Oof! Not a fan of RAF, nice idea on paper but this and his further experiments in this field have never done much for me. The grooves are a little too rinky dink and the sound manipulation, though interesting, doesn’t hold my interest. Can’t win them all I guess. CAN pulled this idea off with more musicality. Fair play to Eno for giving it a try, just not my cup of gravy. Also worth mentioning Judy Nylon’s killer vocal on John Cale’s Fear, where I first came across her....so to speak... https://youtu.be/JWSGtZ2ZxaU
Thanks for the discussion everyone. Today we start on the album Cluster & Eno. Recorded in June 1977 and released in 1977. Wikipedia link: Cluster & Eno - Wikipedia Discogs link: Cluster & Eno* - Cluster & Eno Spotify link for whole album: Cluster & Eno YouTube playlist: Personnel (from Wikipedia): Hans-Joachim Roedelius Dieter Moebius Brian Eno Additional musicians Holger Czukay – bass on "Ho Renomo" Okko Bekker – guitar on "One" Asmus Tietchens – synthesizer on "One" Technical personnel Conny Plank – engineer J. Krämer – assistant engineer Cluster – cover Track listing: Ho Renomo 5:10 Schöne Hände 3:00 Steinsame 4:20 Wehrmut 5:00 Mit Simaen 1:30 Selange 3:30 Die Bunge 3:50 One 6:00 Für Luise 3:50 All tracks written by Brian Eno, Dieter Moebius and Hans-Joachim Roedelius. Wikipedia page on Cluster: Cluster (band) - Wikipedia
And straight into Ho Renomo. Written by Brian Eno, Dieter Moebius and Hans-Joachim Roedelius. Spotify link: Ho Renomo Personnel: As per the album, plus Holger Czukay: bass. Note that I don't have detailed credits of the individual contributions of the main performers.
I had an inkling I'd heard this idea too, but I'm not entirely sure. Bowie's backing band were for a while the Spiders From Mars, but I don't recall Bowie himself being referred to as Spider.
This album seems curiously underappreciated - not by me though! For the most part it sounds more like Cluster than Eno and that's certainly true of the first track. Holger Czukay - who wasn't even playing bass for Can at the time - contributes some strange percussive bass noises while Roedelius plays some fluid piano. It's good stuff!
Ho Renomo: Ah yes, now we're getting to a period that I really love. There is a certain mystique about Cluster that really draws me in...add Eno and it's a true match. This is one of my relaxation albums and Ho Renomo is an excellent first track. The repetition isn't quite a groove, so it doesn't demand or produce activity, but it keeps the mind alert and it's great for reading or doing something low key...much like a passing stream out in the country. I also like how there's not quite a melody, the piano wants to give us one, but is also happy just to stay put in its cycle. The little nuances in the back keep monotony at bay, and I assume that's Mr. Eno twiddling about. I could take this one twice as long and not complain. 5/5
"Ho Renomo" - Very beautiful. The core idea remains pretty constant, but the musical and production flourishes embedded within are striking. 5/5
Had a Sky original for many years, it mysteriously disappeared, replaced it with the Bureau B reissue then found a pristine original Sky again. What a perfect and evocative cover. The fancy font is somehow appropriate. I stop and look at it every time I pull the record and place myself in that time and place. What a delight discovering all this interconnected and mysterious music at a young age, Plank, Cluster, Moebius, Roedelius..... I would guess that's Eno twanging away on the guitar near the end. It sure sounds like random tabla hits throughout, the laziest tabla part ever. A different kind of Jam session, like the one you might imagine on the back cover of Ralph and Florian or the few pictures of Neu. Some days I would really like to have been at Capital Studios for Beach Boys sessions, others days I'd take Forst.
I haven't really got round to listening to much Cluster. I saw them in concert in Paris once, if concert means 2 old blokes randomly twiddling knobs to create random noises. It was the only concert I've been to that I could see no artistic merit in whatsoever. I'm quite happy listening to experimental stuff and I spent 5 years at art school so I'm not saying this lightly. Love the first track though. I'll have to dig deeper 4.5/5
I have kind of a blind spot wrt the Eno and Cluster catalog. I had the After the Heat LP and now Old Land on CD, and felt like I had it covered. Not sure if I've ever listened to C&E end to end before today. Don't have any particular reaction to "Ho Renomo", it's pleasant enough, and I doubt I have any deeper insight into the other tracks; will listen a couple more times (hey, 'new' Eno!), assemble some thoughts on the album and check back in at the end.
