Tuesday, January 6, 2015
Rarely Head: Kluster - Electric Music and Texts
Kluster (not to be mistaken with the later band Cluster) were an early short-lived German band (1969-71) whose music was an amazingly early example of industrial and noise music. Members were Wolfgang Seidel, Klaus Freudigmann, Conrad Schnitzler, Hans-Joachim Roedelius and Dieter Moebius. "Closer to avant-garde and noise than space, it shows the influence of Schnitzler on early Kluster material with forbidding violin lines, heavily distorted organ, and an assortment of tape effects leading the way for several minimalist guitar workouts." (Allmusic.com) Most members would later produce other Krautrock music in different ensembles, but - with maybe the exception of Schnitzler - were never as radical as they were here.
While researching this entry I have noticed that the late Schnitzler did reunite Kluster only a few years ago. So I'll be checking the new music out, which may result in another entry.
Vignettes #65
It is tradition in Bavaria that on Epiphany Day the altar boys (or some other volunteers) from your parish dress up as the Three Wise Men from the Orient and together with the priest they wander from door to door. They're called "Sternsinger" (Star Singers). If you open the door, they will offer to sing you a hymn, and the priest will bless your house for the new year. You donate a small amount of money for charity and for the kids some fruit and sweets. With chalk they will mark your house door, this year it's "20*C+M+B+15", the letters are abbreviations for Caspar, Melchior and Balthasar.
Last time they 'caught' me I asked how much it'll cost me that they don't sing, since it's always a bit of an embarrassing situation. 5 bucks did it. This year coming home from work I found a note in our mailbox stating "We were here and belssed your house in your absence".
New Stuff: Ghost School Quartet
William Bennett recently mentioned Whispering Corridors as heartbreaking and brilliant, so decided to look into this movie series, too.
Snowpiercer (2013)
Set in a future where a failed climate-change experiment kills all life on the planet except for a lucky few who boarded the Snowpiercer, a train that travels around the globe, where a class system emerges.
Successful adaptaion of a graphic novel is a somewhat surreal parable about the class struggles of our global civilization with some surprising twists.
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