Kraftwerk (, "
power station
A power station, also referred to as a power plant and sometimes generating station or generating plant, is an industrial facility for the generation of electric power. Power stations are generally connected to an electrical grid.
Many p ...
") is a German band formed in
Düsseldorf
Düsseldorf ( , , ; often in English sources; Low Franconian and Ripuarian: ''Düsseldörp'' ; archaic nl, Dusseldorp ) is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second-largest city in th ...
in 1970 by
Ralf Hütter
Ralf Hütter (born 20 August 1946) is a German musician and composer best known as the lead singer and keyboardist of Kraftwerk, which he founded with Florian Schneider in 1969. On May 12, 2021, Kraftwerk was announced as one of the inductees of ...
and
Florian Schneider
Florian Schneider-Esleben (7 April 194721 April 2020) was a German musician. He is best known as one of the founding members and leaders of the electronic band Kraftwerk, performing his role with the band until his departure in 2008.
Early li ...
. Widely considered innovators and pioneers of
electronic music
Electronic music is a genre of music that employs electronic musical instruments, digital instruments, or circuitry-based music technology in its creation. It includes both music made using electronic and electromechanical means ( electroac ...
, Kraftwerk were among the first successful acts to popularize the genre. The group began as part of
West Germany's experimental
krautrock
Krautrock (also called , German for ) is a broad genre of experimental rock
Experimental rock, also called avant-rock, is a subgenre of rock music that pushes the boundaries of common composition and performance technique or which experiments ...
scene in the early 1970s before fully embracing electronic instrumentation, including synthesizers,
drum machines, and
vocoder
A vocoder (, a portmanteau of ''voice'' and ''encoder'') is a category of speech coding that analyzes and synthesizes the human voice signal for audio data compression, multiplexing, voice encryption or voice transformation.
The vocoder was ...
s.
Wolfgang Flür
Wolfgang Flür (born 17 July 1947) is a German musician, best known for playing percussion in the electronic group Kraftwerk from 1973 to 1987. Flür claims that he invented the electric drums the group used throughout the 1970s. However, pa ...
joined the band in 1974 and
Karl Bartos
Karl Bartos (born 31 May 1952) is a German musician and composer known for his contributions to the electronic band Kraftwerk.
Career
Karlheinz Bartos was born on 31 May 1952 in Marktschellenberg, Germany, named after his grandfathers Karl and ...
in 1975, expanding the band to a quartet.
On commercially successful albums such as ''
Autobahn
The (; German plural ) is the federal controlled-access highway system in Germany. The official German term is (abbreviated ''BAB''), which translates as 'federal motorway'. The literal meaning of the word is 'Federal Auto(mobile) Track'. ...
'' (1974), ''
Trans-Europe Express'' (1977), ''
The Man-Machine
''The Man-Machine'' (german: link=no, Die Mensch-Maschine) is the seventh studio album by German electronic music band Kraftwerk. It was released on May 1978 by Kling Klang in Germany and by Capitol Records elsewhere. A further refinement of the ...
'' (1978), and ''
Computer World
''Computer World'' (german: link=no, Computerwelt) is the eighth studio album by German electronic band Kraftwerk, released on 10 May 1981.
The album deals with the themes of the rise of computers within society. In keeping with the album's con ...
'' (1981), Kraftwerk developed a self-described "robot pop" style that combined electronic music with pop melodies, sparse arrangements, and repetitive rhythms, while adopting a stylized image including matching suits. Following the release of ''
Electric Café
''Electric Café'' is the ninth studio album by German Electronic music, electronic band Kraftwerk, originally released in 1986. In October 2009 it was re-released under its original working title, ''Techno Pop''. The initial 1986 ''Electric C ...
'' (1986), Flür left the group in 1987, followed by Bartos in 1990. Founding member Schneider left in 2008.
The band's work has influenced a diverse range of artists and many genres of modern music, including
synth-pop
Synth-pop (short for synthesizer pop; also called techno-pop; ) is a subgenre of new wave music that first became prominent in the late 1970s and features the synthesizer as the dominant musical instrument. It was prefigured in the 1960s ...
,
hip hop,
post-punk
Post-punk (originally called new musick) is a broad genre of punk music that emerged in the late 1970s as musicians departed from punk's traditional elements and raw simplicity, instead adopting a variety of avant-garde sensibilities and non-roc ...
,
techno
Techno is a genre of electronic dance music (EDM) which is generally produced for use in a continuous DJ set, with tempo often varying between 120 and 150 beats per minute (bpm). The central rhythm is typically in common time (4/4) and often ch ...
,
house music
House is a music genre characterized by a repetitive Four on the floor (music), four-on-the-floor beat and a typical tempo of 120 beats per minute. It was created by Disc jockey, DJs and music producers from Chicago metropolitan area, Chicago' ...
,
ambient
Ambient or Ambiance or Ambience may refer to:
Music and sound
* Ambience (sound recording), also known as atmospheres or backgrounds
* Ambient music, a genre of music that puts an emphasis on tone and atmosphere
* ''Ambient'' (album), by Moby
* ...
, and
club music. In 2014,
the Recording Academy
The Recording Academy (formally the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences; abbreviated NARAS) is an American learned academy of musicians, producers, recording engineers, and other musical professionals. It is famous for its Grammy Aw ...
honoured Kraftwerk with a
Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award
The Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award is a special Grammy Award that is awarded by The Recording Academy to "performers who, during their lifetimes, have made creative contributions of outstanding artistic significance to the field of recording."
...
. They later won the
Grammy Award for Best Dance/Electronic Album
The Grammy Award for Best Dance/Electronic Album is an award presented at the Grammy Awards — a ceremony that was established in 1958 — to recording artists for quality albums in the dance music and electronica genres. Honors in several categ ...
with their live album ''
3-D The Catalogue
''3-D The Catalogue'' (german: 3-D Der Katalog) is the second official live album and most recent release by German electronic music band Kraftwerk. It was released on 26 May 2017 and was released on several formats, including a four-disc Blu-r ...
'' (2017) at the
2018 ceremony. In 2021, Kraftwerk was inducted into the
Rock & Roll Hall of Fame
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (RRHOF), sometimes simply referred to as the Rock Hall, is a museum and hall of fame located in downtown Cleveland, Ohio, United States, on the shore of Lake Erie. The museum documents the history of rock music and ...
in the early influence category. As of 2022, the band continues to
tour
Tour or Tours may refer to:
Travel
* Tourism, travel for pleasure
* Tour of duty, a period of time spent in military service
* Campus tour, a journey through a college or university's campus
* Guided tour, a journey through a location, directed b ...
, with the members' live performances celebrating Kraftwerk's fiftieth anniversary.
History
Formation and early years (1969–1973)
Florian Schneider
Florian Schneider-Esleben (7 April 194721 April 2020) was a German musician. He is best known as one of the founding members and leaders of the electronic band Kraftwerk, performing his role with the band until his departure in 2008.
Early li ...
(flutes, synthesizers, violin) and
Ralf Hütter
Ralf Hütter (born 20 August 1946) is a German musician and composer best known as the lead singer and keyboardist of Kraftwerk, which he founded with Florian Schneider in 1969. On May 12, 2021, Kraftwerk was announced as one of the inductees of ...
(organ, synthesizers) met as students at the
Robert Schumann Hochschule
The Robert Schumann Hochschule (Robert Schumann University of Music and Media) is a school for music studies at the university level located in Düsseldorf. The University has a student body of some 850 coming from over 40 countries.
Forty-seven f ...
in Düsseldorf in the late 1960s, participating in the German
experimental music
Experimental music is a general label for any music or music genre that pushes existing boundaries and genre definitions. Experimental compositional practice is defined broadly by exploratory sensibilities radically opposed to, and questioning of, ...
and art scene of the time, which ''
Melody Maker
''Melody Maker'' was a British weekly music magazine, one of the world's earliest music weeklies; according to its publisher, IPC Media, the earliest. It was founded in 1926, largely as a magazine for dance band musicians, by Leicester-born ...
