Live in Vienna

Recording information: The Wiener Festwochen Alternativ, Vienna, Austria (06/12/1980).By the time they were booked to perform at the Wiener Festwochen Alternativ in Vienna in 1980, Cluster had boiled down to the duo of Dieter Moebius and Hans-Joachim Roedelius; for this concert, the two were joined by percussionist Joshi Farnbauer. By this point the group had also passed through several stylistic phases, having helped to pioneer Krautrock and dabbled in prog rock and ambient sound sculpture. In Vienna they flexed their avant-garde muscles, and the results (as documented on this two-disc set, issued here on CD for the first time) were not exactly a total success. The opening track, a half-hour-long excursion titled "Service," starts out with the floating sounds of an electronic tambura and bells (which may have been acoustic and may have been synthesized; there are no liner notes and no explanation of any of the instruments used); the sound throughout this track is wide open and nearly