Sundaze, (13)

Hello Sundazers today another cluster of Cluster , here teaming up with Micheal Rother under the moniker of Harmonia and Eno as himself, though under the influence of Harmonia...which began as a sideline excursion for Hans-Joachim Roedelius and Dieter Moebius of Cluster and Michael Rother of Neu!, the group became one of the most legendary in the entire Krautrock/kosmische scene .


After two studio albums recorded as Cluster, Roedelius and Moebius moved out to the German countryside to build their own studio in the village of Forst. After several disappointments in his attempt to expand Neu! into a live unit, Rother retreated to Cluster's studio for a series of relaxed, improvisational jam sessions that wedded Cluster's exploratory space music with the chugging rhythms and guitar sense of Rother. The debut Harmonia LP, Musik Von Harmonia, appeared in 1974 (with an accomplished live track, recorded in Paradiso-Amsterdam). The trio also toured and a new recording drawn from this period, Live 1974 was released on the Grönland Records and Water Records(US) recently.



Michael Rother returned to working with Klaus Dinger and an expanded Neu! lineup in order to create another Krautrock classic, Neu! '75, however Harmonia remained his focus for another LP, 1975's De Luxe. In his absence Cluster went back to work as a duo, releasing Zuckerzeit later in 1974. Rother did contribute some guitar work on this album and his influence is greatly felt. Zuckerzeit sounds different from any other Cluster album, with clearly defined melody and beat and a very rhythmic sound.

Brian Eno had proclaimed Harmonia "the world's most important rock group," and he eventually joined the proceedings for several 1976 sessions -- "Perhaps Eno's reason for praising Harmonia so highly was that their music fit the requirements of ambient rock. Its music was equally suitable for active or passive listening. The careful listener found his/her attentions rewarded by the musical activities and sounds, but Harmonia's music was also capable of setting a sonic environment." Clearly Eno had been very impressed with both Musik von Harmonia and Zukerzeit and had joined Harmonia on tour once, jamming with the group at The Fabrik in Hamburg. The studio album which followed, Tracks and Traces was recorded in 1976, Michael Rother left before the album was completed to pursue a solo career which probably resulted in the shelving of the recordings. The legendary results of which lay unreleased for over twenty years, until Rykodisc acquiesced with the release of Tracks & Traces. Though Cluster and Eno continued their collaboration during the late '70s, Rother began a solo career with 1978's Sternthaler.

Harmonia continued to influence Brian Eno's work long after its demise. Harmonia reunited in 2007 and performed live for the first time since 1976, opening the Worldtronics Festival at the at Haus der Weltkulturen in Berlin, Germany on November 27, 2007

The period from 1976 - 1979 was Cluster's most productive, with the four albums released during those four years receiving the most critical acclaim of any of Cluster's works. 1976 also marked Cluster's move to Hamburg based Sky Records. Their first release for Sky was Sowiesoso (see Sundaze 12), a highly creative album of gentler melodies recorded in just two days.

In 1977 the duo joined with Brian Eno for recording sessions at Conny Plank's studio. The first release from those sessions was the even softer Cluster & Eno. Guest musicians on the album included Can bassist Holger Czukay and Asmus Tietchens on synthesizer. The association with Eno brought Cluster a much wider audience and international attention. The second album drawn from the Cluster & Eno sessions, After the Heat, released on Sky in 1978, featured a much wider variety of styles, including three tracks with vocals by Eno. Again, it was created in collaboration with the influential "krautrock" producer, Conny Plank.The song "The Belldog" is notable for its sequenced analogue synth bassline. Holger Czukay played bass on one track, "Tzima N'arki" which featured the vocals of Eno, a reversed vocal track, part of which includes the chorus of Eno's song "King's Lead Hat" (from Before and after Science), itself an anagram of "Talking Heads", whose recordings Eno was producing during that period.


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Harmonia - Musik Von Harmonia (74 flac 239mb)

The debut Harmonia album is at once a product of their source bands and a fine new twist on them, resulting in music that captures what for many is the Krautrock ideal, or more accurately, the motorik ideal. It's playful and murky, steady and mechanical, a supergroup of sorts who easily achieves and maintains such a seemingly overstated status by embracing a variety of approaches that work wonders. The players bring their usual multi-instrumental roles to the fore, ensuring that the end results achieve their own distinct sound -- this isn't simply Cluster with Rother's assistance or Rother trying for a solo record with Cluster's backing. For all that, there's a touch more Cluster in the end -- the spacier parts on Musik Von Harmonia have that duo's hushed chill, the electronic percussion of Rother meanwhile avoids his familiar crisp punch using real drums . "Sehr Kosmisch", a nearly 11-minute-long piece that undeniably was part of the attraction for Brian Eno in his later work with the band. A piano piece reminiscent of Eno collaborator Harold Budd drifts up and down through the mix of keyboard shimmers and electronic washes, resulting in a piece at once both meditative and gently rhythmic.



1 - Watussi (5:55)
2 - Sehr Kosmisch (10:50)
3 - Sonnenschein (3:50)
4 - Dino (3:30)
5 - Ohrwurm (5:05)
6 - Ahoi! (5:00)
7 - Veterano (3:55)
8 - Hausmusik (4:30)

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Harmonia - Deluxe (75 flac 241mb)

More immediate and song-oriented than its predecessor, but no less enchanting and lovely to hear, De Luxe again features the trio experimenting with a variety of approaches, most particularly including vocals here and there for the first time. There's also a guest musician helping out, namely Mani Neumeier from Guru Guru, and while he's not playing all the time, where he does appear, as on the wonderful lengthy jam "Walky-Talky," it's a fine choice. His slow, subtle build throughout the song helps send it higher and higher without seeming to. The various vocals really do fit the music in a lovely way, and it's little surprise that Brian Eno might have felt even more of an affinity with the group than before, being non-musical but still affecting, like mysterious chants or barks. The motorik pulses and rhythms, however soft and subtle, still dominate the proceedings, while the glazed, warm feeling of the whole album is astounding.



1 - Deluxe (Immer Wieder) (9:45)
2 - Walky-Talky (10:35)
3 - Monza (Rauf Und Runter) (7:07)
4 - Notre Dame (4:15)
5 - Gollum (4:35)
6 - Kekse (5:35)

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Eno-Moebius-Roedelius - After The Heat ( 78 flac 179mb)

Brian Eno's second album collaboration with Dieter Moebius and Hans-Joachim Roedelius of Cluster consists of slow-moving instrumentals full of repeated synthesizer sound patterns and sustained guitar notes in the ambient style familiar from Eno's collaborations with Robert Fripp and albums of his own, such as Discreet Music. (One song, "Broken Head," features recited vocals by Eno, and on another, "The Belldog," he sings. On "Tzima N'Arki," he sings backwards. I haven't been able to establish by whom and why the trackorder was completely changed for the 94 and subsequent cd releases, well this here is a vinyl-rip, but as an extraservice i offer the cd-mix aswell.



01 - Oil (4:09)
02 - Foreign Affairs (3:27)
03 - Luftschloß (3:09)
04 - The Shade (3:07)
05 - Old Land (4:10)
06 - Base & Apex (4:29)
07 - Light Arms (1:29)
08 - Broken Head (5:20)
09 - The Belldog (6:11)
10 - Tzima N'arki (4:24)

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All downloads are in * ogg-7 (224k) or ^ ogg-9(320k), artwork is included , if in need get the nifty ogg encoder/decoder here