Reviews

Hypnagogue

It’s possible that within the acoustic instrument kingdom, the cello is uniquely suited to ambient music. While it can be played with fiery fervor, its sad and throaty tone really comes alive when played with patience, long draws of the bow coaxing out beautifully mournful sighs that drill into a listener’s heart. These sighs translate perfectly to an ambient pad structure; layer them and add touches of electronic texture and you’ve got Astoria, the new release from The OO-Ray. Ted Laderas began the pieces here as improvisations on the cello, then went back and fleshed them out with looping, pitch-shifting and distortion. The pieces range from ambient drifts like the raspy “Autumn” and the softer-edged drones of  “Gwageus” to neo-classical infusions like “Palimpsest.” Throughout, the pieces are thoughtful and emotionally dense. The somber tones of “Andalusia” contrast with the somewhat familiar gypsy-dance melody that Laderas slowly metes out.”Waveguide” puts me in immediate mind of Gorecki with its heart-wrenching cello line and minimalist approach. Laderas accents this lazy drift with resonating, hard-struck chords. “Marzo” stands out for its comparatively upbeat tone, Laderas flicking his strings in a pizzicato percussion. A clockwork beat rounds out the sound. The draw here, as with most electro- acoustic ambient, is how well the too-human organics mesh with the electronics, the rough against the smooth. Laderas pulls it all off nicely, creating sound-sketches of feelings that we want to look deeply into, and which we understand at a gut level.

Textura

It takes no time at all for the listener to be drawn into Astoria’s world when the cello’s deep groan appears seconds into “Moments of Quiet Technicolor,” a dirge-like drone whose strings are propelled by the death knell of a recurring pluck. In “Marzo,” Laderas builds up so many cello layers the instrument becomes a string orchestra, resulting in a field of texture and melody that’s so rich and dense the effect is mesmerizing, while he elsewhere conjures a shimmering fairy-tale world (“Gwageus”) and creates settings equally majestic and mournful (“Andalucía”). Deep symphonic tones, more suggestive of organ and horns than cello, give “Sleep” a Wagnerian majesty.

There is much to admire about this recording: first and foremost, the range of sound Laderas draws from the cello, with its upper and lower registers and percussive potential amply exploited, and with pizzicatto playing heard alongside the bowing (strikingly heard in “Bubbaly,” for example); and, secondly, the circumspection shown in having the twelve settings last only three- to four-minutes on average. Each piece appears just long enough to establish its own sound-world but then, having done so, exits. It’s truly remarkable to hear as luscious a set-piece as “Chimes at Midnight” be brought to life in just three minutes.