''First Encounter Tour 1996'' is the thirteenth full-length album by German electronic music outfit

Cluster may refer to: Science and technology Astronomy * Cluster (spacecraft), constellation of four European Space Agency spacecraft * Cluster II (spacecraft), a European Space Agency mission to study the magnetosphere * Asteroid cluster, a small ...

. It is also the third live album released, and the only double album released by Cluster. ''First Encounter Tour 1996'' was recorded at various concert venues around the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

1996 1996 was designated as: * International Year for the Eradication of Poverty Events January * January 8 – A Zairean cargo plane crashes into a crowded market in the center of the capital city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo ...

and was produced by noted keyboardist and ambient musician Tim Story at Zeta in

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. It was released on February 25, 1997. ''First Encounter Tour 1996'' was Cluster's only release for the Purple Pyramid label. The music of ''First Encounter Tour 1997'' flows from one music style to the next and reflects all the varieties of Cluster's music from the 1979 release Großes Wasser onwards. Some sections of the longer tracks do seem to break new musical ground for Cluster, with deeply atmospheric

ambient music Ambient music is a genre of music that emphasizes Musical tone, tone and atmosphere over traditional Musical form, musical structure or rhythm. Often "peaceful" sounding and lacking Musical composition, composition, beat, and/or structured melod ...

leading into sections with a definite melody and beat. Each track is named for the city or cities in which the concerts took place, with the sole exception of the last track which is named for guest musicians

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and The Brain (the duo of Paul M. Fox and Tommy Grenas), which was recorded in Anderson, Indiana and Chicago, Illinois. Much of the music is improvisational but some set pieces were included. For example, the track "Portland Oregon #2" is a live performance of "Emmental" from the

1991 It was the final year of the Cold War, which had begun in 1947. During the year, the Soviet Union Dissolution of the Soviet Union, collapsed, leaving Post-soviet states, fifteen sovereign republics and the Commonwealth of Independent State ...

release Apropos Cluster. A short section of "New York City", the nearly 33 minute piece which opens the album, is taken from the avant-garde middle section of the title track from ''Grosses Wasser''. A number of sections of various pieces are very similar to sections of '' Japan 1996 Live''.

Track listing

# "New York City" – 32:58 # "Phoenix Arizona #1" – 4:04 # "Portland Oregon #1" – 29:05 # "New Orleans Louisiana" – 4:42 # "Portland Oregon #2" – 3:36 # "Providence Rhode Island" – 7:01 # "Eugene Oregon" – 20:13 # "Asheville North Carolina" – 2:41 # "Chicago Illinois" – 5:31 # "Phoenix Arizona #2" – 13:30 # "Covington Kentucky" – 4:51 # "Minneapolis Minnesota" – 6:51 # "Bond Bergland / The Brain" – 15:56

Personnel

Dieter Moebius Dieter Moebius (16 January 1944 – 20 July 2015) was a Swiss-born German electronic musician and composer, best known as a member of the influential krautrock bands Cluster and Harmonia. Career Moebius was studying art at Berlin's Akademie Gr ...

– Korg Prophecy, Proteus FX, mini-Moog, preprepared tape material, effect machine, mixing table *

Hans-Joachim Roedelius Hans-Joachim Roedelius (born 26 October 1934) is a German electronic music, electronic musician and composer, known as a co-founder of the influential 'kosmische musik, kosmische' groups Cluster (band), Cluster and Harmonia (band), Harmonia. He ...

– Ensonique TS10, grand piano, wind chimes, preprepared tape material, effect machine, mixing table *

* Paul M. Fox * Tommy Grenas * Tim Story – producer *

Russ Curry Russ is a masculine given name, often a short form of Russell (given name), Russell, and also a surname. People Given name or nickname * Russ (rapper) (born 1992), American rapper, real name Russell James Vitale * Russ Abbot (born 1947), Britis ...

– engineer

References

* Curry, Rus
A Curious History of Cluster
Retrieved August 17, 2007. * Discog

Retrieved August 20, 2007. {{Authority control Cluster (band) albums 1997 live albums