FFO: Outri – Vignette #3: Birdsong

OUTRI, the solo bass project from North East musician Ian ‘dodge’ Paterson, returns with Vignette #3: Birdsong—the second in a series of live-recorded tracks captured at Northern Dance in January 2025. Built around a 12-bar jazz blues structure and inspired by the rhythm of a dawn chorus, the piece with its euphoric tidal synth, mesmerically meandering bass and found sound bird song creates an expansive tapestry of acoustic wonder.

Here, Ian tries to sum up the sounds within the piece using three other tracks…

First Watch – King Creosote & John Hopkins

This is such a beautiful opening to what is an entrancing album. I love how this track just slowly unfurls, the found-sound everyday hustle-bustle of the café making way for the delicate piano chords before the gentle pads creep in underneath. It slowly draws you in, creating a beautiful immersive space that you can just be in. I first heard this track (and the rest of the album), lying half-asleep, mid-tour, on a sofa in a friend’s house in Ireland and it was as close to a transcendent experience as I’ve ever had. Trying to recreate that immersive experience was a significant influence on ‘Birdsong’.

Seven Days of Falling – Esbjorn Svensson Trio

In my opinion this might be one of the most perfect tracks ever written. I love everything about it – the opening hypnotic bass riff, the beautiful jazz-inflected, yet not too jazzy harmony, supportive drumming, THAT melody and then the bowed distorted double bass. It gives me goosebumps every time I hear it (and I’ve listened to it a lot). Here is a trio that just knows how to create their own individual sense of time and space. There’s no showboating or ‘chops’, just gorgeous heartfelt playing from all three players, entirely in service of the song. Their approach is really inspiring and a big influence on ‘Birdsong’ (and indeed all of my music).

Hidden Orchestra – Antiphon

I love this track and again it creates such an individual sense of time / space which really speaks to me. The attention to detail throughout this track (the little reverse synths at the start, the intricate drumming, distant drums like thunder) and how it ebbs and flows, all underpinned by the beautiful rain sample is really inspiring and an approach that I’ve very much tried to emulate in ‘Birdsong’.