'' jokingly dubbed "
krautrock
Krautrock (also called , German for ) is a broad genre of experimental rock
Experimental rock, also called avant-rock, is a subgenre of rock music that pushes the boundaries of common composition and performance technique or which experiments ...
".
They joined a quintet known as
Organisation
An organization or organisation (Commonwealth English; see spelling differences), is an entity—such as a company, an institution, or an association—comprising one or more people and having a particular purpose.
The word is derived from ...
, which released one album, ''
Tone Float'' in 1970, issued on
RCA Records
RCA Records is an American record label currently owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America. It is one of Sony Music's four flagship labels, alongside RCA's former long-time rival Columbia Records; also A ...
in the UK, and split shortly thereafter. Schneider became interested in synthesizers, deciding to acquire one in 1970. While visiting an exhibition in their hometown about visual artists
Gilbert and George
Gilbert Prousch, sometimes referred to as Gilbert Proesch (born 17 September 1943 in San Martin de Tor, Italy), and George Passmore (born 8 January 1942 in Plymouth, United Kingdom), are two artists who work together as the collaborative art du ...
, they see "two men wearing suits and ties, claiming to bring art into everyday life. The same year, Hütter and Schneider started bringing everyday life into art and form Kraftwerk".
Early Kraftwerk line-ups from 1970 to 1974 fluctuated, as Hütter and Schneider worked with around a half-dozen other musicians during the preparations for and the recording of three albums and sporadic live appearances, including guitarist
Michael Rother
Michael Rother (born 2 September 1950) is a German experimental musician, best known for being a founding member of the influential bands Neu! and Harmonia (band), Harmonia, and an early member of the band Kraftwerk.
Early life and educatio ...
and drummer
Klaus Dinger
Klaus Dinger (24 March 1946 – 21 March 2008) was a German musician and songwriter most famous for his contributions to the seminal krautrock band Neu!. He was also the guitarist and chief songwriter of new wave group La Düsseldorf and brief ...
, who left to form
Neu!
Neu! (; German for "New!"; styled in block capitals) were a West German krautrock band formed in Düsseldorf in 1971 by Klaus Dinger and Michael Rother following their departure from Kraftwerk. The group's albums were produced by Conny Plank, w ...
.
The only constant figure in these line-ups was Schneider, whose main instrument at the time was the flute; at times he also played the violin and guitar, all processed through a varied array of electronic devices. Hütter, who left the band for eight months to focus on completing his university studies, played synthesizer and keyboards (including Farfisa organ and electric piano).
The band released two free-form experimental rock albums, ''
Kraftwerk
Kraftwerk (, "power station") is a German band formed in Düsseldorf in 1970 by Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider. Widely considered innovators and pioneers of electronic music, Kraftwerk were among the first successful acts to popularize the ...
'' (1970) and ''
Kraftwerk 2
''Kraftwerk 2'' is the second studio album by German electronic band Kraftwerk, released in January 1972.
Background
''Kraftwerk 2'' was entirely written and performed by founding Kraftwerk members Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider in late 1 ...
'' (1972). The albums were mostly exploratory musical improvisations played on a variety of traditional instruments including guitar, bass, drums, organ, flute, and violin. Post-production modifications to these recordings were used to distort the sound of the instruments, particularly audio-tape manipulation and multiple dubbings of one instrument on the same track. Both albums are purely instrumental. Live performances from 1972 to 1973 were mostly made as a duo, using a simple beat-box-type electronic
drum machine with preset rhythms taken from an electric organ. Occasionally, they performed with bass players as well. These shows were mainly in Germany, with occasional shows in France.
Later in 1973,
Wolfgang Flür
Wolfgang Flür (born 17 July 1947) is a German musician, best known for playing percussion in the electronic group Kraftwerk from 1973 to 1987. Flür claims that he invented the electric drums the group used throughout the 1970s. However, pa ...
joined the group for rehearsals, and the unit performed as a trio on the television show ''Aspekte'' for German television network
ZDF
ZDF (, short for Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen; ; "Second German Television") is a German public-service television broadcaster based in Mainz, Rhineland-Palatinate. It is run as an independent nonprofit institution, which was founded by all fe ...
.
With ''
Ralf und Florian
''Ralf und Florian'' (English title: ''Ralf and Florian'') is the third studio album by the German electronic band Kraftwerk. It was released in October 1973 on Philips. It saw the group moving toward their signature electronic sound.
Along wit ...
'', released in 1973, Kraftwerk began to rely more heavily on synthesizers and drum machines. Although almost entirely instrumental, the album marks Kraftwerk's first use of the
vocoder
A vocoder (, a portmanteau of ''voice'' and ''encoder'') is a category of speech coding that analyzes and synthesizes the human voice signal for audio data compression, multiplexing, voice encryption or voice transformation.
The vocoder was ...
in the song "Ananas Symphonie" (Pineapple Symphony,) which became one of its musical signatures. According to English music journalist
Simon Reynolds
Simon Reynolds (born 19 June 1963) is an English music journalist and author who began his professional career on the staff of ''Melody Maker'' in the mid-1980s. He has since gone on to freelance and publish a number of full-length books on music ...
, Kraftwerk were influenced by what he called the "adrenalized insurgency" of Detroit artists of the late '60s
MC5
MC5, also commonly called The MC5, is an American rock band formed in Lincoln Park, Michigan, in 1963. The original line-up consisted of Rob Tyner (vocals) Wayne Kramer (guitar), Fred "Sonic" Smith (guitar), Michael Davis (bass), and Dennis ...
and
the Stooges
The Stooges, originally billed as the Psychedelic Stooges, also known as Iggy and the Stooges, was an American rock band formed in Ann Arbor, Michigan, in 1967 by singer Iggy Pop, guitarist Ron Asheton, drummer Scott Asheton, and bassist Dave ...
.
The input, expertise, and influence of producer and engineer
Konrad "Conny" Plank was highly significant in the early years of Kraftwerk. Plank also worked with many of the other leading German electronic acts of that time, including members of
Can
Can may refer to:
Containers
* Aluminum can
* Drink can
* Oil can
* Steel and tin cans
* Trash can
* Petrol can
* Metal can (disambiguation)
Music
* Can (band), West Germany, 1968
** ''Can'' (album), 1979
* Can (South Korean band)
Other
* C ...
,
Neu!
Neu! (; German for "New!"; styled in block capitals) were a West German krautrock band formed in Düsseldorf in 1971 by Klaus Dinger and Michael Rother following their departure from Kraftwerk. The group's albums were produced by Conny Plank, w ...
,
Cluster
may refer to:
Science and technology Astronomy
* Cluster (spacecraft), constellation of four European Space Agency spacecraft
* Asteroid cluster, a small asteroid family
* Cluster II (spacecraft), a European Space Agency mission to study t ...
, and
Harmonia
In Greek mythology, Harmonia (; grc, Ἁρμονία / harmoˈnia/, "harmony", "agreement") is the immortal goddess of harmony and concord. Her Roman counterpart is Concordia. Her Greek opposite is Eris, whose Roman counterpart is Discord ...
. As a result of his work with Kraftwerk, Plank's studio near
Cologne
Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western States of Germany, state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 m ...
became one of the most sought-after studios in the late 1970s. Plank co-produced the first four Kraftwerk albums.
International breakthrough: ''Autobahn'' and ''Radioactivity'' (1974–1976)
![Kraftwerk by Ueli Frey (1976)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a3/Kraftwerk_by_Ueli_Frey_%281976%29.jpg)
The release of ''
Autobahn
The (; German plural ) is the federal controlled-access highway system in Germany. The official German term is (abbreviated ''BAB''), which translates as 'federal motorway'. The literal meaning of the word is 'Federal Auto(mobile) Track'. ...
