Moebius + Roedelius - Apropos Cluster (1990)

The first Cluster reunion album emerged almost a decade on from Curiosum, and although the group name was referenced in the title, it wouldn't be until the 2010s reissues on Bureau B that this album would be credited to Cluster.  Instead, for this release on a US indie label, Moebius & Roedelius just used their names.

The technology had been updated, as was to be expected from these two electronic pioneers, and one of the criticisms levelled at Apropos Cluster is the sound of the bright digital synths, replacing the analogue warmth of old Cluster.  But it's what they do with this palette that makes Apropos unmistakably a Cluster album.  Right from the opening track (perhaps titled Grenzgänger in reference to the newly opened border in Germany?),  the sounds are tweaked and mixed in pleasingly odd ways, the rhythm constantly tripping over itself.

Emmental, which would become a live favourite, follows with a characteristically aching Roedelius piano melody framed by synth bass and little ambient whispers, then the shimmering surface of Gespiegelt proves to be another beautiful (almost bluesy!) piece that could only have come from this duo.  The album briefly waltzes its way to the end of its first half, then the whole second half is taken up by the title track.  Drifting freely through ambient and rhythmic passages, it ends with a quote from Soweisoso's Es War Einmal, tying together Cluster past and present.  Next week: Moebius catches up with another old friend/collaborator.

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