Cluster
Cluster II

It's 1972. "Cluster II" is released, the second work of the new artistic course of the creation by Dieter Moebius and Hans-Joachim Roedelius, who had been devoted to cosmic sounds since as early as 1969 (born under the moniker Kluster, they transformed into Cluster after the departure of Conrad Schnitzler) and are known to most for injecting the ambient virus into Eno.

However, 1972 is also the year of "Zeit", probably the artistic pinnacle of the cousins Tangerine Dream. And it is also the year when the "guru" Klaus Schulze publishes "Irrlicht", destined to become the iconic work of Kosmische. It is finally the year of "Hosianna Mantra" by Popol Vuh (already moving away from electronics), perhaps the most beautiful album ever released in the history of modern music. Well, in the face of the grandeur of the works of such illustrious colleagues, it is obvious that the work of the two Germans settles a step below. The 4 stars are mandatory, therefore, but this certainly does not mean that it is not worth considering with extreme interest the music of these two foolish experimenters, who certainly represent the most human face of this first wave of electronic pioneers that characterized Germany in the early seventies.

"Electronic music with a human face," not surprisingly, is the definition with which the two like to define their art. And it is precisely this aspect that makes them an anomalous case, they who proudly claim not to be slaves of electronics, mere "button, switch, and knob twiddlers." For Cluster, evidently, electronics is a means to expand their expressive range, and not an end in itself. The approach of the two is still rather physical, concrete. The music, so to speak, is "played," the creative process is still centered on improvisation, and it is no coincidence that the photos in the inner booklet depict the two musicians handling guitars and keyboards.

Less chaotic than in the past, they indeed achieve with this album the perfect balance between improvisation and programming: having set aside the analog sequencers, they prefer to skillfully intertwine the technique of looping tape repetition with the art of jamming, making a rather unusual use of electronic instruments. A sort of electronics in progress, that of Cluster, which wisely combines pre-established patterns with the courage of improvisation and which ultimately shines with the added value of intuition.
This aspect certainly brings them closer to the bolder kraut, even if talking about rock remains prohibitive: it is the undulating pulse of looping sounds that dictates the non-timings of these spatial sonatas, it is the hypnotic spirals of electronics that draw the schemes of these psycho-cosmic frescoes, it is the blatantly sci-fi hallucinations that bring them back to the fold of cosmic music. But where Tangerine Dream and Schulze aim for estrangement, disorientation, mystical ascent given by dilated, static, and endlessly repeated sounds, Cluster, perhaps more crudely, are content to set up a sort of space psychedelia, where guitars and synthesizers are certainly not spared (the liquid and reverberating guitar of "Imsuden", for example, or the spatial organ of "Georgel", a nightmare of distorted frequencies that alone is worth the purchase of the album!).

The basic concept is that Cluster aims at the essence of things, demands control over every single note: they evidently do not need to dilute ideas infinitely in long suites, they do not succumb to the charm of kilometer-long dronic drifts, but rather, closer to a certain progressive tradition, they concentrate remarkable progressions in spaces that are all things considered contained. And so, where Schulze and Tangerine Dream set up compositions of 20-30 minutes of intangible sound fluctuations, of themes that reiterate and vary imperceptibly, our duo only exceeds 10 minutes in two instances, and even manages to launch us into remote stellar spaces in just the 2 minutes and 40 seconds of the concluding "Nabitte", the time necessary for the funereal piano toll opening the track to dissolve into alcoholic warbles and finally transform into a lopsided, ramshackle gallop toward the Nothing. 

Because the strength of Cluster lies precisely in the hazard, the risk, the unpredictability that characterizes the creative process and that spills over into the moods of the compositions, depicting worlds in unstable balance on the verge of ultimate collapse. In short, you’ve surely realized: if you enjoy the sounds mastered by Schulze, Tangerine Dream, and early Popol Vuh, you certainly cannot do without this little gem of cosmic neurosis. Bon voyage!