in AU, VST, VST3, AAX, and Standalone formats for macOS, Windows, and Linux.
If you’re new to Venus Theory’s auras series, I highly recommend you go back and check out previous releases like Altis, Veils, and Polyscape.
If you’re familiar with auras, you’ll recognise the typical auras interface offering control over dynamics, expression, filtering, and FX.
The auras engine is perfect for ambient, textural, and cinematic composition because it provides more than enough to bring sounds to life without overwhelming users with options. For me, the A/B dual-layer setup is always the star.
For all its similarities to previous releases (emotive, cinematic, textural, evolving, etc.), lichen’s source is something quite different.
Lichen comes from the Terra microtonal synth by Soma Laboratory. I saw Soma’s Terra at Superbooth a few years ago, and like most people, my initial reaction was something like “I’m sorry, what??”
There’s a lot to take in with Terra, not least the fact that it looks like a cheeseboard with buttons, albeit a very attractive one.
Wooden design aside, you’ve got a somewhat funky layout of velocity/pressure-sensitive buttons, the full range of a grand piano with advanced transposing and tuning options (125 steps per semitone), and a built-in gyroscope for movement-based modulation and expression.
Once you get past the nature-meets-technology aesthetic and the unique performance system, you’ve got an extremely tactile polyphonic synth that becomes more expressive the more you play it (which is true of most things Soma). Soma Laboratory always has some weird and wonderful things to see, and it’s always worth a visit if you get along to a show.
One of the reasons the auras series is so successful is Venus Theory’s understanding of and talent for composition, and Terra is a perfect partner.
There’s something organic about Terra that sounds almost unstable at times, like you have to tame it because it’s so tactile. With 20 presets, Venus Theory has captured that feeling of uncertainty, which is like gold dust, in any cinematic context (there’s also an Init patch as a foundation for custom sounds).
Lichen is quite dark, and if you listen to the Taos preset, for example, it’s always verging on uncomfortable, and creates so much atmosphere and tension.
If you watch enough Venus Theory videos, you’ll know he’s passionate about scoring video games, and one of the things I love about video game scores, especially in older games with darker, ominous sounds, is sudden shifts in emotion.
Where film might incrementally raise the tension, or drop to terrifying silence, older video games often took the safe – safer – very safe – EXTREME DANGER approach to music.
lichen, with its dual-layer system, and the sound of Terra, can go from emotionally uncertain to full panic mode in an instant.
While I said lichen is quite dark in general, some patches are ambiguous enough to mask its intention somewhat, and, in classic video game style, it’s inevitably going to get worse before it gets better.
Download: auras:lichen (FREE / Name-your-price – Decent Sampler required)
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Last Updated on November 25, 2025 by Tomislav Zlatic.
