Cluster & Eno

by

Brian Eno and Cluster

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Recorded during a time period of immense productivity and powerful music from Brian Eno ("Before and After Science", David Bowie's Berlin Trilogy), "Cluster & Eno" is a collaboration with German duo Cluster (Hans-Joachim Roedelius and Dieter Moebius) and ambient pioneer Brian Eno. Eno, whose early ambient experiments yielded such high results ("Discreet Music", "No Pussyfooting") finds in Cluster collaborators capable of pushing forward his ideas of looping and ambient music. Perhaps more importantly, as his work with Bowie set the stage for producer/collaborator roles with Talking Heads and U2, his work with Cluster set the stage for the next decade of ambient albums for Eno.

Rather than being based upon repeated melody figures (as "Discreet Music" was), each piece on this record seems largely based around an instrumental combination, be it acoustic pianos ("Mit Simaen"), synths and guitars ("Steinsame"), or metallic percussion and synths ("Die Bunge"). The music has an odd sense of longing and melancholy to it, a dark sound and emotive content not found in any of Eno's earlier works-- this expressiveness is startling, with pieces ranging from downright depressing and haunting ("Wehrmut") to oddly and tentatively optimistic ("Fur Luise"). To my knowledge, this is the first example of minimalist or ambient music to have such an emotive content.

I haven't heard previous issues of this album, so I can't readily compare the reissue to them, but the sound is superb-- crisp, clear, full of subtlety and nuance, and really allowing the music to breathe. A Q&A-styled set of liner notes are provided detailing a bit about the record and its history. My guess is its a worthwhile upgrade, certainly in either regard, its a good album. Recommended.

Static noodlings that don't add much to what Eno was doing since or before, except maybe Another Green World, which is much better. Eno, Bowie et al may have been having a great time in Berlin but this album to me does not represent anything significant in the genre that Eno and the "Krautrockers" developed. The tunes are not very "tight", which to me indicates they went in the studio and started farting around and later clipped out the best stuff (the songs fade in and then out). Some Enossification can be noticed here and there but the basic trio sound gets tired after a while. There is an appearance by Holger Czukay on the first track, other than that the program doesn't vary much. I saw here some comparisons to people like Stockhausen and I laugh, because Eno is not a musician, he barely knows 3 chords (obvious when you listen to his songs on his first 3 solo albums). Maybe that's the problem with this recording, there isn't much going on musically that holds my attention. If it were tighter and smoother sounding it would make good ambient music but it all has a sort of garage-rehearsal sound. Strange as it was Conny Plank doing the production, but I suppose there was only so much he could do with this material. Perhaps some mild psychedelics improve the listening.