Cluster's tenth album, not counting their collaborations with
Brian Eno or
Neu's
Michael Rother, finds the duo of
Dieter Moebius and
Hans-Joachim Roedelius in a somewhat peculiar place. Their landmark early electronic work was hugely influential on the English post-punk synthesizer bands of the late '70s.
Curiosum, released in 1981, just as some of these bands were moving from arty cult status to mainstream stardom, sounds like
Moebius and
Roedelius had started taking cues from the groups they'd initially inspired. Gone are the side-long experiments of early
Cluster albums like
Zwei Osteri. In their place,
Moebius and
Roedelius craft seven surprisingly short discrete instrumental pieces; four are under five minutes, and none reach the ten-minute mark. Since it's impossible to work up a good hypnotic drone in so little time, the songs on
Curiosum are more melodic than most of the duo's earlier work. The lilting, almost playful "Oh Odessa" sounds like it could have been on an early
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark album. Other tracks, particularly the fascinating "Charlic," which is based on a wheezy, wobbly rhythm track that sounds not unlike either certain types of Moroccan bagpipes or the bleating of an asthmatic goat, recall the less sonically aggressive moments of
Throbbing Gristle or
Cabaret Voltaire. Only the relatively lengthy pieces at the end of each side recall
Cluster's trademark space rock textures, with the lulling, almost subliminally quiet "Ufer" being the most typically
Cluster-like track on the whole album.
Curiosum isn't a misguided bid for pop stardom, the way that late-period
Amon Düül II or
Kraftwerk records often seemed to be. In fact, with its concise and melodic instrumentals, this would probably be an excellent introduction to synthesizer-based Krautrock for pop listeners put off by the idea of 20-minute one-chord drones. However, it's an atypical work, and it's not surprising that
Cluster took a decade-long sabbatical after its release.