Cluster
Cluster is a German experimental musical group who influenced the development of contemporary popular electronic and ambient music. They have recorded albums in a wide variety of styles ranging from experimental music to progressive rock, all of which had an avant-garde edge. Cluster has been active since 1971, releasing a total of 13 albums.
Cluster is a German experimental musical group who influenced the development of contemporary popular electronic and ambient music. They have recorded albums in a wide variety of styles ranging from experimental music to progressive rock, all of which had an avant-garde edge. Cluster has been active since 1971, releasing a total of 13 albums.
Member of: Hans-Joachim Roedelius, Moebius
II
Cluster can be counted among the most important international protagonists of the electronic avant-garde. Some credit them with having invented ambient music, others as pioneers of synthesizer pop, whilst to some they are firmly embedded in the krautrock universe. There is some truth in all of these notions. Cluster (or Kluster as they were in the beginning) were founded in 1970 in Berlin by Conrad Schnitzler, Hans-Joachim Roedelius and Dieter Moebius. A change in direction and musical differenc…
On In Out
Advanced Public Listening Records is the new Japanese label established by Miho Mepo, a veteran of the Berlin music scene as a booking agent, label owner and manager of artists for the past 22 years. After recently coming back to Japan, she decided to start this new, highly conceptual label that symbolizes her unconventional musical vision, experience and network that she accrued while living in Europe. As she has stated, “This is my dedication to the musicians and music lovers everywhere. What …
Highdelberg
Guitarist Ax Genrich began his career in 1970 with a brief stint with German prog-kraut rockers Agitation Free. There he was able to develop his improvisational style, but was soon poached by Mani Neumeier to join Guru Guru. Together with bassist Uli Trepte, Genrich and Neumeier enjoyed their first major successes and were soon regarded as the new figureheads of Krautrock, releasing Känguru in 1972, a milestone in the genre. After four years and four albums, Ax Genrich left Guru Guru because the…
Reverso
2011 release ** "Five decades on, Our Roedelius finally releases a film soundtrack. Well worth the wait. As a godfather of electronica, Roedelius could have easily made a parallel career as a film soundtrack auteur, only he's always lacked the killer instinct of a Vangelis or Edgar Froese to compromise his intuitive muse for mass audiences. Which made him something of a wild card for Frederick Baker's BBC TV documentary Imagine Imagine - about the countercultural forces that gestated John Lennon…
Krautrock Eruption – An Introduction To German Electronic Music 1970-1980
Krautrock, what is it anyway? A genre, a derogative term, a song by Faust, … or: a welcome (and recurring) opportunity to talk about all of this. The music associated with the term in question has eagerly been canonized. From the enthusiastic and idiosyncratic ramblings of Julian Cope’s “Krautrocksampler” to encyclopaedic approaches like Alan and Stephen Freeman’s “Crack in the Cosmic Egg”, there are plenty of books to read and lists to discuss: Who’s in, who isn’t? The quarrels and disputes sur…
Cluster II
1973 second Brain pressing with green labels and gatefold sleeve of the superb second Cluster LP produced by Conny Plank.
Berlin 07
Berlin 2007 was a monumental performance for Cluster, marking their first live performance in Berlin since their 12-hour concert in the Galerie Hammer in the Europacenter in 1969. The performance was a massive success as a sold out crowd cheered loudly for Cluster to return to the stage. Fortunately, the concert was preserved for posterity and is proudly presented here on Important Records.
Packaged in a deluxe digipack.
