Sowiesoso

Cluster | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (March 19, 1996)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Gyroscope
• ASIN: B0000035DH
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #499,707 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Sowiesoso (So Not So So)

2. Halwa

3. Dem Wanderer (To the Wanderer)

4. Umleitung [Diversion]

5. Zum Wohl (Being Well: Goodlife)

6. Es War Einmal [It Was Sometime]

7. In Ewigkeit [In Eternity]

Editorial Reviews

Originally released in 1978, Brian Eno's second collaboration with Cluster comprises blissed out instrumentals alongside experimental New Wave vocal tracks. --This text refers to the Vinyl edition.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Any Way, Way is Zodiac Free, September 18, 2001

By 

Nicholas Croft (New York) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Sowiesoso (Audio CD)

Hans-Joachim Roedelius comes from a family of teachers, preachers, musicians and doctors. Dieter Moebius's origins are more informal, as his long-standing association with the Harmonia Commune of Germany suggests.

Together, they form Cluster, and have produced an extensive discography of meditative electronic music. Sowiesoso, which means 'any way way' was released in 1976. This album was recorded during a particularly fruitful time in Berlin history, before each artist began their solo careers, starting in 1978 and 1983, respectively.

Cluster originally came out of an art music collective called the 'Zodiak Free Arts Lab', which was formed by Conrad Schnitzler ( one of the leaders of Berlin's avant-garde ). The adventurous, experimental spirit of the 1970's German electronic music scene flows throughout Sowiesoso.

Listen attentively, without distraction, to this lovely musical offering, and you may find that you are then transported to far away places, by Cluster's whimsical imagination and abundant musical talent.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful, December 11, 2002

By 

rubidium84 (Ft. Calhoun, NE) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sowiesoso (Audio CD)

Sometimes I run across a record that needs no other justification for it's existence than that it SOUNDS good. Sometimes I think people get too involved with the "importance" or "significance" of a musical work, so that they ignore the fact that the music is just plain good. This record is'nt groundbreaking, or visionary (not even for the musicians involved, it's just the logical conclusion of the ideas first presented in "Zuckerzeit") - but it is essential, because it is good.

The album's first track presents the formant for the subsequent pieces - simple synthesizer-based sound paintings that stay close to their origianl structure. One could even say that they are "static". But the way that Cluster blends different organ, piano, and synth lines together into an overall sonic background is simply masterful. Listen to the sense of depth in the title track, or in "Zum Wohl". In this particular track, for example, the band creates, through the subtle use of bird sounds, the effect of playing the song deep inside a forest. Then there is also the final track on the CD, which is unbelievalby slow, while not seeming to be.

It is interesting to note what was going on with other musicians at the time; for example, Eno, while not working on any particular project in '76, had just released his "Discreet Music" album. And Tangerine Dream was recording "Stratosfear" ( the second track of which sounds quite a lot like some of the stuff on "Sowiesoso").

I would recommend this album to anyone interested either in Eno or TD, as well as some of the other german groups (Kraftwerk, etc) or the early works of Steve Roach ("Structures from Silence"). Or of course, to anyone who likes a good piece of music.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Organic Electronic Masterpiece, June 2, 1999

By 

Sam Grawe (SF, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sowiesoso (Audio CD)

If you are familiar with the work Hans Joachim Roedelius and Dieter Moebius have done over the last thirty years, then you know that this album, recorded at Harmonia collaborator Michael Rother's home studio in Forst, is one of their finest moments. This subtle, quiet album exudes an organic pastoral quality rare in the field of electronic music. On some other Cluster albums, like Zuckerzeit, you can definitely tell which songs are by Moebius and which are by Roedelius, leading to fractured sounding record. Sowiesoso, on the other hand, sounds like a true collaboration. The songs are crafted from your typical instruments of the day... hohner clavinet, fender rhodes, acoustic piano, farfisa organ, moogs and arps, etc...sometimes bass and guitar are thrown in (but this is definitely a keyboard dominated affair). Swirling melodic lines, dreamy synth tones, chirping analog rhythm parts, and any number of creative things that these Germans could augment their recording with (bicycle bells and goonish moaning) are present in the mix. Although the sound quality is somewhat lackluster at times (even on the remaster), this album is definitely one of the best electronic records from the 1970's, if not of all time.