HARMONIA

It hums along in the best droning and melodic sense as in Popol Vuh, Neu!, Cluster, GILA, and others, combining all elements - soft Motorrik, some electrics, some acoustics, definite spacey.

I think both Harmonia albums are top 25 Krautrock albums, both in terms of personnel, sound, representation, time frame and quality. Whoever thinks this is PE should have their head and ears examined! Give this album a spin, it has an unmistakable sound, But what do I know?! 3.7/5

"Schaumburg" has these beats and spacey sounds with guitar expressions helping out. I like the ethnic vibe here and it's very repetitive. "Veteranissimo" is the longest track at 17 1/2 minutes. Beats to start as faint keys join in. The beats are more intense before 4 minutes but they fade back again. Synths seem to be buzzing here. An electric beat after 6 minutes and there seems to be organ here too as the relentless beats continue. It gets pretty quiet after 8 minutes but beats continue. It gets louder and lots more depth 15 1/2 minutes in. It lightens again as it fades out.

"Arabesque" has a nice full sound to it with organ, bass-like sounds, synths and more. The guitar will leave it's mark as well. "Hola-Polta" has these repetitive beats with synths over top and it all sounds pretty cool. Another sound joins in, maybe the electric percussion but I'm not sure. The sound does get louder then fade back on and off throughout this one. The beats are non-stop though. "Ueber Ottenstein" ends it with uptempo percussion as synths join in in creating atmosphere. Guitar and piano follow. Some loud guitar expressions I believe will come and go. Some twittering synths as well.

Tough to know what I'm hearing on this one all I know is that it works. It will always remind me of my trip to get skinny jeans on a whim over a week ago.

All of these changes steered the musical sound of DELUXE into totally different arenas as it sounds as if the cast members have found the perfect comfort zones in adding their idiosyncratic musicalities into the melting pot. Roedelius and Moebius bring all the Cluster components back for a sophomore appearance but on DELUXE there is much more of a Neu! presence of Michael Rother who in turn also brings a little of his Kraftwerk days along for the ride. In fact DELUXE sounds like a unique blend of Cluster's "Sowieso," Kraftwerk's "Autobahn" era and early Neu! The result is a perfect mix of the three elements with Cluster's dreamy ethereal side slinking around the percussive Neu!-esque rhythmic drives accented by Neumeier's nuance filled motorik drum style. The tracks are vary significantly this time from one another and complexity level turned up for the compositions that somehow nurture pleasant gleeful melodies into stomping pulsing electronic sensations.

DELUXE is a true mastering of nuanced elements that results in a fairly unique sounding album that exists in that strange universe where Kraftwerk stringent rhythms , Neu!'s hypnotic groove and "Cluster's Sowieso" dreaminess merged into one seamless entity. Despite the nerdy electronic precision dominating any given moment, the album is polished with outstandingly strong, catchy hooks that have an air of Berlin School progressive electronic simmered into a steaming hot pot of tasty electro-Krautrock. DELUXE shows the possibilities and positive results of a supergroup and how collaborative efforts can bring out the strengths of the members on board instead of watered down infighting. It sounds as if HARMONIA should have found some sort of cross-over success with this one but the band soon ended after this one and although they would participate in some recording sessions with Brian Eno, those sessions wouldn't be released until the 90s. Personally i much prefer this second HARMONIA album over the monochromatic ambience of the debut.

The opener "Watussi" begins the all instrumental futuristic sounds with an upbeat rhythmic percussive drive and synthesizers taking on different counterpoint effects including a dripping sound as the guitar creates a distorted backdrop that adds a layer of fuzziness. The music itself sounds very simplistic for the most part. Many of the tracks follow this formula but some are much spacier than others. "Sehr Kosmisch (Very Cosmic)" is slowed down with percussion simulating a heartbeat while the synth and organs create an ethereal Berlin School effect which wouldn't sound terribly out of place on a Tangerine Dream or Klaus Schulze album. The key word with MUSIK VON is "subtlety." Everything creeps in and out like sine waves of sound slowly slinking through an echo chamber. Some tracks like "Ohrwurm (Earworm)" are downright scary as notes bend and distort as if traveling through a portal to another dimension while "Ahoi!" reflects a mellower mood that is gentle and less startling.

