Großes Wasser marked the return to Cluster working as a duo of Hans-Joachim Roedelius and Dieter Moebius after two albums collaborating with Brian Eno.

It featured a wide variety of styles, including some of the most avant-garde material created by Moebius and Roedelius since the demise of Kluster with Conrad Schnitzler's departure in 1971, particularly during the middle section of the title track, which occupied all of side 2.

Other tracks, including "Manchmal" and both the opening and closing sections of "Großes Wasser" continued the gentle, melodic style of the previous three albums, while others echoed the rhythmic style of Zuckerzeit, albeit with more of an edge.

Steven and Alan Freeman, writing in their book The Crack in the Cosmic Egg, describe the title track, in part, as "... a lengthy suite growing out of silence with atmospheric Florian Fricke-like sustained piano tones, via bizarre crackling electronics onto almost tribal-industrial rock percussives."

A 1,000-copy limited edition digitally remastered CD was released on the Japanese Captain Trip label on September 20, 2007.