'' in 1974 saw Kraftwerk moving away from the sound of its first three albums. Hütter and Schneider had invested in newer technology such as the
Minimoog
The Minimoog is an analog synthesizer first manufactured by Moog Music between 1970 and 1981. Designed as a more affordable, portable version of the modular Moog synthesizer, it was the first synthesizer sold in retail stores. It was first popul ...
and the
EMS Synthi AKS
The EMS Synthi A and the EMS Synthi AKS, is a portable modular analog synthesiser made by EMS of England. The Synthi A model debuted in May 1971, and then Sythni AKS model appeared in March 1972 a with a built-in keyboard and sequencer. The EMS ...
, helping give Kraftwerk a newer, "disciplined" sound. ''Autobahn'' was also the last album that
Conny Plank
Konrad "Conny" Plank (3 May 1940 – 5 December 1987) was a German record producer and musician. He is known for his innovative work as a sound engineer and producer in Germany's krautrock and kosmische music scene in the 1970s. Plank was invo ...
engineered. After the commercial success of ''Autobahn'' in the US, where it peaked at number 5 in the
Billboard Top LPs & Tapes, Hütter and Schneider invested in updating their studio, thus lessening their reliance on outside producers. At this time the painter and graphic artist
Emil Schult
Emil Schult (born 10 October 1946) is a German painter, poet and audio-visual artist.
Biography
After studying Sinology in Münster, Schult joined the Academy of Art in Düsseldorf in 1969 to study Fine Arts in the printmaking class of Dieter ...
became a regular collaborator, designing artwork, cowriting lyrics, and accompanying the group on tour.
The year 1975 saw a turning point in Kraftwerk's live shows. With financial support from
Phonogram Inc., in the US, they were able to undertake a tour to promote the ''Autobahn'' album, a tour which took them to the US, Canada and the UK for the first time. The tour also saw a new, stable, live line-up in the form of a quartet. Hütter and Schneider continued playing keyboard synthesizers such as the
Minimoog
The Minimoog is an analog synthesizer first manufactured by Moog Music between 1970 and 1981. Designed as a more affordable, portable version of the modular Moog synthesizer, it was the first synthesizer sold in retail stores. It was first popul ...
and
ARP Odyssey
The ARP Odyssey is an analog synthesizer introduced by ARP Instruments in 1972.
History
ARP developed the Odyssey as a direct competitor to the Moog Minimoog and an answer to the demand for more affordable, portable, and less complicated "perf ...
, with Schneider's use of flute diminishing. The two men started singing live for the first time, and Schneider processing his voice with a vocoder live. Wolfgang Flür and new recruit
Karl Bartos
Karl Bartos (born 31 May 1952) is a German musician and composer known for his contributions to the electronic band Kraftwerk.
Career
Karlheinz Bartos was born on 31 May 1952 in Marktschellenberg, Germany, named after his grandfathers Karl and ...
performed on home-made electronic percussion instruments. Bartos also used a Deagan
vibraphone
The vibraphone is a percussion instrument in the metallophone family. It consists of tuned metal bars and is typically played by using mallets to strike the bars. A person who plays the vibraphone is called a ''vibraphonist,'' ''vibraharpist,' ...
on stage. The Hütter-Schneider-Bartos-Flür formation remained in place until the late 1980s and is now regarded as the classic live line-up of Kraftwerk. Emil Schult generally fulfilled the role of tour manager.
After the 1975 ''Autobahn'' tour, Kraftwerk began work on a follow-up album, ''
Radio-Activity
''Radio-Activity'' (German title: ''Radio-Aktivität'') is the fifth studio album by German electronic music band Kraftwerk, released in October 1975. The band's first entirely electronic album is also a concept album organized around the theme ...
'' (German title: ''Radio-Aktivität''). After further investment in new equipment, the
Kling Klang Studio
Kling Klang (also spelled as Klingklang) is the private music studio of the band Kraftwerk. The name is taken from the first song on the ''Kraftwerk 2'' album. The studio was originally located at Mintropstraße 16 in Düsseldorf, Germany, adjac ...
became a fully working recording studio. The group used the central theme in radio communication, which had become enhanced on their last tour of the United States. With Emil Schult working on artwork and lyrics, Kraftwerk began to compose music for the new record. Even though ''Radio-Activity'' was less commercially successful than ''Autobahn'' in the UK and United States, the album served to open up the European market for Kraftwerk, earning them a
gold disc
Music recording certification is a system of certifying that a music recording has shipped, sold, or streamed a certain number of units. The threshold quantity varies by type (such as album, single, music video) and by nation or territory (see ...
in France. Kraftwerk made videos and performed several European live dates to promote the album. With the release of ''Autobahn'' and ''Radio-Activity'', Kraftwerk left behind avant-garde experimentation and moved towards the electronic pop tunes for which they are best known.
In 1976, Kraftwerk toured in support of the ''Radio-Activity'' album.
David Bowie
David Robert Jones (8 January 194710 January 2016), known professionally as David Bowie ( ), was an English singer-songwriter and actor. A leading figure in the music industry, he is regarded as one of the most influential musicians of the ...
was among the fans of the record and invited the band to support him on his ''
Station to Station
''Station to Station'' is the tenth studio album by English musician David Bowie, released on 23 January 1976 through RCA Records. Regarded as one of his most significant works, the album was the vehicle for Bowie's performance persona, ...
'' tour, an offer the group declined. Despite some innovations in touring, Kraftwerk took a break from live performances after the ''Radio-Activity'' tour of 1976.
''Trans-Europe Express'', ''The Man-Machine'' and ''Computer World'' (1977–1982)
After having finished the Radio-Activity tour Kraftwerk began recording ''
Trans-Europe Express'' (German: ''Trans-Europa Express'') at the Kling Klang Studio.
''Trans-Europe Express'' was mixed at the
Record Plant Studios
The Record Plant is a recording studio established in New York City in 1968 and currently operating in Los Angeles, California. Known for innovations in the recording artists' workspace, it has produced highly influential albums, including Blon ...
in Los Angeles. It was around this time that Hütter and Schneider met David Bowie at the Kling Klang Studio. A collaboration was mentioned in an interview (
Brian Eno
Brian Peter George St John le Baptiste de la Salle Eno (; born Brian Peter George Eno, 15 May 1948) is a British musician, composer, record producer and visual artist best known for his contributions to ambient music and work in rock, pop an ...
) with Hütter, but it never materialised. The release of ''Trans-Europe Express'' in March 1977
was marked with an extravagant train journey used as a press conference by EMI France. The album won a disco award in New York later that year.
In May 1978 Kraftwerk released ''
The Man-Machine
''The Man-Machine'' (german: link=no, Die Mensch-Maschine) is the seventh studio album by German electronic music band Kraftwerk. It was released on May 1978 by Kling Klang in Germany and by Capitol Records elsewhere. A further refinement of the ...
'' (German: ''Die Mensch-Maschine''), recorded at the Kling Klang Studio. Due to the complexity of the recording, the album was mixed at Studio Rudas in Düsseldorf. The band hired sound engineer Leanard Jackson from Detroit to work with Joschko Rudas on the final mix. ''The Man-Machine'' was the first Kraftwerk album where
Karl Bartos
Karl Bartos (born 31 May 1952) is a German musician and composer known for his contributions to the electronic band Kraftwerk.
Career
Karlheinz Bartos was born on 31 May 1952 in Marktschellenberg, Germany, named after his grandfathers Karl and ...
was cocredited as a songwriter. The cover, produced in black, white and red, was inspired by Russian artist
El Lissitzky
Lazar Markovich Lissitzky (russian: link=no, Ла́зарь Ма́ркович Лиси́цкий, ; – 30 December 1941), better known as El Lissitzky (russian: link=no, Эль Лиси́цкий; yi, על ליסיצקי), was a Russian artist ...
and the
Suprematism
Suprematism (russian: Супремати́зм) is an early twentieth-century art movement focused on the fundamentals of geometry (circles, squares, rectangles), painted in a limited range of colors. The term ''suprematism'' refers to an abstra ...
movement. Gunther Frohling photographed the group for the cover, a now-iconic image which featured the quartet dressed in red shirts and black ties. After it was released Kraftwerk did not release another album for three years.
