Cluster - Cluster '71

Band: Cluster
Album: Cluster '71
Label: Phillips
Year: 1971
Rating: 76%

Tracklist:

Side 1
15:33
7:38

Side 2
21:17

The record begins with a faint hum and what sounds like a distant radar pulse. Skeletal synths pan across the celestial dome as the hum thickens into an undulating drone. The pulses, regular at first, drift in and out of time, rising and falling in intensity as more synths weave in and out of the mix. The piece, quiet and distant at first, gradually grows in volume and power, and becomes increasingly unsettling as what sounds like an analogue keyboard wafts through the air like cosmic nebulae pierced by a hyper driven space vessel. Whooshing cosmic drones emerge ever-present and creeping bleeps sweep across the viewport. Synthetic feedback stabs and heavy distorted phase effects permeate this disorienting landscape, chilling the listener, before a high echoing synth siren flashes across the event horizon. A hypnotic pulse emerges, and is soon buried by flashing phasers and distantly echoing reverb as filtered sounds float through the mix. Suddenly, a rapid, almost frantic bass pulse that wouldn't sound out of place on a modern house track emerges through the void, propelling the piece finally into oblivion. If any record can better re-create the awesome stillness of intergalactic space travel, I have never heard it.

Cluster's first album after the departure of former member Conrad Schnitzler is a landmark in kosmische music. remaining members Dieter Moebius and Hans-Joachim Roedelius marked the rebirth of the band by switching out their old moniker, Kluster, for the new one, spelled with a 'C'. Obsessed with the sensations of weightlessness and propulsion, emptiness and ether, Cluster on this recording took space rock much further than Hawkwind or Pink Floyd ever imagined it could go. Despite the vast quantities of hallucinogenic drugs and sonic explorations their contemporaries engaged upon, Cluster's excursions lacked any connection to rock's organic blues roots whatsoever. There is no rock here, no solid matter. Only the primal void of space remains. In stepping outside time completely and seemingly rejecting all acoustic instruments in favor of synthetic or treated ones, Cluster traveled beyond the Oort Cloud and completely severed any ties to the earthbound roots of their Anglo-American contemporaries. I'd have to consult some quantum physicists on this, but I would bet that the theoretical continuum of space and time found its nexus somewhere within the grooves of this record.

Finding their genesis in the thriving late '60's German art community, Cluster and many of their contemporaries looked to the limitless possibilities of space and the untapped potential of electronic composition to transcend inherited guilt complex of German society. What traditional instruments do appear here have all been treated to the point where they are no longer recognizable as such. There are antecedents to what Cluster was doing here: like most experimental musicians, they were heavily indebted to the works of Karlheinz Stockhausen and other post modern composers. However, there is as much aggressively non-musical noise here as there is tutored study. This is the sound of phenomenally intelligent and creative kids playing with new toys, just trying to see what sounds they could get out of them. Most great musicians operate this way.

The three pieces here are named simply according to their lengths. Although the specific sounds of each piece are different, evoking different textures and sensations, the overall mood is similar throughout. A vastness engulfs these pieces, as if their sounds could travel forever through the distant reaches of space. Although none of them have what could realistically be described as a tempo, there is a definite rhythmic sense present. Synth lines and drones intersect with one another, sometimes irregularly, sometimes very deliberately. The contradictory feeling of movement will remaining perfectly still applies unmistakably to space travel. The enormity of the universe can hardly by grasped by us insignificant beings, and with our primitive propulsion systems, we might as will be completely immobile. We are merely receivers absorbing the transmission, echoing Cluster's concentric sonic radiation as it expands beyond the furthest limits of our universe.

Too harsh and abrasive to properly be labeled ambient, Cluster's interstellar travel on Cluster '71 and other early 70's proto-electronic albums would later influence three generations (and counting) of electronic and ambient innovators to explore the sonic limits of man-made machines in hopes of creating the most fantastic sonic worlds ever heard by human ears. Of course, it is their far gentler and more traditionally song-oriented masterpiece of electronic melody, Zuckerzeit, which is most frequently cited alongside the work of such other Krautrock cosmonauts as Popol Vuh and Tangerine Dream. But for fans of cosmic, experimental, and acid-damaged psychedelic space rock, this album will be of great interest. Some of these synthetic distortion tones are downright gnarly, and the whole vibe here is frightening, even if no indication is ever given as to how or why one is to react in such a way. Listen closely and without distraction, and let the unexpected turns and sounds move you across the galaxy. So long as you can buy my theory that the exploratory wonder and inexorable power of rock can be captured by instruments besides the guitar and drums, you'll have a hell of a trip. Just remember to bring your headphones.