CLUSTER: I have fallen in love with this band, please help

Roedelius once sent me an email (after reading a web review I had done of one of their '96 concerts) with his phone number in Austria and told me to look him up next time I was over there. Still have it, too...maybe it's time to visit! ;)

But it's no 'Zero Set', which is maximal & covered with overwhelming detail.

All these records were reissued on Gyroscope in the late 90's, and are _already_ all out of print again. 'Durch Die Wuste' already going for $30 used through amazon.com retailers. So if you find them, do not hesitiate.

Stylus should really do a two-part overview...

I wouldn't call the Harmonia/Eno CD 'failed'; it's a collection of demos, not an album. It wanders around a bit, but I still like it a lot (though I always skip the first track).

seriously could not live without everything from 71-84, but here's my bloodstained guide to post-84 solo albums:

Moebius: the first three albums with Plank are the place to start: 'Rastakraut Pasta', 'Material' and 'Zero Set'.

I like 'Tonspuren', a lot.

Both the albums with Beerbohm: 'Strange Music' lives up to title. Noisy, demented, repetitive. 'Double Cut', even more minimal.

'Blue Moon' - his Casio CZ-101 album. a few effective simple tracks I enjoy very much, but wouldn't start here.

avoid Moebius & Plank's 'En Route'. attempt at coming to terms with new digital gear, quirky but stiff & unfinished, and the Moebius/Plank/Thompson 'Ludwig's Law', which is simply Mayo Thompson ranting over a lo-fi dub of 'En Route'.

'Ersatz' and 'Ersatz II' by Moebius & Renziehausen -- soft spot in my heart for these. Though they are pretty silly & have a lot of preset sounds, they are mainline motorik fun, and strange.

His recent solo album 'Blotch', don't like much. And the recent live reunion album with Neumeier, advertised with the line 'Sounds like Zero Set' -- no. It's not bad for a mellow improv session, but that's all it is.

Roedelius went increasingly acoustic after 84. avoid anything that mentions saxophones on the back cover, except for 'Sinfonia Contempora No. 1', 'La Nordica' and 'Der Ohrenspiegel'; he got back into experimenting with electronic textures on those three, they all have great moments.

The 2001 collaboration with Conrad Schnitzler 'ACON', is a single evolving drone split across many tracks; they spend about 20 minutes warming up, then get into some interestingly bent textures. Worth picking up used if you can find it.

The Selbstportrait series are archival compilations of the solo tracks he made in the 70's while in Cluster; basically sinewave organ chords & melodies with no further ornamentation. They're braindead simple, and beautiful. especially II, III, and 'VI (Diary of the Unforgotten)', which has a lot of excellent demo tracks & mixes from the Harmonia period.

The CD of 'Selbstportrait I & II' drops several outstanding tracks from the vinyl version of volume II. Skip the disc, find the vinyl.

Cluster II reminds me of Spacemen 3, oddly enough. The Harmonia is okay, but I eagerly await the other Harmonia album.

Curiosum leaves me a bit cold. Too woozy. Haven't yet spent a lot of time with their earliest works, but stay tuned...

Deluxe really comes alive at night, I think, or in the dark. It conjurs up the color orange, for me. Amorphous 70s architecture. The soundtrack to Romper Room, maybe. Did Romper Room have a soundtrack? I can't remember. Anyway, some long-buried early childhood impressions of sound. I guess that's the kind of thing people get out of Boards of Canada or something, I dunno. I get it from these classic two records, which were in fact released in the 70s.

I just love the title cut, with that simple rhythm box backing, those vocals, and the way it breaks down into that long meditative middle part before the reentry of that big glorious fanfare. I love Rother's slide guitar on "Walky-Talky". I love the way that marching theme on "Notre Dame" just falls away, and all these sparse synth blurps take over, before it returns again. And I find something really affecting about the melody of "Kekse", the final track. It's very sweet, like a lullaby. And then it melts away into those marsh sounds, insectoid chirps and amphibious croaks... Yeah, top 3 AM stuff!

I've actually never heard those records with Beerbohm. I totally want to, though; especially after reading milton's approbation above.

<envisions watching clothes go round in a dryer in a public laundromat while listening to Harmonia>

that's how they started out at least. Selbstportrait III actually includes dates for each track, some go back to '73.