In May 1981 Kraftwerk released ''
Computer World
''Computer World'' (german: link=no, Computerwelt) is the eighth studio album by German electronic band Kraftwerk, released on 10 May 1981.
The album deals with the themes of the rise of computers within society. In keeping with the album's con ...
'' (German: ''Computerwelt'') on
EMI Records
EMI Records (formerly EMI Records Ltd.) is a multinational record label owned by Universal Music Group. It originally founded as a British flagship label by the music company of the same name in 1972, and launched in January 1973 as the succ ...
.
It was recorded at Kling Klang Studio between 1978 and 1981.
Much of this time was spent modifying the studio to make it portable so the band could take it on tour.
Some of the electronic vocals on ''Computer World'' were generated using a
Texas Instruments
Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI) is an American technology company headquartered in Dallas, Texas, that designs and manufactures semiconductors and various integrated circuits, which it sells to electronics designers and manufacturers globall ...
language translator. "
Computer Love" was released as a single backed with the ''Man-Machine'' track "
The Model
"Das Model" ("The Model" in English) is a song recorded by the German group Kraftwerk in 1978, written by musicians Ralf Hütter and Karl Bartos, with artist Emil Schult collaborating on the lyrics. It is featured on the album, ''Die Mensch-M ...
".
Radio DJs were more interested in the
B-side
The A-side and B-side are the two sides of phonograph records and cassettes; these terms have often been printed on the labels of two-sided music recordings. The A-side usually features a recording that its artist, producer, or record compan ...
so the single was repackaged by EMI and re-released with "The Model" as the A-side. The single reached number one in the UK, making "The Model" Kraftwerk's most successful song in that country.
As a result, the ''Man-Machine'' album also became a success in the UK, peaking at number 9 in the
album chart
A record chart, in the music industry, also called a music chart, is a ranking of Sound recording and reproduction, recorded music according to certain criteria during a given period. Many different criteria are used in worldwide charts, often ...
in February 1982.
The band's live set focused increasingly on song-based material, with greater use of vocals and the use of sequencing equipment for both percussion and music. In contrast to their cool and controlled image, the group used sequencers interactively, which allowed for live improvisation. Ironically, Kraftwerk did not own a computer at the time of recording ''Computer World''.
Kraftwerk returned to live performance with the ''Computer World'' tour of 1981, where the band effectively packed up its entire Kling Klang studio and took it along on the road. They also made greater use of live visuals including back-projected slides and films synchronized with the music as the technology developed, the use of hand-held miniaturized instruments during the set, and the use of replica
mannequin
A mannequin (also called a dummy, lay figure, or dress form) is a doll, often articulated, used by artists, tailors, dressmakers, window dressers and others, especially to display or fit clothing and show off different fabrics and textiles. Pr ...
s of themselves to perform on stage during the song "The Robots".
''Electric Café'' (1982–1989)
In 1982 Kraftwerk began to work on a new album that initially had the working title ''
Technicolor
Technicolor is a series of Color motion picture film, color motion picture processes, the first version dating back to 1916, and followed by improved versions over several decades.
Definitive Technicolor movies using three black and white films ...
'' but due to trademark issues was changed to ''
Electric Café
''Electric Café'' is the ninth studio album by German Electronic music, electronic band Kraftwerk, originally released in 1986. In October 2009 it was re-released under its original working title, ''Techno Pop''. The initial 1986 ''Electric C ...
'' for its original release in 1986 (for a remastered re-release in 2009, it was retitled again after its original working title, ''
Techno Pop
Techno is a Music genre, genre of electronic dance music (EDM) which is generally music production, produced for use in a continuous DJ set, with tempo often varying between 120 and 150 beats per minute (bpm). The central Drum beat, rhythm is typ ...
''). One of the songs from these recording sessions was "
Tour de France
The Tour de France () is an annual men's multiple-stage bicycle race primarily held in France, while also occasionally passing through nearby countries. Like the other Grand Tours (the Giro d'Italia and the Vuelta a España), it consists ...
", which EMI released as a single in 1983. This song was a reflection of the band's new-found obsession for cycling. After the physically demanding ''Computer World'' tour, Ralf Hütter had been looking for forms of exercise that fitted in with the image of Kraftwerk; subsequently he encouraged the group to become vegetarians and take up cycling. "Tour de France" included sounds that followed this theme including bicycle chains, gear mechanisms and the breathing of the cyclist. At the time of the single's release Ralf Hütter tried to persuade the rest of the band that they should record a whole album based on cycling. The other members of the band were not convinced, and the theme was left to the single alone.
"Tour de France" was released in German and French. The vocals of the song were recorded on the Kling Klang Studio stairs to create the right atmosphere.
"Tour de France" was featured in the 1984 film ''
Breakin'
''Breakin (also known as ''Breakdance'' in the United Kingdom and ''Break Street '84'' in other regions) is a 1984 American breakdancing-themed musical film directed by Joel Silberg and written by Charles Parker and Allen DeBevoise based on a ...
'', showing the influence that Kraftwerk had on black American dance music.
In May or June 1982, during the recording of "Tour de France", Ralf Hütter was involved in a serious cycling accident.
He suffered head injuries and remained in a coma for several days. During 1983 Wolfgang Flür was beginning to spend less time in the studio. Since the band began using sequencers his role as a drummer was becoming less frequent. He preferred to spend his time travelling with his girlfriend. Flür was also experiencing artistic difficulties with the band. Though he toured the world with Kraftwerk as a drummer in 1981, his playing does not appear on that year's ''Computer World'' or on the 1986 album ''Electric Café''. In 1987 he left the band and was replaced by
Fritz Hilpert
Friedrich "Fritz" Hilpert (born 31 May 1956) is a member of the electropop group Kraftwerk.
Background
Fritz Hilpert studied trumpet and percussion at the Musisches Max-Reger-Gymnasium, Germany, until 1976. He also played drums in several live ...
.
''The Mix'' (1990–1999)
After years of withdrawal from live performance Kraftwerk began to tour Europe more frequently. In February 1990 the band played a few secret shows in Italy. Karl Bartos left the band shortly afterwards. The next proper tour was in 1991, for the album ''
The Mix''. Hütter and Schneider wished to continue the synth-pop quartet style of presentation, and recruited
Fernando Abrantes
Fernando Fromm-Abrantes (born 1960) is a German-Portuguese producer and musician.
Background
He is a former member/keyboardist of the electronic/experimental pop band Kraftwerk.
He went to the German school in Lisbon. After finishing school he ...
as a replacement for Bartos. Abrantes left the band shortly after though. In late 1991, long-time Kling Klang Studio sound engineer Henning Schmitz was brought in to finish the remainder of the tour and to complete a new version of the quartet that remained active until 2008.
In 1997 Kraftwerk made a famous appearance at the dance festival
Tribal Gathering
Tribal Gathering is the original British electronic dance music festival that between 1993 and 2004 catered for different types of dance music cultures such as techno, house and drum & bass. After 18 years, Tribal Gathering returns in 2023 for a ...
held in England. In 1998, the group toured the US and Japan for the first time since 1981, along with shows in Brazil and
Argentina
Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...
. Three new songs were performed during this period and a further two tested in soundchecks, which remain unreleased.
Following this trek, the group decided to take another break.
