Hexa by Cleared

Cleared, the duo of Steven Hess and Michael Vallera has re-emerged with Hexa, their sixth release and third for Touch. Steven Hess recorded sessions in the group's practice space, handing them over to Vallera, who in turn added his home recordings, mixing and manipulating them. The final product provides only the barest of hints to any instrumental points of origin, such is the extent of their intermixture.

Hexa brings the listener interiority and depth, beginning with the slow build of the title track, where chiming details prompt a cycling drone. The "Magnetic Bloom" pulsations give way to granulated smears, while the well-named "Time in Return" plays with repetition and layering. The density in the tracks relents with "53S," a recording from a train station contributed by the field recordist Chris Watson. The spatial sensations brought by the clanking and creaking offer a respite of sorts before the accretion of processed magnetics resume on the aptly entitled "Sunsickness." Clouds of static overwhelm the initial melodies of "Ash." Pulses, bursts, and points of electronics breach the layered blankets and sheets of sound, as with the concluding track, "Oval Waters."

If you need to identify a genre locale, put Hexa on the side of the street where current electronic music lives. However you categorize the album, it is an absorbing listen front-to-back. Each track emerges with layers peeling and/or accreting and new details revealing themselves. [Bruce Adams, 2024]

Cleared is the longstanding project of Steven Hess and Michael Vallera, based in Chicago, Illinois. Cleared has produced a series of critically recognized recordings since its self-titled debut in 2011.