Cluster was formed around 1971 when Roedelius and Moebius left Conrad Schni…
Zuckerzeit
Limited Anniversary Edition: 180g vinyl, hand numbered, 1000 copies. In 1974, Cluster entered the sugar era. This doesn't mean that they had finally arrived in their promised land, but they had simply moved from Berlin to the country, to a small place called Forst on the river Weser. Many a thing had changed for band members Moebius and Roedelius since Cluster II: They had moved from boisterous Berlin to this calm rural village, they had founded the band Harmonia, had set up their own studio an…
Zero Set
In 1983, Dieter Moebius (Cluster) and legendary producer Conny Plank teamed up for the third time, resulting in the Zero Set project, originally released on Sky Records. On this occasion, they were backed up by one of the best drummers on the German rock scene: Mani Neumeier of Guru Guru. Plank, usually more of a background figure as producer, takes an equal share of the limelight alongside the musicians. His supermodern studio is brought into play like an instrument in its own right; Plank expl…
Tonspuren
This is the first solo album by Dieter Moebius, recorded at Conny Plank's studio and originally released in 1983 on Sky Records. By 1969 at the latest, Dieter Moebius was synonymous with the avant-garde electronic music scene in Germany. He and Hans-Joachim Roedelius formed Cluster, a seminal electronic/ambient duo, while Moebius was also a member of the so-called Krautrock supergroup Harmonia (with Michael Rother and Roedelius), as well as collaborating on various other projects with the likes …
Material
*2023 stock* "On their second album Material, originally released on Sky Records in 1981, Moebius & Plank ventured far, far away from the double coordinates of the Harmonia world and pop music cosmos. Amazingly, they did not find themselves floating in space, but made an exemplary landing, avoiding getting caught between a rock and a hard place. Material saw them generate a form of genre-busting electronic music, more radical than anything one might have expected to come out of Germany, not even…
Offene Türen
*2023 stock* "...Offene Türen shows a more avant-garde side. The pieces in their brevity are often sketchy, acting as sound miniatures. The instrumentation is minimal with origins in the Selbstportrait series, with sound effects backing the Farfisa organ. There are also songs like 'Allemande,' which sounds a bit like a burlesque folk dance, or 'Abenteuerliche Begegnung' and 'Besucher im Traum' which resemble in their romantic mood more typical Roedelius music." - Jochen Rindfrey
The Diary Of The Unforgotten - Selbstportrait VI
*2023 stock* A beautiful collection of recordings from 1972 to 1978, first released in 1990 (with different artwork). "Selbstportrait VI" contains compositions Roedelius did in addition to his work with Cluster, Harmonia and Brian Eno in the legendary Forst years. In the booklet Roedelius looks back on this personal and artistical important period of his life. He explains the magic of the idyllic place and its influence on his music.
Wie Das Wispern Des Windes ... / Like The Whispering Of The Wind...
*2023 stock* If we can agree on 1969 as the year of Cluster's inception, then Roedelius needed a good 17 years to discover the aural qualities and musical beauty of the grand piano for his own compositions. Rarely has the title of a Roedelius album so poetically and yet so accurately described its content. On "Like The Whispering Of The Wind" from 1986 Roedelius expands his Études towards amorphousness, then suddenly a disarmingly familiar melody appears, from a completely different source perha…
Silberland Vol 2 - The Driving Side Of Kosmische Musik 1974-1984
Welcome to Silberland – where the streets are paved with strobes. Home to neon lights, straight lines and open roads, this futurist fantasy was ï¬rst founded in the mid-seventies, when Germany's creative class chose musical therapy in order to indulge their shared hallucination of a new Europe. Fuelled by the catalytic fusion of globalisation and new technology, the world was turning ever faster and the kosmische generation were ready to keep the pace. With synthesisers, rhythm computers and hu…
Momenti Felici
*2023 stock* This LP by German synth music pioneer Hans-Joachim Roedelius features almost no synthesizers at all. When they do appear (most prominently on "Über den Wolken"), they're a background instrument, supporting his piano. At other times, Roedelius duets with saxophonist Alexander Czjzek. But the primary instrument is his grand piano, and the pieces aren't the droning marathons of 1970s German "kosmische" music, they're three- and four-minute vignettes (some tracks are in the six-minute r…
Mind Cinema
"...I'm looking forward to playing live together with you Linda, Christian and Michael wherever on the globe, as soon as the Covid restrictions are abrogated. This would be a great pleasure for me. Stay healthy, yours" - Joachim
"It has been a privilege to have the opportunity of recording with you Joachim. Thank you for opening the doors to the sonic cinema and ushering in our minds. Lights, Camera, Action - or as you once told us - Do it!" - Dallas Acid
Hans-Joachim Roedelius: Piano, Organ, Ke…
Silberland Vol 1: the Psychedelic Side of Kosmische Musik
Fellow humans, Bureau B invite you on an expedition to Silberland, a singular span of spacetime created by Germany’s sonic futurists of the seventies and eighties. Embracing the early electronics and tape experiments of the sixties’ avant-garde, these artists aimed to boldly go, eschewing small steps for giant leaps into a nebulous and novel sound.
1. Die Partei – Strahlsund2. Rolf Trostel – Two Faces (bureau b edit)3. Michael Bundt – Full Steam Ahead (bureau b edit)4. Moebius – Etwas (bureau b …
Two Gather In The Waiting Room
A very nice collaboration between Michael Begg & Hans Joachim Roedelius - highly recommended!
Cluster & Eno
The first of two milestones in ambient music recorded by Germany's legendary electronic pioneers Hans-Joachim Roedelius and Dieter Moebius together with Britains music eccentric Brian Eno.