Taking a painfully overdue moment today to laud Ted's excellent adventures - the Ted in question being the 'shoegaze cellist' Ted Laderas (who goes - a bit bafflingly, to me at least - by The OO-Ray), & the adventures his fine collaborations this year with Marcus Fischer (a self-released digital-only typhoon fundraiser for The Philippines) & Le Berger (a 50 copies-only C20 cassette for Twin Spring Tapes)...
The inspiredly-named Le B'OO-Ray is a new & almost certainly virtual Montreal-Portland partnership. In contrast, the pairing of Ted & Marcus (Rayfish?) is a quite long-standing collab of Oregon neighbours that produced the Tessellations release back in 2012.
Though linked by the sonorous Laderas cello, of course, & a kind of shared restraint, the releases are likewise dissimilar. The largely acoustic Tulong is a pair of delicate, hushed & affecting mutual explorations of tone that swell & recede like the archipelago waters of their setting. The more shaped (composed, really) V is a more textured to & fro between its parents - a glinting, echoing unfolding in crepuscular half-light
Let it also be said: the bleary beauty To Be Twice Put In Jeopardy ("Composed by Le Berger, inspired by The OO-Ray") is one of the most ravishing things yet from LMYE's cherished Berg...
Tulong context: "Tulong is Tagalog for aid or assistance. All Proceeds will be donated to Humanitarian Response Philippines, a charity that is assisting in the rebuilding of homes of those devastated by Haiyan. Marcus Fischer + Ted Laderas/The OO-Ray are both of Filipino descent. Upon hearing of the destruction wreaked in the Philippines by Typhoon Haiyan, they immediately wanted to help. The result is the Tulong EP. This EP continues their long standing collaboration (starting with their LP Tessellations) with two long form pieces, one improvised live (“Deluge”), and one recorded especially for this EP (“Reconstruction”). They use synthesizers, guitar, cello, and loops to build two distinct sonic pieces that evolve to powerful conclusions."
B'OO blurb: "The three minimalist pieces that comprise "V" play like something lost to time...akin to a fond memory retrieved over and over throughout the years until it is uncertain what is left: reality or fantasy? So too, are the simple refrains of "V". They are like those threads of muted memories becoming more bare as time moves on - less certain, more surreal. The progressions may seem to be the same, but the context is always changing, influencing an accurate sense of recall. Yet, however ambivalent the musical progressions may be, they evoke an austere sense of conviction as if something DID happen and it WAS meaningful, but...that is where the thread ends - the point beyond which memory can no longer breach. The rest will have to be summoned by another means. Perhaps by you, dear listener..."
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