HARMONIA found reasonable success with MUSIK VON not only with the critics with underground music fans as well and would continue on to release one more album and enough leftover tracks for an archival third but ultimately the fertile cross-pollination of the Kraut and progressive electronic world ensured that the trio would not only continue with their retrospective bands of Cluster and Neu! but would also find new ways of musical collaboration. This is by all means an interesting album for those who dig minimalism and subtle ethereal changes in their music but i don't seem to be one of those who enjoys this album more than the albums by Cluster and Neu! themselves. The first few Cluster albums were absolutely brilliant in how they went to outer space and never looked back and likewise Neu! unapologetically rocked the house with their rhythmic drive and electronic embellishments. MUSIK VON seems to be a watered down compromise between these two extremes and while the result is certainly not displeasing it does come off as a step down from past greatness.

3.5 rounded down

Another masterpiece in this debut shot "Sehr Kosmisch", the longest track, would sound the most atmospheric, ambient, and simultaneously warmhearted I imagine. Could this gentle ambience with quiet and deep heartbeats be called as "fruits of the earth"? As if we were embryos in the womb, we are absorbed safe and sound, contrary to the previous one. And likewise, "Ahoi!" has splendid ethnic flavour along with loose electronika, that should be recommended for people hoping to have a dreamy trip, whether in a real life or in a dream.

A mass of variations are developed in a short track, and each track has kaleidoscopic theatrical scenes or characteristics ("Veterano" full of bombastic fragility psychedelia or "Hausmusik" dim brilliance under warping tempo produced with electronic organ sounds and percussion is one of my loves). Although a song sounds simple and monotonous, it has various directions for shooting multiple essence via synthesizers. Entirely the soundscape is filled with closed feeling and hard, itchy sound bullets but actually so frank and intelligible for the audience to fall into this creation. Their inorganic manner cannot simply be inorganic but pretty innovative.

I want to read some of the liner notes to you which were written by a friend of the band Asmus Tietchens who also has been making electronic music since 1965. He says, "It equalled a sensation when music journals announced in 1973 that Dieter Moebius, Hans-Joachim Roedelius and Michael Rother were planning to work together. Under the name CLUSTER, Moebius and Roedelius had already occupied an indispensable place in the electronic music scene from 1969 on. Rother was known as one of the 1971 founding fathers as well as flamboyant member of the band NEU! Yet the prospect of the three of them joining forces seemed all too delicate to be true. By then, the CLUSTER album "Zuckerzeit" had not been released, and thus prospective listeners had to wonder about what Roedelius and Moebius were actually coming to produce when indulging in rhythmic experiments. The fact that they were going for rhythmic music was clear as day, Michael Rother's name itself representing a guarantee for that. His compositions as well as his unmistakable way of playing the guitar and the keyboards could in fact be considered as crucial for the success of the project NEU! People could not wait to listen to HARMONIA, as the three of them called themselves. It was as early as 1973 that HARMONIA started playing gigs before finally releasing their first album with the plain title "Musik Von Harmonia"(Music By Harmonia)".

He goes on to say "Musik Von Harmonia is a beautiful and elegant, a minimalist and lively album that is almost completely played "by hand", apart from the fact that they used an automatic drum machine. Just like CLUSTER and NEU!, they made do without hybrid sequencers or gigantic synthesizers, but rather focussed on reacting in a sensitive way to each other as well as on creating what seemed like extremely odd sounds and noises". Also "Musik Von Harmonia is experimental pop music in the very literal sense of the words. When regarding the harmonious and rhythmic structures and pieces(pop) and the exquisite sounds and noises as well as their arrangements(experimental), there can be not a single doubt about that".

"Watussi" greets us with that familiar beat and those high pitched sounds HARMONIA would be known for. Other sounds join in on this motorik track. "Sehr Kosmisch" is my favourite. It's fairly dark with these heart beat-like beats along with pulses and waves. Piano and high pitched sounds before 4 1/2 minutes as the mood changes somewhat. A distant sounding rhythm will build until it dominates. It will end though before 7 minutes as it turns spacey with sparse piano. A beat around 9 1/2 minutes pulses as the piano stops and spacey sounds continue. "Sonnenschein" has a driving beat with all sorts of sounds helping out. Catchy stuff, I like it! It stops abruptly. "Dino" is another uptempo motorik sounding track and I like the guitar too.

