Qua
In which our 60- and 70-something godfathers of electronica make their latest comeback.
Cluster's 13th album also looks like being their swansong too (unless there's yet another 'unexpected' reunion in the pipeline a decade hence). Just as Asmus Tietchens writes in the sleeve notes: "17 miniatures with mysterious titles pass by the listener like a toy caravan of dark camels loaded with alien and precious drams." It's apt description because Moebius and Roedelius sketch their unmistakable and ineffably strange rhythmic and harmonic doodles that hover between the strange and familiar, cold and warm, mechanical and humane. The cumulative effect is dream-like and mesmeric. In contrast to the warm and slightly fuzzy analogue production of their 70s classics, the digital production on Qua has a pin-sharp clarity - courtesy of Tim Story's loving care and attention to detail - that happily works to the duo's advantage throwing their sombre drones and sweet melodies or gloopy automata into sharp relief.
