Say what you will about Krautrock–that it was overplayed in the music press during the 90s, that Julian Cope overhyped it–but there was some magic afoot in 1970’s Germany. Nowhere was it more apparent than in the records and collaborations in which Dieter Moebius and Hans Joachim Roedelius, aka Cluster, took part. From the explosive noise painting of the duo’s earliest work to their hypnotic mid-70s drum-box-and-synth collaborations with Neu!’s Michael Rother (Harmonia and Zuckerzeit) to the stately instrumental elegance of their work later in the decade–not to mention the plethora of engaging side-projects they took on–few outfits can genuinely claim to have been as quietly influential as Cluster were. Arguably the most important of his many influences, a transfixed Brian Eno would not only collaborate with them, but call Harmonia “the world’s most important rock group,” basing much of his ambient concept on what he had discovered during the (largely failed) experiments he undertook with them in the mid-‘70s.
Though Cluster motoriked through three different genres in the decade–proto-noise, proto-techno, and proto-ambient–there was one quality that endured throughout: simplicity, both texturally and harmonically. It would permeate the compositions of both men. Far from being a monolithic partnership, each member had his own personality; of the two, Roedelius’s work would prove the more stereotypically Germanic, featuring driving rhythms and sleek melodies, where Moebius’s compositions took themselves less seriously and were lighter, goofier — presaging some of his work with producer Conny Plank in the next decade.
While one can reasonably argue that the rise of dance music in the last 20 years can largely be attributed to the increasing availability of electronic sequencers, before any such things existed, Cluster created mantric loop music. On records such as Zuckerzeit and 1976’s Sowiesoso and the two Harmonia records, they did so not electronically but manually, playing themes and rhythms over and over by hand – brilliantly…but not quite perfectly. That they were performed on clavinets, early drum machines and wheezing synthesizers only heightens the sense of warmth, frailty, and, above all, humanity in their work.
The creeping pastoralism of their later records would seem as far from the Stockhausen-influenced early work as one could imagine. And while it would prove less overtly emotional, almost statuesque at times (one track “Schön Hände, means “Beautiful Hand”) it would be equally simple in scope and overall shape. Replacing the harsher electronic textures of the Rother collaborations were acoustic pianos, the gentle, round tones of the Fender Rhodes and synthesizers — instruments that would begin to appear on Sowiesoso, later dominating the Eno collaborations. The effect was to create a type of New Age music that delighted in consonant texture and harmony without drowning it in syrupy sentiment.
Cluster went on to do several more records, apart and together, reuniting somewhat disappointingly in the mid-90’s. But regardless, its legacy is undeniable and influence remarkably broad. Not bad for a couple of guys mucking about in the countryside.