In July 1999 the single "Tour de France" was reissued in Europe by EMI after it had been
out of print
__NOTOC__
An out-of-print (OOP) or out-of-commerce item or work is something that is no longer being published. The term applies to all types of printed matter, visual media, sound recordings, and video recordings. An out-of-print book is a book ...
for several years. It was released for the first time on CD in addition to a repressing of the 12-inch vinyl single. Both versions feature slightly altered artwork that removed the faces of Flür and Bartos from the four-man cycling paceline depicted on the original cover. In 1999 ex-member Flür published his autobiography in Germany, ''Ich war ein Roboter''. Later English-language editions of the book were titled ''Kraftwerk: I Was a Robot''.
In 1999, Kraftwerk were commissioned to create an
a cappella
''A cappella'' (, also , ; ) music is a performance by a singer or a singing group without instrumental accompaniment, or a piece intended to be performed in this way. The term ''a cappella'' was originally intended to differentiate between Ren ...
jingle
A jingle is a short song or tune used in advertising and for other commercial uses. Jingles are a form of sound branding. A jingle contains one or more hooks and meaning that explicitly promote the product or service being advertised, usually t ...
for the
Hannover
Hanover (; german: Hannover ; nds, Hannober) is the capital and largest city of the German States of Germany, state of Lower Saxony. Its 535,932 (2021) inhabitants make it the List of cities in Germany by population, 13th-largest city in Germa ...
Expo 2000
Expo 2000 was a World Expo held in Hanover, Germany from 1 June to 31 October 2000. It was located on the Hanover Fairground (Messegelände Hannover), which is the largest exhibition ground in the world. Initially some 40 million people were expe ...
world's fair
A world's fair, also known as a universal exhibition or an expo, is a large international exhibition designed to showcase the achievements of nations. These exhibitions vary in character and are held in different parts of the world at a specif ...
in Germany. The jingle was subsequently developed into the single "
Expo 2000
Expo 2000 was a World Expo held in Hanover, Germany from 1 June to 31 October 2000. It was located on the Hanover Fairground (Messegelände Hannover), which is the largest exhibition ground in the world. Initially some 40 million people were expe ...
", which was released in December 1999, and remixed and re-released as "Expo Remix" in November 2000.
''Tour de France Soundtracks'' and touring the world (2000–2009)
![Kraftwerk live in Stockholm](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/68/Kraftwerk_live_in_Stockholm.jpg)
In August 2003 the band released ''
Tour de France Soundtracks
''Tour de France Soundtracks'' (renamed to ''Tour de France'' for its remastered release) is the eleventh studio album by German electronic music band Kraftwerk. It was first released on 4 August 2003, through Kling Klang and EMI in Europe and As ...
'', its first album of new material since 1986's ''Electric Café''. In January and February 2003, before the release of the album, the band started the extensive ''Minimum-Maximum'' world tour, using four customised
Sony
, commonly stylized as SONY, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. As a major technology company, it operates as one of the world's largest manufacturers of consumer and professional ...
VAIO laptop computers, effectively leaving the entire Kling Klang studio at home in Germany. The group also obtained a new set of transparent video panels to replace its four large projection screens. This greatly streamlined the running of all of the group's sequencing, sound-generating, and visual-display software. From this point, the band's equipment increasingly reduced manual playing, replacing it with interactive control of sequencing equipment. Hütter retained the most manual performance, still playing musical lines by hand on a controller keyboard and singing live vocals and having a repeating
ostinato
In music, an ostinato (; derived from Italian word for ''stubborn'', compare English ''obstinate'') is a motif or phrase that persistently repeats in the same musical voice, frequently in the same pitch. Well-known ostinato-based pieces include ...
. Schneider's live vocoding had been replaced by software-controlled speech-synthesis techniques. In November, the group made a surprising appearance at the MTV European Music Awards in
Edinburgh
Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...
, Scotland, performing "Aerodynamik". The same year a promotional box set entitled ''12345678'' (subtitled ''The Catalogue'') was issued, with plans for a proper commercial release to follow. The box featured
remastered
Remaster refers to changing the quality of the sound or of the image, or both, of previously created recordings, either audiophonic, cinematic, or videographic. The terms digital remastering and digitally remastered are also used.
Mastering
A ...
editions of the group's eight core studio albums, from ''Autobahn'' to ''Tour de France Soundtracks''. This long-awaited box-set was eventually released in a different set of remasters in November 2009.
In June 2005 the band's first-ever official live album, ''
Minimum-Maximum
''Minimum-Maximum'' is the first official live album release by Kraftwerk, released in June 2005, almost 35 years after the group gave its first live performance. The album features two CDs of tracks recorded on the group's world tour during 200 ...
'', which was compiled from the shows during the band's tour of spring 2004, received extremely positive reviews.
[Tony Naylor]
"Kraftwerk: Minimum-Maximum Live"
''NME
''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming, and culture website and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a 'rock inkie', the NME would become a magazine that ended up as a f ...
'', 2 June 2005. Retrieved 8 August 2013 The album contained reworked tracks from existing studio albums. This included a track titled "Planet of Visions" that was a reworking of "Expo 2000". In support of this release, Kraftwerk made another quick sweep around the Balkans with dates in
Serbia
Serbia (, ; Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia (Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeast Europe, Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Bas ...
,
Bulgaria
Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedon ...
,
North Macedonia
North Macedonia, ; sq, Maqedonia e Veriut, (Macedonia before February 2019), officially the Republic of North Macedonia,, is a country in Southeast Europe. It gained independence in 1991 as one of the successor states of Socialist Feder ...
,
Turkey
Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...
, and Greece. In December, the
''Minimum-Maximum'' DVD was released. During 2006, the band performed at festivals in Norway, Ireland, the Czech Republic, Spain, Belgium, and Germany.
In April 2008 the group played three shows in US cities
Minneapolis
Minneapolis () is the largest city in Minnesota, United States, and the county seat of Hennepin County. The city is abundant in water, with thirteen lakes, wetlands, the Mississippi River, creeks and waterfalls. Minneapolis has its origins ...
,
Milwaukee
Milwaukee ( ), officially the City of Milwaukee, is both the most populous and most densely populated city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Milwaukee County. With a population of 577,222 at the 2020 census, Milwaukee is ...
, and
Denver
Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...
, and were a coheadliner at the
Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival
The Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival (commonly called the Coachella Festival or simply Coachella) is an annual music and arts festival held at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, California, in the Coachella Valley in the Colorado Desert. ...
. This was their second appearance at the festival since 2004. Further shows were performed in Ireland, Poland,
Ukraine
Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...
, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong and Singapore later that year. The touring quartet consisted of Ralf Hütter, Henning Schmitz,
Fritz Hilpert
Friedrich "Fritz" Hilpert (born 31 May 1956) is a member of the electropop group Kraftwerk.
Background
Fritz Hilpert studied trumpet and percussion at the Musisches Max-Reger-Gymnasium, Germany, until 1976. He also played drums in several live ...
, and video technician Stefan Pfaffe, who became an official member in 2008. Original member Florian Schneider was absent from the lineup. Hütter stated that he was working on other projects. On 21 November, Kraftwerk officially confirmed Florian Schneider's departure from the band; ''
The Independent
''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...
'' commented: "There is something brilliantly Kraftwerkian about the news that Florian Schneider, a founder member of the German electronic pioneers, is leaving the band to pursue a solo career. Many successful bands break up after just a few years. It has apparently taken Schneider and his musical partner, Ralf Hütter, four decades to discover musical differences."
[Editorials leading article: "Nice Werk"](_blank)
''The Independent''. 7 January 2009. Retrieved 8 August 2013 Kraftwerk's headline set at Global Gathering in Melbourne, Australia, on 22 November was cancelled moments before it was scheduled to begin, due to a Fritz Hilpert heart problem.
In 2009, Kraftwerk performed concerts with special 3D background graphics in Wolfsburg, Germany; Manchester, UK; and Randers, Denmark. Members of the audience were able to watch this multimedia part of the show with 3D glasses, which were given out. During the Manchester concert (part of the 2009
Manchester International Festival
The Manchester International Festival is a biennial international arts festival, with a specific focus on original new work, held in the English city of Manchester and run by Factory International. The festival is a biennial event, first taking ...
