French-Canadian songwriter, musician, and DJ
Ouri released her long-awaited full-length solo debut in 2021, months after she and
Helena Deland issued a self-titled album as
Hildegard, which the duo recorded spontaneously in eight days.
Frame of a Fauna took much longer to gestate, with tracks appearing as singles the year before the album was released. Both records are inventive works that combine daring experimentation with raw sensuality, but
Frame of a Fauna has a greater sense of depth, and ultimately leaves a bigger impression.
Ouri's arrangements fuse classical instrumentation with post-industrial beat constructions, with opening song "Ossature" being a collage of complex yet sluggish trip-hop rhythms and jagged, blown-out bass mutations, while her delicate harp and yearning vocals float above it all. "The More I Feel" is a blur of clicking, whirring electronics that somehow don't distract from the intimacy of her piano playing and vocals ("Don't be competitive, just focus on me"). "High & Choking, Pt. 1" has a more streamlined electro beat and equally direct lyrics ("I just wanna be high with you"), and "Wrong Breed" similarly has a club-forward beat. However, some of the most affecting songs are the more weightless ones, such as the wordless fantasia "Fonction Naturelle" or the gorgeous neo-classical ballad "Shape of It."
Ouri's music is just as futuristic and boundary-breaking as it is human, and her debut album is simply remarkable. ~ Paul Simpson