HARMONIA LIVE 1974

Harmonia was born out a crash (or was it a clash?) between Cluster and Neu! Progheads could've feared the worst, knowing exactly how pop-ish both Cluster and Neu were when they tried their hardest, but rest assured here: this live posthumous release is anything but new-wave electro pop "avant la lettre". While the group only lasted two studio albums, it had also a live career, from which comes this posthumous "in concert" release. This concert from March 23rd, 1974 in Griessem is issued on Crow record in digipak format and comes with four pictures either at rest or in concert.

Despite the very repetitive, minimalist and ambient nature of their music, when played live, itris also less electronic, with Neu's Michael Rother's guitar sounding a bit like Pinhas', so don't go expecting anything resembling Neu!'s debut, Zuckerzeit or Autobahn, but do look in the direction of Popol Vuh's Attenstude or early Tangerine Dream, but filled with sequencers. The tracks are rather lengthy (between 5 and almost 17 minutes) and evolve slowly; filled with single-note patterns and binary rhythms, delays, echoes and all of the electronic effect of back then. So certainly experimental, but not that much because most of the tracks have rhythms and a semblance of melody.

Finding this album in the new arrivals of my library system, I jumped on it, but it also reminded me that I've forgotten to review the studio albums. Homeworks for the winter holidays. In the meantime, if you're a Harmonia buff, no doubt you'll find this essential, and if you're not so much, then no doubt, this can wait up until you find it on the used/second hand market.