"Ohrwurm" has these mechanical-like sounds that move around starngley as other sounds hover and pulse. This is somewhat eerie and dark. "Ahoi!" is pastoral with picked guitar and other sounds helping out. At 3 1/2 minutes a different soundscape comes in and replaces the first one fairly quickly. "Veterano" is an uptempo track with a driving rhythm once again. Piano and beats lead the way as the guitar plays over top. "Hausmusik" has piano and percussion standing out to start but a minute in a different sound arrives and it eventually over-takes the previous soundscape. It's rhythmic but spacey then the piano returns as that rhythmic soundscape fades away. There's a melancholic vibe to this track.

A great start for these guys and the magic will continue on their second release "Deluxe".

The first studio track, "Tiki-Taka", is a unique beast in the Harmonia discography, a dark track filed to the brim with skittering instruments, including a never before or since used by them nagoja harp. This alone makes "Documents" a revelatory release, showing a never before seen part of the supergroup's creative consciousness. Its studio cousin is "Proto-Deluxe", a standard though as usual fun and relaxing cut of theirs. The other revelations come from the live cuts, which merge their electronic styles and experiments with psychkraut jamming that compares to live Floyd and the first Ash Ra Tempel album. This is another very different side of the band. Altogether, this is a revealing and excellent little collection, proving once and for all the varied, versatile, and enduring creativity of these legendary musicians.

Harmonia is a collaboration between 3 of Krautrock most important creator, Moebius(Clauster), Roedelius(Clauster) & Rother(Neu!). Unfortunately, they made only 2 album, Musik Von Harmonia(1974) & Deluxe(1975) there is a 3 one but not release long after the band was over. It's a shame because the 2 album made by Harmonia are amongst the best album made in Germany during the 70's.

It seems like I'm in the minority of people who really like this album, I like Deluxe so much that I can listen to it in loop for hours without being tired of listening to the same music over and over. The first time I heard it was a very cheap MP3 version that a friend of mine got me from the internet. I didn't like it and was very disappointed because I really like their first one and also, I'm a big, big fan of Krautrock. Since I disapprove illegal downloading and have a enormous CD collection, I had to have that one legal, even if I didn't like it that much. I had their first one so I had to have the second one, for my Krautrock collection. I finally found the remaster version at the HMV in downtown Montréal. Not the place to find a rare album like that ;)

I'm glad I bought it because? It's amazing what a CD with a good sound can change your perception of music your already know and didn't really getting it. I finally got it, it's a cross between the best part of Autoban by Kratfwerk, Hallogallo by Neu! and anything by Clauster. I was looking for an album like that ever since I became a fan of the album Autoban by Kraftwerk and found that their other album, has good as they might be, are more techno than anything. Since my discovery of Krautrock, I knew I was gonna find it, the album. In fact, I found 2, one is Can Future Days and the other, Deluxe by Harmonia. I was surprise to find that it's not as popular of an album in PA that I tough it would be, so I may be in the minority here but, If you like electronic Krautrock, you should try it, you might never know, It could be a winner like it did to me. So I gladly rating it 5 stars, Essential: a masterpiece of progressive rock music, at least for me it is.

So here it goes.........I never considered Harmonia as a "guitar leaded" band. Their studio albums, by rule, never stick to the same option of styling, among so many choices of electronic gadgets usually found in studios and the ones each brought in. The best part of this "Live-1974" cd, is that you will never have noticed it is "live". No applauses, cheers, whistling nor stuff like that. The "live" music went directly to the tape.

The performance is constructed as a sole base. The songs, most of the time are intense in repetition, more than in creativity. The incessant drum box beats more than once overshadow, the frontal music. Now, talking straight, they have to rely constantly in the "human" nature of the electric guitar performance, which of course has always been an integral part in their "studio" albums, but never that much, as to become too much.

So, an outdated drum box sound, a somehow leadind guitar, which at times is not that creative, because it is holding the whole song alone, because the other two guys are busy, "live" controlling their synths, sequencers, drum boxes and other simmilar tools.

The song writing has its occasional awesome heights, the "drone" like "live" experience should have been amazing, but as recorded material or album as such, ***3.5 "I admire the band, but this is "universal" information" PA stars.