For those interested in a world of true fusion and synthesis, a Montreal-based multi-instrumentalist (she plays seven, to be exact) by the name of Ourielle Auvé offers another enveloping ambient anthology.In the four years since her last full-length solo album Frame of a Fauna was released, Ouri has been playing international festivals from MUTEK Mexico to Prague's Lunchmeat, hosting a monthly radio show on NTS, and, most recently, modelling for Versace. With her sophomore album Daisy Cutter, the classically-trained electroacoustic composer continues to develop the fluid, instinctual sonic world she's built over the course of her nearly decade-long career.While it's become a bit cliché to describe an album as "genre-less," Ouri embodies this anti-label as she swirls through down-tempo progressions, industrial textures and orchestral scores, all with equal fervour; on any given track, you can hear a combination of cello, harp, digital synthesizers, piano, steel guitar and layered hums.Fusing analogue instrumentation with digital software in a distinctly 21st century way, Ouri oscillates between simplicity and extravagance by way of speculative sense-making. The entire project is perceptibly tactile, down to the braille depiction of the titular words on the album cover. Intimacy builds as you find yourself getting hooked on the tiny details: an ostensibly-unfinished background harmony in "100,000 ft"; one measure of dissonance in the outro of "multiLove"; two bars of bass-boosted techno kicks mixed low in "Paris" (effectively functioning as an ode to Ouri's city of origin). These fragments make up an obsessive, meticulous whole, where each deconstructed "Whoosh!" feels carefully placed and each meditative loop intricately arranged. Throughout its 13-track run, Daisy Cutter forgoes rigid adherence to traditional song structures, instead opting for abstract, spacey compositions. Starting slow with early highlights like "Blush" and steadily building tension up to the high-tempo climax "Droplets in the Air," the project's energy resembles a DJ mix, echoing Ouri's experience as a curator in Montreal's nightlife scene. She keeps us in sync with her current all the way through the comedown, closing with the choral tune "Get in Formation !"Consistent with her track record for collaboration, Ouri gathers contemporaries from all around the globe to feature on this project, including Canadian neo-soul darling Charlotte Day Wilson, Swedish glitch-god Oli XL and French genre-bender Bamao Yendé. (She addresses her own peripatetic tendency on "Friends from Nowhere": "No place to call home / But I don't really care.") The artist's collage of influences is equally wide-ranging, from C418 to Jimi Hendrix; Debussy to D'Angelo.With Daisy Cutter, the self-described empath completes another exercise in a careful, wandering form of vulnerability, as Ouri once again proves that some feelings are simply better communicated through pitches rather than words.
Wavelength
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