|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
CD
|
|
TO 126CD
|
"Cleared, the duo of Steven Hess and Michael Vallera has re-emerged with Hexa, their sixth release and third for the Touch label. 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
|
|
|
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
CD
|
|
TO 119CD
|
"Cleared is the longstanding project of Steven Hess and Michael Vallera, based in Chicago, Illinois. Of Endless Light was recorded by Jeremy Lemos at Electrical Audio in Chicago and mastered by Denis Blackham. The six tracks complete the longest release to date by the duo, who were resolute in utilizing the maximum time available on the compact disc format. Cleared has produced a series of critically recognized recordings since its self-titled debut in 2011. Working with the Touch label on The Key (recorded in spring 2019, released in October 2020, TO 116CD) was a leap forward, prompting remixed tracks by Philp Jeck, Fennesz, Bethan Kellough, and Olivia Block. Of Endless Light is noctambulant, a walk through formal sonic spaces and colors beginning with the cascading, bell-like tones of the opening track, 'First Sleep.' The husks of a city's industrial past are summoned: warehouses hollowed out for condominiums, dust-covered factory floors, a distant grind of machining, clouds of metallic particles, and the persistent background hum of traffic. These remnants contrast with hints of the sterile present of a city no less cruel than its industrial past. 'Dawn' opens with a grey drone and scattered electronic rhythms as wiring, and extended guitar lines suggest the opening of another cycle of the day into evening. 'Pulse' offers a hypnotic pattern that suggests the movement of people through the city's core, slowly overlain with cymbals evoking the shimmer of sunlight cleaving off the windows of distant buildings. The album appropriately concludes with 'Walking Field,' methodically moving forward via a cloud of meditative clicks and looping melodies. Of Endless Light is a patient listen, distilled into a sonic environment specific to Hess and Vallera's lens. Cleared created its crepuscular moods using the core methodology of their previous records while expanding their music's range, artistry, and subtlety. Deploying careful instrumentation, sampling, and mixing to experiment with tone and atmosphere, Of Endless Light breathes and drifts through layers of sound that veil, reveal, and intrigue. The result gives a listener much to discover, examine, experience, and consider -- as well as the incentive to return again and again." -- Bruce Adams, 2022
|
|
|
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
CD
|
|
TO 116CD
|
Cleared is the Chicago-based duo of Steven Hess and Michael Vallera formed in the latter part of 2009 as a project to focus on repetition and patience as central elements of composition. Hess and Vallera have previously worked in various contexts of improvisational, long-form and experimental music -- Hess contributed to Fennesz's Seven Stars, released on Touch in 2011 (TONE 044CD). Cleared is an effort to take the knowledge both have gained from these arenas in order to build hypnotic patterns of sound and rhythm. The Key was recorded in the spring of 2019 at Electrical Audio in Chicago Illinois with engineer Greg Norman. After a silence of several years, Cleared went into the studio with a set of drawings and notes describing the arcs of various systems for the creation of soundscapes and rhythmic patterns. There was no rehearsal, demo recordings or any other preparation besides theses diagrams which were designed by both Hess and Vallera in tandem. The logic behind this strategy was to erase the confines of previous releases and return to the origin of the project, which simply began as an open improvisation between the two musicians, centering a focus on slow, gradual changes and a meditative sensibility. The recordings were made with a specific attention to sonic detail and fidelity, resulting in hours of material that was arranged and mixed over the next year by Michael Vallera in his home studio. The resulting four tracks were further investigated and reimagined by Philip Jeck, Christian Fennesz, Bethan Kellough, and Olivia Block, adding another form of The Key as a collection of discreet and weighted sonic explorations. CD in DVD case.
|
|
|
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
Cassette
|
|
IMMUNE 024CS
|
|
|
|
|
|