Moebius für Metropolis album review: Glitchy futurista from electronic master

As in everything in life, there are pioneers and settlers. But when it comes to electronic music, there are few enough of the former as important as Dieter Moebius (1944-2015). Invited in 2012 to create and perform music to accompany director Fritz Lang's iconic silent film Metropolis, Moebius – a cofounding member of Cluster and Harmonia, two of Germany's most revered electronic groups – devised a blend of samples, pre-arranged tracks and live improvisation.

An album-length version of this music was planned but never completed, yet with the help of family and musician friends, Moebius’s final work as an unrepentant avant garde practitioner and protagonist continues.

Across four 10-minute tracks (Schicht, Moloch, Tiefenbahnen, Mittler), the music veers from sublime to glitchy, from smooth to dissonant, with Moebius as overseer and all-round ambient maestro. bureau-b.com