The OO-Ray and Brumes

Ted Laderas' work under the name the OO-Ray has been, to date, lovely enough, using his multi-tracked cello and light synth tones to provide a placid feeling. You get no such calm on the OO-Ray's latest album, Empty Orchestra. The songs are built with the same unyielding, enveloping spirit as William Basinski's Disintegration Loops. They are big, swarming MIDI productions that don't let you escape from the sound. It's like standing in the middle of an orchestra as it works out a slowly dripping rewrite that stretches out the opening chords of Also Sprach Zarathustra to epic lengths. ROBERT HAM