) four members of the GB cycling squad (
Jason Kenny
Sir Jason Francis Kenny, (born 23 March 1988) is an English former track cyclist, specialising in the individual and team sprints. Kenny is the holder of most Olympic gold medals (7) and medals (9) for a British athlete. His wife, Laura Kenn ...
,
Ed Clancy
Edward Franklin Clancy (born 12 March 1985) is a British former professional track and road bicycle racer, who competed between 2004 and 2021.
During his career, Clancy won four medals (three gold, one bronze) at the Summer Olympic Games, ...
,
Jamie Staff
Jamie Alan Staff MBE (born 30 April 1973) is an English racing cyclist and coach, formerly on BMX and later on the track. A World and Olympic champion, he has also won numerous other medals at World Championships, World Cups and at the Commonwe ...
and
Geraint Thomas
Geraint Howell Thomas, (; born 25 May 1986) is a Welsh professional racing cyclist who currently rides for UCI WorldTeam , Wales and Great Britain. He is one of the few riders in the modern era to achieve significant elite success as both a tra ...
) rode around the Velodrome while the band performed "Tour de France". The group also played several festival dates, the last being at the
Bestival 2009 in September, on the
Isle of Wight
The Isle of Wight ( ) is a county in the English Channel, off the coast of Hampshire, from which it is separated by the Solent. It is the largest and second-most populous island of England. Referred to as 'The Island' by residents, the Isle of ...
. 2009 also saw the release of ''
The Catalogue
''The Catalogue'' (german: Der Katalog) is a box set consisting of the eight albums by German electronic music band Kraftwerk that were released from 1974 to 2003. All albums are digitally remastered, with most of the cover art redesigned, includ ...
'' box set in November. It is a 12 inch album-sized box set containing all eight remastered CDs in cardboard slipcases, as well as LP-sized booklets of photographs and artwork for each individual album.
''The Catalogue'' and continued touring (2010–2016)
Although not officially confirmed, Ralf Hütter suggested that a second boxed set of their first three experimental albums—''
Kraftwerk
Kraftwerk (, "power station") is a German band formed in Düsseldorf in 1970 by Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider. Widely considered innovators and pioneers of electronic music, Kraftwerk were among the first successful acts to popularize the ...
'', ''
Kraftwerk 2
''Kraftwerk 2'' is the second studio album by German electronic band Kraftwerk, released in January 1972.
Background
''Kraftwerk 2'' was entirely written and performed by founding Kraftwerk members Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider in late 1 ...
'' and ''
Ralf and Florian
''Ralf und Florian'' (English title: ''Ralf and Florian'') is the third studio album by the German electronic band Kraftwerk. It was released in October 1973 on Philips. It saw the group moving toward their signature electronic sound.
Along wit ...
''—could be on its way, possibly seeing commercial release after their next studio album: "We've just never really taken a look at those albums. They've always been available, but as really bad
bootlegs. Now we have more artwork.
Emil has researched extra contemporary drawings, graphics, and photographs to go with each album, collections of paintings that we worked with, and drawings that Florian and I did. We took a lot of
Polaroids in those days." Kraftwerk also released an
iOS
iOS (formerly iPhone OS) is a mobile operating system created and developed by Apple Inc. exclusively for its hardware. It is the operating system that powers many of the company's mobile devices, including the iPhone; the term also includes ...
app called Kraftwerk Kling Klang Machine. The Lenbach House in Munich exhibited some Kraftwerk 3-D pieces in Autumn 2011. Kraftwerk performed three concerts to open the exhibit.
Kraftwerk played at Ultra Music Festival in Miami on 23 March 2012. Initiated by
Klaus Biesenbach
Klaus Biesenbach (born 1966)Erica Orden (December 26, 2009)Herr Zeitgeist''New York Magazine''. is a European American curator and the museum director. He is the Director of the Neue Nationalgalerie, with Berggruen Museum and Scharf-Gerstenberg Co ...
, the
Museum of Modern Art
The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues.
It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of ...
of New York organized an exhibit titled ''Kraftwerk – Retrospective 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8'' where the band performed their studio discography from ''
Autobahn
The (; German plural ) is the federal controlled-access highway system in Germany. The official German term is (abbreviated ''BAB''), which translates as 'federal motorway'. The literal meaning of the word is 'Federal Auto(mobile) Track'. ...
'' to ''
Tour de France
The Tour de France () is an annual men's multiple-stage bicycle race primarily held in France, while also occasionally passing through nearby countries. Like the other Grand Tours (the Giro d'Italia and the Vuelta a España), it consists ...
'' over the course of eight days to sell-out crowds. The exhibit later toured to the
Tate Gallery
Tate is an institution that houses, in a network of four art galleries, the United Kingdom's national collection of British art, and international modern and contemporary art. It is not a government institution, but its main sponsor is the U ...
as well as t
K21in Düsseldorf. Kraftwerk performed at the No Nukes 2012 Festival in Tokyo, Japan. Kraftwerk were also going to play at the Ultra Music Festival in
Warsaw
Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...
, but the event was cancelled; instead, Kraftwerk performed at Way Out West in
Gothenburg
Gothenburg (; abbreviated Gbg; sv, Göteborg ) is the second-largest city in Sweden, fifth-largest in the Nordic countries, and capital of the Västra Götaland County. It is situated by the Kattegat, on the west coast of Sweden, and has ...
. A limited edition version of the ''Catalogue'' box set was released during the retrospective, restricted to 2000 sets. Each box was individually numbered and inverted the colour scheme of the standard box. In December, Kraftwerk stated on their website that they would be playing their ''Catalogue'' in Düsseldorf and at London's Tate Modern. Kraftwerk tickets were priced at £60 in London, but fans compared that to the $20 ticket price for tickets at New York's MoMA in 2012, which caused consternation. Even so, the demand for the tickets at The Tate was so high that it shut down the website.
In March 2013, the band was not allowed to perform at a music festival in China due to unspecified "political reasons". In an interview in June after performing the eight albums of ''The Catalogue'' in Sydney, Ralf Hütter stated: "Now we have finished one to eight, now we can concentrate on number nine."
[P Street, Andrew]
Kraftwerk's Ralf Hütter: 'Now we can concentrate on album number nine'
''The Guardian''. 12 June 2013. Retrieved 8 August 2013 In July, they performed at the 47th Montreux Jazz Festival. The band also played a 3-D concert on 12 July at Scotland's biggest festival –
T in the Park
T in the Park festival was a major Scottish music festival that was held annually from 1994 to 2016. It was named after its main sponsor, Tennents. The event was held at Strathclyde Park, Lanarkshire, until 1996. It then moved to the disused ...
– in Balado, Kinross, as well as 20 July at
Latitude Festival
The Latitude Festival is an annual music festival that takes place in Henham Park, near Southwold, Suffolk, England. It was first held in July 2006 and has been held every year since, apart from 2020, when it was cancelled due to the COVID-19 ...
in Suffolk, and 21 July at the Longitude Festival in Dublin.
In October 2013 the band played four concerts, over two nights, in
Eindhoven
Eindhoven () is a city and municipality in the Netherlands, located in the southern province of North Brabant of which it is its largest. With a population of 238,326 on 1 January 2022,[Evoluon
The Evoluon was built in 1966 as a science museum by the electronics and electrical company Philips. It quickly became a landmark in Eindhoven, where Philips was headquartered at the time. The museum closed in 1989 and the building reopened as a ...]
(the former technology museum of
Philips Electronics
Koninklijke Philips N.V. (), commonly shortened to Philips, is a Dutch multinational conglomerate corporation that was founded in Eindhoven in 1891. Since 1997, it has been mostly headquartered in Amsterdam, though the Benelux headquarters is ...
, now a conference center) was handpicked by Ralf Hütter, for its
retro-futuristic
Retrofuturism (adjective ''retrofuturistic'' or ''retrofuture'') is a movement in the creative arts showing the influence of depictions of the future produced in an earlier era. If futurism is sometimes called a "science" bent on anticipatin ...
