Cluster

“WHAT I miss most about Moebi,” explains Hans-Joachim Roedelius, “is his weird kind of humour. Our partnership was very special, and based on the same roots as my solo work: curiosity, interest, friendship, love.”

Across 40 years, multiple albums and collaborations with the likes of Michael Rother, Conrad Schnitzler and Brian Eno, Roedelius and his creative partner Dieter Moebius crafted the music of Cluster and helped define the sound and aesthetic of kosmische synth music. Moebius passed away in 2015, but Roedelius, now 87 and still prolifically composing and releasing music, is the eager guardian of the duo’s legacy, answering Uncut’s questions from his home in Austria. “The last year or so has been rather exhausting because of all the bad and difficult circumstances within the Covid situation – but it has been very interesting working on music with [American collaborator] Tim Story from both sides of the ocean.”

Whatever the outside circumstances, the gentle channelling of inspiration “out of the belly” has been Roedelius and Cluster’s long mission. “Thought is only to control the whole process,” he explains. “I see my work as one long continuous thread and it will continue until I have to leave the soil of this planet.”