I do like the pastoral/field recording vibe of the cover, and I am willing to overlook the cheesy script used for "Cluster & Eno". But the music doesn't work for me, too much hippy meandering.
I am in a similar state as others (eg @brew ziggins )...I've had Cluster & Eno for years and listened to it a handful of times and it hasn't really resonated. I don't like reviewing something when I don't really have a relationship to it; I believe that even to give a bad review of something the work has to have made a connection to you somehow. This will probably be the case for many works in the ambient-ish sphere of Eno's catalog. I look forward to reading what others say; sometimes what you folks write provides a gateway for me to approach the music.
Like friends, sometimes the music you didn't care for too much at first becomes something more. I think we'll have to accept that on some of the forthcoming albums it's going to be first impressions that count.
Ho Renomo is a favorite chill track. The tones suggest a dark subterranean space. Music for late at night. I like that piano meandering throughout. Then the sharp-edged four note phrase (2:30) adds a demension like a light cutting through the darkness.
I think we'll see a lot more of this going forward on this journey, and I really hope it doesn't result in a big drop in participation, so many great posts/posters here. I may be wrong (it does happen, although rarely IMO) but I think that with some of the upcoming albums, a "Track A Day" approach may well be too slowing to the thread.
"Ho Renomo": This is stuff I learned to appreciate later in life, but boy did it hit me then! Best appreciated on the edge of consciousness or out in nature. Spiritual, esoteric, earthly (smell the moss and the soil and the water and the snow), but (thankfully) without a hint of new age drivel.
I’m lucky to live in a tiny English village, surrounded by lovely countryside. Since moving here the Cluster albums, and by extension, the Cluster and Eno records, seem to make more sense. They accompany a walk across the fields just perfectly. Even though the music on the two C&E albums, objectively, isn’t terribly pastoral there’s something there that seems perfectly in tune with the open countryside. I must admit that, despite owning these albums for donkeys years, I find I always the records in full and so I rarely register which titles match which pieces. Obviously not the songs on the second record, but the mostly gorgeous instrumentals blend together in a very satisfying way. So it’s hard to judge the individual tracks. Anyway, enough rambling for now!
Ho Renomo is the one track from the Eno/Cluster album that Eno chose to include in his I: instrumental box:
haven't listened to Enobox I in a coon's age. I should rectify that. Enobox II.2, which crams most of AGW and BAAS onto a single disc is a chonky boi. II.1 is no slouch either. Not that there's anything wrong with II.3, but its is more of a grab-bag.
@eeglug - it's clearly completely voluntary who participate in the thread or not. However, I would encourage you to participate. Some people know these albums for the first time ever, and some will have been playing them on high rotation for decades. There's another thread I participate in where I had never heard a single album by the artist at all before starting the thread. It's been a very interesting journey of musical discovery. Ho Renomo I first heard this album a very long time ago, but haven't heard it much. In the 1990s the internet was a more innocent place. On a forum someone whom I didn't know before asked if anyone could buy this and a number of other albums for them in the UK, and send them to Canada. I did, on the proviso that I could open the shrink wrap and listen. Which we did. He sent me the money and I bought and sent the albums. All completed. I made a DAT copy of the album, but afterwards my DAT broke and I never actually bought the album Based on my after a long time relistening to the album and this track, I have missed out. This is a very nice instrumental. I'm not sure I'd quite call it fully ambient, more half-way there. It also reminds me a bit of modern post-rock. There's no real verse-chorus structure or anything, but I like the overall feel and atmosphere it creates, and the instrumental lines all fit together well. 4.5/5
Thanks for all the contributions everyone. Today's track is Schöne Hände. Composed by Brian Eno, Dieter Moebius and Hans-Joachim Roedelius. Spotify link: Schöne Hände With this album, there aren't cover versions that I can find, and personnel is the three composers and only occasionally someone else. I've not got so much to post in these posts as before. At least we can start discussion of the track. I'm aware of the political situation with Spotify. At present I'm still including Spotify links. Not sure of what to do in the long run.
@HitAndRun : This is a fantastic thread. You are the Captain of this ship, and you are steering it admirably.
As far as the Cluster & Eno album : I admit I've had it in my possession for a couple or three years and I haven't given it the attention it may deserve. A cursory listen didn't do much for me (except for the final track), at the time. I'll be like another poster and leave my opinion at the end of the section / album wrap-up. I like to "live" with an album for a while before opining about it. Of course .... other people's opinions are valuable, to me. I learn from everybody's viewpoint. Apologies for the side-step.
