I'm acutely aware of the fact that to use a term like 'classic' or 'vintage avant-garde' is an oxymoron, but if such a style is possible, Cluster completely encapsulate it on 'Qua.' There are no songs to be found on this album, and the 17 tracks fade in and out and segue together to form one meandering whole.
Cluster avoid the clanging, abrasive noise end of the avant-garde spectrum, instead remaining in the camp of noodlesome, bubbling, chiming soundscapes that drift aimlessly in and out. An analogue bubblebath of warm, occasionally dischordant sounds, it's at once calming and mildly disquieting. There's no one standout track, the pieces, for which titles are irrelevant (and read like items from an IKEA catalogue), instead complimenting and contrasting with one another as the album makes its journey from J to T via A, M and Z.
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'Qua' may feel rather impersonal, and perhaps just that little bit self-indulgent: it's very much the work of a pair of knob-twiddlers, and you can't imagine them getting a crowd revved up were they to perform this as a live set. As a studiously-crafted album of background music, though, Cluster have delivered a textured and interesting work, the 'musical units' forming an aural collage, the sonic equivalent of an abstract art exhibition.
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