Qluster:
Echzeit:
Bureau B:
LP/CD/DD:
Out March 4th 2016:
From the Kluster of 1969 came Cluster in the '70s and now Qluster re-emerge with another album of mind-warping thought-provoking opus of ambient-concrète and slow drift music.
Now formed of founder Hans-Joachim Roedelius plus keyboard-wielding Onnen Bock and multi-instrumentalist and general experimentalist Armin Metz, the newest incarnation of one of Germany's most import electronica exports delivers a ten-track collection of atmospheric piano pieces - hear Best Freunde for some lovely Frahms-esque melodies - and gently shifting soundscapes borne out of experimentalism and curiosity.
Ahead of this year's eventual Cluster box-set and building on 2015's piano-driven Tasten and developing gradually like previous Bureau B releases such as the late Dieter Moebius' last albums and Lloyd Cole's respectful executions of the genre on Selected Works, Echtzeit treads a path of discovery without breaking too much sweat. The likes of Verweile Doch and the pretty Glasperlenspiel aren't far different to Apollo or Music For Films-era Brian Eno or one or two other Sky Records luminaries. Very little digital equipment has been used in this recording - Echtzeit has an unmistakable whiff of 'analogue' about it, banks of temperamental synths waiting for the merest trigger, the deftest of touches to spark some life into its ageing circuits.
Solemnity and serenity engulfs Das Seltsame Tier Aus Der Norden (The Strange Animal From the North) and Auf Der Lichtung (On The Glade), conjuring up images of abandoned buildings, calm lakes and snow-dusted hillsides, music seemingly designed for the practice of using one's brain to create something more than just the obvious. The waterdrop rhythm of the closing musical-box melody of In Deinen Händen is the perfect way to bring this rather unassuming but intriguing and occasionally magical album to a fitting end.
★★★★★★★★☆☆
Echzeit:
Bureau B:
LP/CD/DD:
Out March 4th 2016:
Now formed of founder Hans-Joachim Roedelius plus keyboard-wielding Onnen Bock and multi-instrumentalist and general experimentalist Armin Metz, the newest incarnation of one of Germany's most import electronica exports delivers a ten-track collection of atmospheric piano pieces - hear Best Freunde for some lovely Frahms-esque melodies - and gently shifting soundscapes borne out of experimentalism and curiosity.
Ahead of this year's eventual Cluster box-set and building on 2015's piano-driven Tasten and developing gradually like previous Bureau B releases such as the late Dieter Moebius' last albums and Lloyd Cole's respectful executions of the genre on Selected Works, Echtzeit treads a path of discovery without breaking too much sweat. The likes of Verweile Doch and the pretty Glasperlenspiel aren't far different to Apollo or Music For Films-era Brian Eno or one or two other Sky Records luminaries. Very little digital equipment has been used in this recording - Echtzeit has an unmistakable whiff of 'analogue' about it, banks of temperamental synths waiting for the merest trigger, the deftest of touches to spark some life into its ageing circuits.
Solemnity and serenity engulfs Das Seltsame Tier Aus Der Norden (The Strange Animal From the North) and Auf Der Lichtung (On The Glade), conjuring up images of abandoned buildings, calm lakes and snow-dusted hillsides, music seemingly designed for the practice of using one's brain to create something more than just the obvious. The waterdrop rhythm of the closing musical-box melody of In Deinen Händen is the perfect way to bring this rather unassuming but intriguing and occasionally magical album to a fitting end.
★★★★★★★★☆☆