Volumes IV and V were retroactively titled, wenn der sudwind weht and flieg vogel flieg don't make any mention of being a part of the series. they also might actually date from the early 80's, but the aesthetic is consistant; no acoustic instruments, just pure sinewave chords & melodies.

Volume VI returns to the archive, the first half feels like the last leftovers but the second to last track 'hommage a forst' is a 25 minute collage mixed from solo outtakes & alternate mixes from Music von Harmonia sessions, it's super dupes.

I'm spending a lot of time writing about the solo releases, but you only move on to these after getting the 71-84 work... there's no rush either, I bought these records from 1985-1992, even when the vinyl was slightly easier to find, it took years. I'm outing myself as a true obsessive with these posts but there are few bands I spent this much time with...

Still overcome with love for Jardin Au Fou above all right now!

Tonspuren I like better than Harmonia's "Musik Von", though the latter has it's good points.

Gonna give De Luxe another listen right now.

Can't wait until my very own Japanese remastered reissue of Sowiesoso comes in the mail. The last one on the planet? I shall have my fun!

roedelius - mein freund farouk

finding it impossible to track down the early selbstportraits or jardin au fou. surprisingly i didn't like what i heard of durch die wuste. i figured i would love it since its the earliest of his solo things but the trademark melodies are missing and the guitar on it is pretty bad.

i have zuckerzeit, but have only played it once

curiosum isn't for everyone, but it's definitely for me. really subminimal.

like I said upthread, the reunion records are very skippable. but I've got a board recording of their KFJC FM 96 set that hand down beats anything off any of the live albums they released.

though if you needledrop yourself straight into the middle of the rhythmic bit on side 2, you'll be likeably confused for a few minutes

http://mitglied.lycos.de/neuschnee/Clusterdiscs.htm

i was curious about those Ersatz lps, any other opinions? they (Ersatz lps) are hard to find!

actually it is worth getting and i take back my earlier comment. i downloaded it in full and it's very good. think i'll buy it when i get a chance as this mp3 rip is pretty bad.

-Harry

I love the fact that one of their frequent collaborators is a guy named Tim Story, always makes me think of On Cinema

husband of semi-famous Windham Hill artist Liz Story!

Curiosum is such a baffling record. I've listened to it 4 times in the last 24 hours and can't figure out if it's a load of wank or a portal to some primitive form of consciousness. "Oh Odessa" has been in my head constantly. "Tristian in der Bar" makes me laugh. "Seltsame Gegend" makes me wanna play QWOP. "Ufer" makes me crank the volume up and then I'm so calm I forget to turn it back down again. This is what they did after Grosses Wasser?? What other albums sound like this?

I'm obsessed with Oh Odessa, it's got this childlike primitive quality that I can't get enough of.

(xp) Maybe some Moebius albums? Though the childlike quality is more Roedelius' thing.

Haha yeah, it's a deeply weird and addictive record. "Portal to some primitive form of consciousness" is OTM. A couple tracks have a kind of "demented clown" vibe, which I'm not that into (e.g. "Oh Odessa", "Seltsame Gegend"). The queasy major-key waltz duo of "Tristan In Der Bar" -> "Charlic" is probably my favorite part of the record.

I haven't heard anything else that sounds exactly like Curiosum, but parts of Moebius and Beerbohm's Double Cut sound like a slightly less primitive version of its more menacing moments, like "Proantipro" with a hardware update.

I heard "Oh Odessa" on a Cluster compilation, sounds to me like a theme song from a public television educational kids' show from the era.

yeah, also get a little bit of a hardcore devo vibe from "oh odessa"

love this record

great 420 record too, close your eyes and put on "Tristan In Der Bar" and you will see a man tumbling around in a laundromat dryer

lol YES

Tristan in Der Dryer

listening to Sowiesoso yet again now and something that comes to mind is that a lot of this sounds like you're hearing the most incredible, cool, and joyous music ever but it's somewhere in the distance. so your mind fills in the blanks. like you know how some people say books are more intense than movies because your mind fills in images that will match the emotion? that it kind of what happens here. I think this is what James Ferraro was trying to do with all those lo-fi "Summer Headrush" albums.

yeah for sure it’s this sorta pointillist quality that it shares with the vibiest lofi stuff eg older James Ferraro and that amazing KWJAZ album. Walking through benevolent fog on a starlit night..

frogs u should listen to moebius's tonspuren if you haven't already, def has that childlike vibe

oh yeah that one's on my wantlist. I recall hearing it once a while back and really liking it.