Bureau B

CLUSTER - Qua

Reissue of the last studio album by Cluster, the legendary krautronic duo of Dieter Moebius and Hans-Joachim Roedelius, recorded in Ohio in 2009 by Tim Story. From Storys liner notes: My role, as I imagined it, was to emulate Conny Plank, the great Cluster producer and a hero Id never had a chance to meet. An impossible burden of course, so I simply tried to make the recording process as invisible as possible, offer as many interesting sonic options as I could, and give Cluster the chance to be Cluster -- to express that deep and unique dialog that only Moebi and Achim fully understand. Moebi had brought along some of his wonderfully quirky loops, but the rest was simply an embrace of the technology and toys that they found in the studio. Old drum machines, a gaudy orange Farfisa (solos on which Achim would always seem to center around the one temperamentally unreliable note), cutting edge keyboards and processors, a cheap Yamaha Omnichord. The results were, to my ears at least, stunning. Seventeen miniature worlds, some icy, some warm, all infused with that Cluster elusiveness and unpredictability. Playful, dark, funny, human, Qua captures that deceptive Cluster heartbeat -- unmistakably modern but utterly timeless. Adorned later with Moebis slyly nonsensical titles (Putoil for example, which features a solo made from Moebis recording of our squeaky bathroom door), and his cheerfully Dada cover, Quas evolution was a true privilege to witness. Achim told me recently that he considers Qua the perfect swansong for Cluster. At the time, though, the albums freshness and open-ended creativity seemed like simply another alluring dispatch from a conversation that would pick up again many more times, as it had for four decades. But Moebis passing in 2015 gives Qua a finality that contradicts the musics transitory, slippery otherworldliness. The albums closing track Imtrerion, with Moebis deeply stirring loop embellished ever so gracefully with Achims spare accompaniment, never fails to choke me up." - Bureau B.

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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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