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Bureau B

QLUSTER - Elemente

Includes CD. Elemente -- album number seven from the third incarnation of the legendary krautronic project Kluster/Cluster springs a surprise with a minor sensation: sequencer lines. Using an array of exclusively analogue instruments, Hans-Joachim Roedelius, Onnen Bock, and Armin Metz have recorded eight tracks which, at one and the same time, are intrinsically hypnotic and sublimely beautiful. In principle, Elemente was created in much the same fashion as earlier Qluster albums: the three musicians met up in Schönberg, a remote hamlet in northern Mecklenburg. The eight pieces were distilled from the original recordings of their lengthy improvised sessions, with additional elements added to only three of the tracks in the production process: a synthesizer melody for "Zeno", a prepared piano for "Xymelan" and a computer beat for "Tatum". First special feature on the new album: the "tools of the trade". In their choice of equipment, Qluster reach back to their own history as Cluster, more than forty years ago, when legendary albums like 1974's Zuckerzeit (LR 333LP), 1976's Sowiesoso (BB 039CD/LP), and 1981's Curiosum (BB 038CD/LP) were made. Elemente has been crafted exclusively with analog instruments: a range of analog synthesizers, rhythm machines, a Farfisa organ, a Fender Rhodes piano, and various effects devices plus -- second special feature and making its debut in the band's narrative -- a 1970s sequencer playing an endless loop of manually recorded melodies, fed through effects and equalizers to achieve that typically hypnotic sequencer character. Listen out for them on "Perpetuum", "Xymelan", "Tatum" and "Lindow". By way of contrast, "Weite" and "Infinitum" unfold in vast echo chambers, free of metrics. Between these two very different musical forms lie "Zeno" and "Symbia". The former pulsates with long deep breaths beneath delicate sequences of notes emanating from the ARP 2600, the latter, "Symbia", layers a songlike Rhodes piano melody over an echoing, rhythmic Farfisa organ chord. After four electronic productions and two piano albums, Qluster now invite you to visit eight new and beguilingly beautiful worlds of sound on Elemente.
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After nearly a decade of false starts, multiple game plans veering off the rails, and a handful of shattered hopes and/or dreams, the odyssey is finally complete—the new Fusetron site is here.

This is the first phase of a multipart rollout that will span the next few months: the currently browsable stock includes miscellaneous new releases from the past 8+ months (we have a lot of catching up to do), plus approximately a third of our backstock. Note that we’ve reduced/slashed prices on many titles and will continue to do so in order to make room for new stock. We’ll also be expanding / tweaking / improving / debugging the site itself (for example, we still have work to do on the automated international postage system, not to mention the inevitable inventory discrepancies that come with transferring an ancient and massive database to a new system).

Over the next few months, as we take inventory, clean house, and delve into our storage, we will be uploading thousands of additional items, gradually, on a near-daily basis. This will include the majority of the LPs, as well as many titles, in all formats, once thought long-gone. Many currently “sold out” items are likely to resurface.

Finally, once our general backstock is up (probably in the next two or three months) we’ll begin making our extensive stockpile of rarities available online for the first time: tons of random out-of-print titles, "deadstock," warehouse finds, secondhand collectibles, etc., accumulated over the past few decades.

Frequent/returning customers will be getting early access to these items. Details to follow on how this will work (a priority mailing list? a 'frequent flyer'-like program?), but it will not be based on dollars spent. We want to reward those who consistently support us, especially in the discogs marketplace era (to those who show up trying to poach five copies of a one-off rarity, and nothing else, ever… ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ ).

So—we suggest you take some time to dig through the site—even we’ve been surprised by what’s been turning up, and there’s much more to come.
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