UFO-like architecture. Bespoke visuals of the building, with the saucer section descending from space, were displayed during the rendition of ''Spacelab.''
In 2014, Kraftwerk brought their four-night, 3D ''Catalogue'' tour to the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, and at NYC's
United Palace Theatre. They also played at the Cirkus in Stockholm, Sweden and at the music festival
Summer Sonic
The , also known as Supersonic, is an annual two- or three-day rock festival held at the same time in Osaka and Chiba, Japan. The majority of the bands playing in Osaka the first day go to Chiba the following day and vice versa. The line-up cont ...
in Tokyo, Japan. In November 2014 the 3D ''Catalogue'' live set was played in Paris, France, at the brand new Fondation Louis-Vuitton from 6 to 14 November. and then in the iconic
Paradiso concert hall in
Amsterdam
Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...
,
Netherlands
)
, anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau")
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, subdivision_type = Sovereign state
, subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands
, established_title = Before independence
, established_date = Spanish Netherl ...
, where they played before in 1976. In 2015, Ralf Hütter, being told that the
Tour de France
The Tour de France () is an annual men's multiple-stage bicycle race primarily held in France, while also occasionally passing through nearby countries. Like the other Grand Tours (the Giro d'Italia and the Vuelta a España), it consists ...
would be starting that year in the nearby Dutch city of
Utrecht
Utrecht ( , , ) is the List of cities in the Netherlands by province, fourth-largest city and a List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality of the Netherlands, capital and most populous city of the Provinces of the Netherlands, pro ...
, decided that Kraftwerk would perform during the "Grand Depart". Eventually the band played three concerts 3 and 4 July in
TivoliVredenburg
The TivoliVredenburg is a contemporary music complex located in Utrecht, Netherlands. The venue consists of five halls designed acoustically for a specific music genre. Along with its hall, the venue also features an " amateur stage" and a cafe ...
performing "Tour de France Soundtracks" and visited the start of the Tour in-between.
''3-D The Catalogue'' and Schneider's death (2017–present)
In April 2017, Kraftwerk announced ''
3-D The Catalogue
''3-D The Catalogue'' (german: 3-D Der Katalog) is the second official live album and most recent release by German electronic music band Kraftwerk. It was released on 26 May 2017 and was released on several formats, including a four-disc Blu-r ...
'', a live album and video documenting performances of all eight albums in ''The Catalogue'' that was released 26 May 2017. It is available in multiple formats, the most extensive of which being a 4-disc
Blu-ray
The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and capable of sto ...
set with a 236-page hardback book. The album was nominated for the
Grammy Award
The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pres ...
s for
Best Dance/Electronic Album
The Grammy Award for Best Dance/Electronic Album is an award presented at the Grammy Awards — a ceremony that was established in 1958 — to recording artists for quality albums in the dance music and electronica genres. Honors in several categ ...
and
Best Surround Sound Album
The Grammy Award for Best Immersive Audio Album (until 2018: ''Best Surround Sound Album'') was first awarded in 2005, as the first category in a new "Surround Sound" field.
This field currently holds the Best Immersive Audio Album award as its s ...
at the ceremony that took place on 28 January 2018, winning the former, which became the band's first Grammy win.
On 20 July 2018, at a concert in Stuttgart, German astronaut Alexander Gerst performed "Spacelab" with the band while aboard the
International Space Station
The International Space Station (ISS) is the largest modular space station currently in low Earth orbit. It is a multinational collaborative project involving five participating space agencies: NASA (United States), Roscosmos (Russia), JAXA ...
, joining via a live video link. Gerst played melodies using a tablet as his instrument alongside Hütter as a duet, and delivered a short message to the audience.
On 20 July 2019, Kraftwerk headlined the Saturday night lineup on the
Lovell Stage at
Bluedot Festival
Bluedot is a music, science and culture event held annually in July since 2016 at Jodrell Bank Observatory in Cheshire, England, combining music, live science experiments, expert talks and immersive artworks.
The event is endorsed by the Unive ...
, a music and science festival held annually at
Jodrell Bank Observatory
Jodrell Bank Observatory () in Cheshire, England, hosts a number of radio telescopes as part of the Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics at the University of Manchester. The observatory was established in 1945 by Bernard Lovell, a radio astron ...
, Cheshire, UK. The 2019 festival celebrated the 50th anniversary of the
Apollo 11
Apollo 11 (July 16–24, 1969) was the American spaceflight that first landed humans on the Moon. Commander Neil Armstrong and lunar module pilot Buzz Aldrin landed the Apollo Lunar Module ''Eagle'' on July 20, 1969, at 20:17 UTC, an ...
moon landing.
On 21 April 2020, Florian Schneider died at age 73 after a brief battle with cancer. On 3 July 2020, the German-language versions of ''Trans Europe Express'', ''The Man Machine'', ''Computer World'', ''Techno Pop'' and ''The Mix'', alongside ''3-D The Catalogue'', were released worldwide on streaming services for the first time.
On 21 December 2020, Parlophone/WEA released ''Remixes'', a digital
compilation album
A compilation album comprises Album#Tracks, tracks, which may be previously released or unreleased, usually from several separate recordings by either one or several Performing arts#Performers, performers. If by one artist, then generally the tr ...
. It includes remixed tracks taken from singles released 1991, 1999, 2000, 2004 and 2007, plus the previously unreleased "Non Stop", a version of "
Musique Non-Stop
"Musique Non Stop" is a 1986 single by German techno group Kraftwerk, which was featured on the album ''Electric Café''. It was re-released as a remix on their 1991 album '' The Mix''. The single was their first number one on ''Billboard'' Hot D ...
" used as a jingle by
MTV Europe
MTV Global (formerly as MTV Europe) is the international version of the American TV channel MTV, a 24-hour music and entertainment TV channel that began broadcasting on August 1, 1987, as part of the worldwide MTV network.
Initially, MTV serve ...
beginning in 1993. The cover re-uses the cover from "
Expo Remix". The compilation was released on CD and vinyl in 2022.
On 30 October 2021, Kraftwerk were inducted into the
Rock & Roll Hall of Fame
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (RRHOF), sometimes simply referred to as the Rock Hall, is a museum and hall of fame located in downtown Cleveland, Ohio, United States, on the shore of Lake Erie. The museum documents the history of rock music and ...
. In November 2021, the band announced plans for a 2022 North American tour. With the members' live performances celebrating Kraftwerk's fiftieth anniversary, the ''Remixes'' compilation album came out on compact disc and vinyl for the first time in addition.
Music and artistry
Style
Kraftwerk have been recognized as pioneers of
electronic music
Electronic music is a genre of music that employs electronic musical instruments, digital instruments, or circuitry-based music technology in its creation. It includes both music made using electronic and electromechanical means ( electroac ...
as well as subgenres such as
electropop
Electropop is a hybrid music genre combining elements of electronic and pop genres. Writer Hollin Jones has described it as a variant of synth-pop with heavy emphasis on its electronic sound. The genre was developed in the 1980s and saw a re ...
,
art pop
Art pop (also typeset art-pop or artpop) is a loosely defined style of pop music influenced by art theories as well as ideas from other art mediums, such as fashion, fine art, cinema, and avant-garde literature. The genre draws on pop art's ...
,
house music
House is a music genre characterized by a repetitive Four on the floor (music), four-on-the-floor beat and a typical tempo of 120 beats per minute. It was created by Disc jockey, DJs and music producers from Chicago metropolitan area, Chicago' ...
,
synth-pop
Synth-pop (short for synthesizer pop; also called techno-pop; ) is a subgenre of new wave music that first became prominent in the late 1970s and features the synthesizer as the dominant musical instrument. It was prefigured in the 1960s ...
and
electronic rock
Electronic rock is a music genre that involves a combination of rock music and electronic music, featuring instruments typically found within both genres. It originates from the late 1960s, when rock bands began incorporating electronic instrume ...
