2018 is Hexadic year three – the third annum since we were
introduced to a new wave in combinatorial theory with powerful
potentialities for music composition. The book, ‘The Hexadic System’,
was written by Six Organs Of Admittance’s Ben Chasny, who
demonstrated the possibilities of the system with two albums of
Hexadic composition, as well as touring the music and chairing talks
on the process and uses of The System around the United States and
Great Britain. ? This third instalment of the ‘Hexadic’ series had been planned from
the beginning – inviting others outside of Ben Chasny’s Hexadic
headquarters to make music using The System – but Ben was pleased
to find that once he’d started asking like-minded music makers, such
as Stephen O’Malley and Richard Youngs, they’d already begun to
explore The System for their own writing. As one of the first
individuals to explore The System, Phil Legard’s thought and music
expressions have been invaluable to Ben and his contribution here,
transposing The System, as it were, from guitar to keyboard, is
redolent with ideological zeal. Likewise, the music of Moon Duo,
Tashi Dorji, Jenks Miller (Mount Moriah) and Meg Baird and Charlie
Saufley (Heron Oblivion) is suffused with a meditative energy, as
their native understandings of how to create transfuse through the
System with an invigorating flow. ? One of the advantages of The Hexadic System is the provision of a
malleable template to interface with the wide array of choices one
makes when composing. With this in mind, ‘Hexadic III’ shouldn’t be
listened to as a key to understanding how the system works. Instead,
one should expect to hear a various artists collection that has an
unusual cohesion, resulting from a new line of communication in
which all are participating, even when they are using the language
directives in different ways. ‘Hexadic III’ conveys a shared mode
from a wide span of performers, all of whom have used The System
for a means of expression that allows them to access themselves in
both new and essential ways, highlighting both commonalities and
diversions in their playing – and providing in the process an album of
deeply stimulating new music.