After the release of Deluxe Harmonia went back to the studio with a new fourth member: Brian Eno. Clearly Eno had been very impressed with both Musik von Harmonia and Zuckerzeit 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 but was not released until 1997. After Rother left again Eno continued collaboration with Moebius and Roedelius in 1977, when Sky Records released Cluster & Eno. The trio also recorded After the Heat two years later . Not even a decade yet this completes my first 3 clusters of Cluster and friends, nine great albums that set the ambient road ahead, albums where new techniques were employed and the limits of the then analog technology were explored.
Obviously this was not the end of the Cluster story, in fact 6 weeks ago -as Harmonia - they played a gig in Berlin, and inbetween 1979 and 2007 they've released a number of good (solo) albums, but as we know things never get as exiting as in those days we explore.. be it music or a lover....
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Cluster - Zuckerzeit (74 ^ 95mb)
An unexpected jump from the extended kosmische jams of Cluster 71 into uncharted territory that signaled their direction for years to come, Zuckerzeit presented a vision of electronic pop, fusing the duo's haunted melodic sense with crisp, scratchy drum programs that provided a grounded focus to all those synthesizer warbles. Oddly, the ten short tracks have separate composer credits (five each), leading to the assumption that Roedelius handled more evocative synthesizer lines ("Hollywood," "Rosa") while Moebius pushed the group into experimental ground ("Rote Riki," "Caramba").
01 - Hollywood (4:40)
02 - Caramel (3:00)
03 - Rote Riki (6:10)
04 - Rosa (4:08)
05 - Caramba (3:55)
06 - Fotschi Tong (4:15)
07 - James (3:18)
08 - Marzipan (3:15)
09 - Rotor (2:38)
10 - Heiße Lippen (2:20)
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Harmonia and Eno - Tracks and Traces (76 ^ 99mb)
Recorded in 1976 but for whatever reason not released until 20 years later, Tracks & Traces is a fascinating release not merely for Eno's participation but for the hints of music that would become mainstream in the future. Indeed, opening cut "Vamos Companeros" has an intense guitar line from Rother that in its nervous, choppy way suggests everything from Wire to Bauhaus, not to mention Eno's own noted production clients, Bowie, Talking Heads and U2. Having already created two excellent albums, the core Harmonia trio was easily placed to whip up a third, with Eno the wild-card factor who turned out to be a perfect addition. While contributing some lyrics and singing at a time when he was steering away firmly from both in his own solo work, most of the time Eno lets the band speak for themselves musically, most notably adding snaky, quietly threatening basslines. Compositions range from the lengthy to just fragments, and while it feels at points more like a collection of sessions than necessarily a complete stand-alone album conceived as such, the end results are still well-worth hearing.
1 - Vamos Companeros (4:32)
2 - By the Riverside (9:31)
3 - Luneburg Heath (4:53)
4 - Sometimes in Autumn (15:49)
5 - Weird Dream (6:39)
6 - Almost (5:28)
7 - Les Demoiselles (3:59)
8 - When Shade Was Born (1:30)
9 - Trace (1:31)
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Cluster and Eno (77 ^ 99mb)
Brian Eno's first collaboration with Cluster, the best of this album's instrumental pieces are too emotionally rich to waste as mere background music, evoking feelings of hesitancy and regret that rescue the music from mere vapid prettiness. "Wehrmut" is an ethereal synth piece with the pace slowed to a tantalizing crawl. "Steinsame" features a treated guitar playing a slow figure over a dark, almost funereal synth melody. "Schöne Hände" uses watery synth effects to highlight a shivery rhythm pattern. Other pieces dispense with moody atmospherics altogether. While not the unqualified success of their 1978 collaboration After the Heat, Cluster & Eno remains an important album. Along with Eno's 1978 Music for Films, these works helped define the depth and promise of ambient music.
1 - Ho Renomo (5:10)
2 - Schöne Hände (3:00)
3 - Steinsame (4:20)
4 - Wehrmut (5:00)
5 - Mit Simaen (1:30)
6 - Selange (3:30)
7 - Die Bunge (3:50)
8 - One (6:00)
9 - Für Luise (3:50)
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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
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