from the LP Zuckerzeit, Brain Records, 1974Much like the chilly breeze that is currently blowing in through my window & the leaves on trees which seem to have magically changed their colors overnight, this song feels like autumn to me; reflecting upon the passing away of another cycle, journeying towards the inevitability of winter, something about this time of year always gives me strength, and that goes for this song as well. Cluster invited their pal Michael Rother along for the ride, whom they had been collaborating with for the couple years prior to this, thus it isn’t surprising that their sound here is much closer to the music they were making with him in Harmonia: spacey, repetitive, ambient, out there shit. I often wonder what it was that attracted the German music scene to electronics before everyone else; maybe something to do with the war, a musical expression of the dissociation this generation felt from their parents’ choices, perhaps even mixed in with some by-proxy guilt on a global scale, which encouraged the insularity of their scene…I don’t know. Whatever it was, I’m interminably grateful for & gratified by these detached soundtracks...the view is lovely from outer space!
