HARMONIA 76: TRACKS & TRACES

4.5 stars. HARMONIA was the coming together of the duo known as CLUSTER(Moebius & Roedelius) and Michael Rother from NEU!. They released two really good albums then called it a day. Well, that is until Brian Eno came to town and he was a huge fan of this band. So they get back together with Eno and create this third studio album that never got a release until 1997. Recorded in 1976 though, as they spent eleven days in the studio recording "Tracks & Traces". And calling themselves HARMONIA 76 with Eno on board.

I really like how unstructured a lot of the music is here, and surprisingly dark at times. In fact only the track "Les Demoiselless" sounds like the old HARMONIA. And it's my least favourite! So yes this addition of Eno was huge in my opinion, and he was obviously right into doing this. He adds vocals and bass along with his synths. Moebius adds synths and harp, Rother guitar and keys and Roedelius keys. There is almost none of the high pitched synths like we get with NEU!, HARMONIA and LA DUSSELDORF, so yes this album was a huge revelation when I first got it. Love the direction they went with here.

There's three bonus tracks, and while I'm not a fan of them spreading them throughout the original album tracks, it somehow works putting two to open the album and one to end it. The two to open "Welcome" and "Atmosphere" are both mellow and beautiful. Setting the tone. "By The Riverside" has birds chirping of course and fits in well with that gorgeous atmosphere from the first two numbers.

Some vocals from Eno on "Luneburg Heath", and how about the almost 16 minute "Sometimes In Autumn" which is quite spacey and dark. More darkness on "Weird Dream", then the beautiful "When Shade Was Born". The last two tracks continue with the warm and ambient sound. Eno would collaborate with CLUSTER and release an album in 1977, the year after this.

This is my favourite HARMONIA album and it almost didn't get released. My favourite archival releases seem to be dominated by the krautrock sub-genre and here's another one.