Ouri has always managed to create worlds through her music. From the spellbinding cello compositions and heartfelt lyrics that hold her enthralling Polaris Prize-shortlisted debut album ‘Frame Of A Fauna’ together, to the experimental and intricate sounds of Hildegard, her collaborative project with fellow Montreal-based musician Helena Deland, crafting a deeply moving collage of sounds remains a permanent fixture in her musical DNA. Her work converges at the intersection between intricate traditional dynamics and delightfully abstract compositions that resound and confound in equal measure.
Her latest effort ‘Daisy Cutter’ sees her turning the page with a newfound artistic practice rooted in curiosity, devotion and human connection. A necessary statement for dark times. The title’s double entendre captures its unique tension between vulnerability and defiance. By navigating the space in-between, Ouri crafts a record that feels arresting yet regenerative.
The musician spoke with CLASH about the making of her adventurous album, its duality and turning a new leaf.
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Where did the journey for this album begin for you?
I think it started when I wanted to start a new practice. I wanted to do things differently and I knew it would take time for me to step out of the preconceived paths that I had created for myself. I didn’t wanna make music out of grief and like suffering.
I just really wanted to open a new door and let all the shitty ideas come out first and then be like, ‘okay. Let’s walk through this door now.’ It started I think a year and a half ago, or even two years. I was just waking up first thing before coffee or anything. I would just make music for one hour without judging myself like I had been.
When you end the cycle, you’re at the highest point of critical thinking and just like judging everything so harshly to make sure there’s no mistake. I wanted to change that from the beginning and just start again.
How did freeing yourself from constraint help you throughout the process?
I feel like it made me connect to a true desire. I really believe that desires can be corrupted sometimes when you don’t know when you wanna belong. You forget that you actually need to remember what you truly desire. This process helped me realise what I truly desired instead of reacting to all the things around me that were either good or bad.
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You described ‘Daisy Cutter’ to exist in a realm between reality and imagination. Can you elaborate on that?
Daisy Cutter is the name of a bomb but when you hear it you think of someone trimming flowers.I just loved the idea of playing with appearances. I know as a woman in this world you are always perceived. I was like, ‘okay, how do I own and use this capacity of navigating the world differently than other people? Can I actually create a character and she has this world that she’s part of? How does she navigate everything?’
So I feel like ‘Daisy Cutter’ became this leader of a small group. She was navigating the outer world differently than her inner circle. I kind of became her at some point, now I feel like I’m back to myself and she lives on.
I wanted to create a sonic imprint that was really between imagined and real. I think it’s super important to trigger the imagination and the infinite possibilities that this invites. I really wanted to create a sound that lived in between. I’m taking this approach for a life as well.
Is there something that helped guide you to this newfound practice?
Just my intuition honestly, I try to give power to other people, it’s something that you should never do. I tried getting someone else to master. I almost asked someone to mix. I wanted to give the project to someone else, to validate some stuff.
In the end I was like, ‘no one can take this away from me. I have to own the final stamp.’ So I let myself fail. Sometimes I thought the album was finished and I would send it to my management. Then a few weeks after I was like, ‘no, actually, it’s not over. I have to dive back into it.’ I wanted to explore, listen to it in so many different ways, environments. I had the chance to travel a lot last year touring with Charlotte Day Wilson, and I listened to it in so many different countries, so many different cities at different times of the year. Just see what was unshakeable and undividable. Then I knew I had the essence.
Is there anything you learned about yourself throughout all of this as an artist?
I don’t know. At the same time I say that I wanted to have the final step on everything but I also invited people to kind of open up my world, in terms of production. I just know that my intuition is always good and there’s always like a flow that you cannot control. You cannot control everything.
Ultimately being patient and just letting time confirm some things was really beneficial. I thought I was gonna maybe do something even more universal, less niche. But I guess it’s really my thing. I’m trying to make an A-A-B-A-C structure and no one hears that. I guess I learned that I’m just always shape-shifting and that’s fine.
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Speaking of working with other people, I know that you have like a slew of collaborators. How has immersing yourself with a community helped you?
It’s just so exciting to see where two worlds overlap naturally and not force anything. It doesn’t have to be a long-term collaboration. It can be a moment, it can be at the beginning of a very long road, you never know. There’s things that I know I want, but sometimes I don’t allow myself to do it because I feel like it’s not my identity. Sometimes to work with other people, you just access parts of your identity that actually feel so natural and you can keep integrating this. I always knew that I thought identity was something that is evolving. It keeps on expanding and evolving and becoming bigger.I feel like everything changes when you frame your point of view and like you try to think like larger.
Your single ‘Paris’ feels like an ode to your younger self. What was it like revisiting that chapter of your life while writing the song?
It’s so funny because I think most of the songs, I know what I want to express and I’m writing and questioning the lyrics. This one came out like this. It was one of the most crucial points of my life and I feel like I don’t think about it that often. I never write songs about it. This album had a taste of premonition, like going back to Paris. I’ve been spending way more time there. I want to live there partially now. I feel like writing this song reminds me that sometimes making music is like writing future. In some sense, you write things that you so deeply desire that you don’t even think about desiring them, and then you’re there. It’s crazy.
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It’s so crazy how we can manifest things unintentionally. How did your collaboration with Oli XL come about?
We’ve been friends for quite a few years. We were sending each other so many ideas, he was working on ‘Lick The Lens / Pt.1’ and I was working on ‘Daisy Cutter’ and we’re exchanging ideas, kind of being critics and also like soccer moms for each other. There were so many collaborations, so many songs in between us. This one landed on my album.
Lastly, if you could describe your album in a brief manner, how would you do it?
I would say that it’s supposed to chemically induce euphoria in yourself, that moment where you start to be excited about things again. Maybe you have chills and you have sweaty palms. I want my album to live in this space.I wanted to really express devotion. I feel like I’m so avoidant, you know, these attachment styles. I was like ‘how about I actually like to write about how deeply I care.’
I’ve been such a fan of Ella Fitzgerald when I was learning to drive and doing like these eight-hour long drives. I was listening to her. Just the extreme devotion of this woman, I dreamt of walking in this direction for a moment and not trying to be dark or anything, but just be very sweet, very loving.
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‘Daisy Cutter’ is out now.
Words: Sun Noor
Photography: Marko Rodrig
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