Harmonia & Eno 76 - Tracks and Traces Reissue (1976/2009) [Grönland] // Grade: A+

The story goes something like this: komische supergroup Harmonia (feat. NEU!’S Michael Rother, Cluster’s Dieter Moebius and Hans-Joachim Rodelius) collaborate with Brian Eno on several tapes worth of sound experiments in 1976. Eno leaves Germany. Tapes vanish. Rodelius somehow unearths one in the mid-90s and cobbles together the original Tracks and Traces (1997). Eno, it seems, is only remotely involved. As are Rother and Moebius.

Flash forward: present day. Rother, already plotting a proper reissue with the rest of Harmonia, rediscovers a cassette copy of the 1976 sessions he’d made at the time of recording. Painstakingly transfers and remasters the unreleased music. And the original tracks. Mastering guy must be a patient god. Eno gives the reissue a go-ahead but otherwise, again, is not involved.

And so we have an all new Tracks and Traces. An even better Tracks and Traces, if you had any penchant for the original. The experimental soundscapes (read: darkwave and ambient electro prophecies) are still hauntingly beautiful, but the three new tracks—tacked two on the front and one on the back—reframe the album in a very Apollo Moon sort of way: more stargazing than scary, and so classically Eno.

And strangely, given how Eno routinely gets more credit for this album than Harmonia themselves, he’s what was missing all along. Original opener “Vamos Camponeros” introduced the 1997 release as a Rother joint, a nervous and unsettled sense that carried through the pastoral noise of “By The Riverside” and the hypnotic loops of “Sometimes In Autumn”. Eno’s influence was there, especially in the textural bass, but it isn’t until the reissue’s new openers “Welcome” and “Atmosphere” and the ethereal space-synths of new closer “Aubade” that you understand his role as atmospheric glue. Framed with a new optimism—something nearing gentle even—Tracks and Traces becomes the perfect sum of its parts: Eno, Rother, Moebius and Rodelius melted into a seamless composition where individual influence barely matters at all.

But hang on: let’s rewind a bit, back to plotting stages. What I didn’t mention is that Skull Disco dub-step cohorts Appleblim and Shackleton, plus Komonazmuk, were given full access to the Tracks and Traces masters. And that they’ve subsequently created the first release on new Allez-Allez label Amazing Sounds, Harmonia/Eno ‘76 (remixes): an insanely incredible 12″ that pulls various sweeps and sounds from the original into two tracks of minimal pseudo-dub. We’ll call them remixes, but they’re really reimaginings. Shackleton’s “Sometimes In Autumn” pulses with the original’s hypnotic loops but amps up the spaciness, while Appleblim & Komonazmuk’s “By The Riverside” ditches most of the natural, idyllic sensibilities for something decidedly Kraftwerk-like: out-komisching the OG komische. The digital release is available now, but I can’t wait to hear it on vinyl next week—it’s a seriously essential off-shoot to an already essential reissue.