The most important and consistently underrated space-rock unit of the '70s, Cluster (originally Kluster) was formed by Dieter Moebius, Hans-Joachim Roedelius and Conrad Schnitzler as an improv group that used everything from synthesizers to alarm clocks and kitchen utensils in their performaces. Continuing on as a duo, Moebius and Roedelius eventually recorded many landmark LPs -- separately, as a duo, and with all manner of guest artists from Brian Eno to Conny Plank to Neu!'s Michael Rother -- in the field of German space music often termed kosmische.
Cluster also continued to explore ambient music into the '90s, long after their contemporaries had drifted into tamer new age music or ceased recording altogether. Cluster originally came out of a Berlin art/music collective named the Zodiak Free Arts Lab, formed by Conrad Schnitzler (one of the leaders of the city's avant-underground), and also including Hans-Joachim Roedelius plus future members of Tangerine Dream, Ash Ra Tempel and Guru Guru. After Schnitzler and Roedelius met an art student named Dieter Moebius, the threesome formed Kluster in 1970.
The group performed around Europe and even in Africa, engaging in wild improv sessions utilizing any instruments they could get their hands on; while touring they met engineer Conny Plank, soon to become a major part of Cluster's recorded output into the late '80s. The first three Kluster LPs, 1970's Klopfzeichen and Zwei Osterei plus 1971's Eruption, consisted of side-long improvisatory jams.
Soon after the release of Eruption, Schnitzler left the band for a solo career. Moebius and Roedelius continued on as Cluster and, with the help of Plank, released two eponymous studio albums in 1971 and 1972. An ongoing collaboration with Michael Rother (Neu!) began in 1973, after the duo founded their own private studio out in the German countryside. After inviting Rother down to record, the results were released as the 1974 Cluster LP Zuckerzeit, a watershed of electronic pop midway between Cluster, Neu! and Kraftwerk (the latter just about to explode with their own Autobahn LP).
Cluster during Zuckerzeit recordings in their studio in Forst Photo by Martha Roedelius
That same year, Moebius, Roedelius and Rother formed a Krautrock super-group named Harmonia; two excellent albums followed in the next year, Musik von Harmonia and Harmonia De Luxe, as well as a few sessions with Brian Eno (unreleased until 1997's Tracks & Traces).
Cluster & Eno outside the studio in Forst Photo by Martha Roedelius
Eno himself began his own collaboration with Moebius and Roedelius in 1977, when Sky Records released Cluster & Eno. The trio also recorded After the Heat two years later (technically credited as "Eno Moebius Roedelius"), and after a hiatus of six years resumed the relationship with Begegnungen and Begegnungen II (both featuring Plank in the lineup as well).
Cluster during Curiosum recordings in Austria, 1981
Though Roedelius and Moebius also launched solo careers around this time (1978 and 1983, respectively) they continued to release compelling Cluster material in keeping with Zuckerzeit, including Sowiesoso in 1976, Grosses Wasser three years later and Curiosum in 1981. Besides the Eno collaborations and many other solo works, almost fifteen years passed before the appearance of another Cluster album, 1994's One Hour. Moebius and Roedelius continued to work and tour together continually. -John Bush, All Music Guide
Part One of an Interview with Hans-Joachim Roedelius
THIS JUST IN FROM IMPORTANT RECORDS!! Cluster, Berlin 2007, Important Records, USA Release Date: May 13, 2008
"Berlin 2007 was a monumental performance for Cluster as it marked the first time that they had peformed live in Berlin since their 12 hour concert in the Galerie Hammer in the Europacenter in 1969. The performance was a massive success as a sold out crowd cheered loudly for Cluster to return to the stage. Fortunately, the concert was preserved for posterity and is proudly presented here on Important Records." -Important Records
Conny Plank on the Cluster/Harmonia/Kraftwerk Era
"At that time we all were influenced by English and American music. We also listened to Koenig, Stockhausen, Varese. I used to work with these people in '67, '68, and '69. Mauricio Kagel gave me a lot of ideas about sounds. In those recordings I worked with very academic musicians being very precise doing these sounds, and to me it seemed lifeless, and dry. I then tried to find people that looked in a different way to these materials, that tried to improvise with these dirty sounds, these electronic sounds -- to have a feeling like a jazz musician has to his instrument.
We often worked with cheap toys and used them in a strange way. We distorted a lot of things and filtered sounds very radically but we didn't call ourselves electronic musicians. We used any scratch on guitars, or noises on an instrument... we used pianos and scratched the strings and put echoes on them, and tried to find drastic or attractive elements that turned us on.
The first set-up of Cluster was interesting. We had five oscillators, a few tube distortion units where we sent the sound through the tube and could adjust the amount of distortion. We had echoes where you could change the speed of the echo in real time. We used normal organs and Hawaiian guitar; when you treat a Hawaiian guitar really heavy it sounds like electronic music. We used tape-loops. We had a quite complex setup of all these things that were mixed. Sometimes we worked with a drummer, sometimes with cheap Italian machines.
Moebius and Plank in the Studio
Ultravox told me that when they heard Neu and Harmonia records they got inspired by this because of the different point of view. I think Lou Reed and John Cale and the Velvet Underground were in a similar situation. They were very naive, exploring new things, using the old rock and roll but with different ears and different experience of heavy city life. You do something and you don't realize how good it is. When you talk to Lou Reed today he says he never realized how good this was. They just did it unconsciously, by accident, and later on found out how important it was to pop music.
We were also influenced by the Velvet Underground. When I got this "banana" record produced by Warhol, we were immediately influenced by that. We said this is a fresh approach. They didn't care about the beauty of sound, they just went for a basic feeling of a true situation." -Conny Plank, from an Interview with Electronic Musician, 1987
"Plank also had a notable career as a musician, playing keyboards and guitar on albums by Guru Guru, Cluster, and Os Mundi. He collaborated with Dieter Moebius on five Moebius & Plank studio albums recorded between 1979 and 1986. The Moebius & Plank sound foreshadowed techno and electronica and influenced many later musicians." -Wikipedia
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