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'Sowiesoso' follows on from Cluster’s most highly acclaimed album Zuckerzeit. Michael Rother’s influence was clearly audible on the latter, Cluster already having recorded two albums with him under the name of Harmonia. 1976 saw the duo looking for new musical forms. More than any other Cluster album, 'Sowiesoso' represents the utopian vision of Hans-Joachim Roedelius and Dieter Moebius, its mellow transparency evoking the landscape of the Weser Uplands where the two musicians lived at the time. Sowiesoso is not the work of fanatic dreamers who have fled the metropolis, but the reward for their tenacious search for a new musical language. The LP’s seven cuts were recorded in their own studio with modest equipment - a four-track tape machine, two Revox A77 stereo tapedecks and a simple 8-channel mixer. Cluster were thus completely independent, able to work where and when they wanted, at their own pace. With no guest musicians, sound engineers or producers to accommodate, Cluster thrived on their new-found autonomous freedom. Sowiesoso captures them at the peak of their creative development, with the limited range of recording equipment enhancing the clarity of their vision, allowing them to concentrate on the music without drifting into narcissistic muso territory. Minimalist, yet neither formulaic nor automated, the album is a rhythmic tapestry of electronic and acoustic elements. This could only be Cluster music, its harmonies reaffirm the quality of song, in spite of eluding song structure as such.
'Sowiesoso' follows on from Cluster’s most highly acclaimed album Zuckerzeit. Michael Rother’s influence was clearly audible on the latter, Cluster already having recorded two albums with him under the name of Harmonia. 1976 saw the duo looking for new musical forms. More than any other Cluster album, 'Sowiesoso' represents the utopian vision of Hans-Joachim Roedelius and Dieter Moebius, its mellow transparency evoking the landscape of the Weser Uplands where the two musicians lived at the time. Sowiesoso is not the work of fanatic dreamers who have fled the metropolis, but the reward for their tenacious search for a new musical language. The LP’s seven cuts were recorded in their own studio with modest equipment - a four-track tape machine, two Revox A77 stereo tapedecks and a simple 8-channel mixer. Cluster were thus completely independent, able to work where and when they wanted, at their own pace. With no guest musicians, sound engineers or producers to accommodate, Cluster thrived on their new-found autonomous freedom. Sowiesoso captures them at the peak of their creative development, with the limited range of recording equipment enhancing the clarity of their vision, allowing them to concentrate on the music without drifting into narcissistic muso territory. Minimalist, yet neither formulaic nor automated, the album is a rhythmic tapestry of electronic and acoustic elements. This could only be Cluster music, its harmonies reaffirm the quality of song, in spite of eluding song structure as such.