. In its early incarnation, the band pursued an
avant-garde
The avant-garde (; In 'advance guard' or ' vanguard', literally 'fore-guard') is a person or work that is experimental, radical, or unorthodox with respect to art, culture, or society.John Picchione, The New Avant-garde in Italy: Theoretical ...
,
experimental rock style inspired by the compositions of
Karlheinz Stockhausen
Karlheinz Stockhausen (; 22 August 1928 – 5 December 2007) was a German composer, widely acknowledged by critics as one of the most important but also controversial composers of the 20th and early 21st centuries. He is known for his groun ...
. Hütter has also listed
the Beach Boys
The Beach Boys are an American Rock music, rock band that formed in Hawthorne, California, in 1961. The group's original lineup consisted of brothers Brian Wilson, Brian, Dennis Wilson, Dennis, and Carl Wilson, their cousin Mike Love, and frie ...
as a major influence. The group was also inspired by the
funk music
Funk is a music genre that originated in African American communities in the mid-1960s when musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African Americans in the m ...
of
James Brown
James Joseph Brown (May 3, 1933 – December 25, 2006) was an American singer, dancer, musician, record producer and bandleader. The central progenitor of funk music and a major figure of 20th century music, he is often referred to by the honor ...
and, later,
punk rock.
They were initially connected to the German
krautrock
Krautrock (also called , German for ) is a broad genre of experimental rock
Experimental rock, also called avant-rock, is a subgenre of rock music that pushes the boundaries of common composition and performance technique or which experiments ...
scene.
In the mid-1970s, they transitioned to an electronic sound which they described as "robot pop".
Kraftwerk's lyrics dealt with post-war European urban life and technology—traveling by car on the
Autobahn
The (; German plural ) is the federal controlled-access highway system in Germany. The official German term is (abbreviated ''BAB''), which translates as 'federal motorway'. The literal meaning of the word is 'Federal Auto(mobile) Track'. ...
, traveling by train, using home computers, and the like. They were influenced by the modernist
Bauhaus
The Staatliches Bauhaus (), commonly known as the Bauhaus (), was a German art school operational from 1919 to 1933 that combined crafts and the fine arts.Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 4th edn., 200 ...
aesthetic, seeing art as inseparable from everyday function.
Usually, the lyrics are very
minimal but reveal both an innocent celebration of, and a knowing caution about, the modern world, as well as playing an integral role in the rhythmic structure of the songs. Many of Kraftwerk's songs express the paradoxical nature of modern urban life: a strong sense of alienation existing side by side with a celebration of the joys of modern technology.
Starting with the release of ''
Autobahn
The (; German plural ) is the federal controlled-access highway system in Germany. The official German term is (abbreviated ''BAB''), which translates as 'federal motorway'. The literal meaning of the word is 'Federal Auto(mobile) Track'. ...
'', Kraftwerk began to release a series of
concept albums
A concept album is an album whose tracks hold a larger purpose or meaning collectively than they do individually. This is typically achieved through a single central narrative or theme, which can be instrumental, compositional, or lyrical. Som ...
(''
Radio-Activity
''Radio-Activity'' (German title: ''Radio-Aktivität'') is the fifth studio album by German electronic music band Kraftwerk, released in October 1975. The band's first entirely electronic album is also a concept album organized around the theme ...
'', ''
Trans-Europe Express'', ''
The Man-Machine
''The Man-Machine'' (german: link=no, Die Mensch-Maschine) is the seventh studio album by German electronic music band Kraftwerk. It was released on May 1978 by Kling Klang in Germany and by Capitol Records elsewhere. A further refinement of the ...
'', ''
Computer World
''Computer World'' (german: link=no, Computerwelt) is the eighth studio album by German electronic band Kraftwerk, released on 10 May 1981.
The album deals with the themes of the rise of computers within society. In keeping with the album's con ...
'', ''
Tour de France Soundtracks
''Tour de France Soundtracks'' (renamed to ''Tour de France'' for its remastered release) is the eleventh studio album by German electronic music band Kraftwerk. It was first released on 4 August 2003, through Kling Klang and EMI in Europe and As ...
''). All of Kraftwerk's albums from ''Trans Europe Express'' onwards, except ''Tour de France Soundtracks'', have been released in separate versions: one with German vocals for sale in Germany, Switzerland and Austria and one with English vocals for the rest of the world, with occasional variations in other languages when conceptually appropriate. Live performance has always played an important part in Kraftwerk's activities. Also, despite its live shows generally being based around formal songs and compositions, live
improvisation
Improvisation is the activity of making or doing something not planned beforehand, using whatever can be found. Improvisation in the performing arts is a very spontaneous performance without specific or scripted preparation. The skills of impr ...
often plays a noticeable role in its performances. This trait can be traced back to the group's roots in the first experimental Krautrock scene of the late 1960s, but, significantly, it has continued to be a part of its playing even as it makes ever greater use of digital and computer-controlled sequencing in its performances. Some of the band's familiar compositions have been observed to have developed from live improvisations at its concerts or sound-checks.
Technological innovations
Throughout their career, Kraftwerk have pushed the limits of
music technology
Music technology is the study or the use of any device, mechanism, machine or tool by a musician or composer to make or perform music; to compose, notate, playback or record songs or pieces; or to analyze or edit music.
History
The earlies ...
with some notable innovations, such as home-made instruments and custom-built devices. The group has always perceived their Kling Klang Studio as a complex music instrument, as well as a sound laboratory; Florian Schneider in particular developed a fascination with music technology, with the result that the technical aspects of sound generation and recording gradually became his main fields of activity within the band.
Alexei Monroe called Kraftwerk the "first successful artists to incorporate representations of industrial sounds into non-academic electronic music".
![Kraftwerk Vocoder custom made in early1970s](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ac/Kraftwerk_Vocoder_custom_made_in_early1970s.JPG)
Kraftwerk used a custom-built
vocoder
A vocoder (, a portmanteau of ''voice'' and ''encoder'') is a category of speech coding that analyzes and synthesizes the human voice signal for audio data compression, multiplexing, voice encryption or voice transformation.
The vocoder was ...
on their albums ''Ralf und Florian'' and ''Autobahn''; the device was constructed by engineers P. Leunig and K. Obermayer of the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt Braunschweig. Hütter and Schneider hold a patent for an
electronic drum kit
Electronic drums is a modern electronic musical instrument, primarily designed to serve as an alternative to an acoustic drum kit. Electronic drums consist of an electronic sound module which produces the synthesized or sampled percussion sounds ...
with sensor pads, filed in July 1975 and issued in June 1977.
It must be hit with metal sticks, which are connected to the device to complete a circuit that triggers analog synthetic percussion sounds. The band first performed in public with this device in 1973, on the television program ''Aspekte'' (on the all-German channel
Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen
ZDF (, short for Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen; ; "Second German Television") is a German public-service television broadcaster based in Mainz, Rhineland-Palatinate. It is run as an independent nonprofit institution, which was founded by all fed ...
), where it was played by Wolfgang Flür. They created drum machines for ''Autobahn'' and ''Trans-Europe Express''
On the ''Radio-Activity'' tour in 1976 Kraftwerk tested out an experimental light-beam-activated drum cage allowing Flür to trigger electronic percussion through arm and hand movements. Unfortunately, the device did not work as planned, and it was quickly abandoned.
The same year Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider commissioned
Bonn
The federal city of Bonn ( lat, Bonna) is a city on the banks of the Rhine in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, with a population of over 300,000. About south-southeast of Cologne, Bonn is in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ruhr r ...
-based "Synthesizerstudio Bonn, Matten & Wiechers" to design and build the Synthanorma Sequenzer with Intervallomat, a 4×8 / 2×16 / 1×32 step-sequencer system with some features that commercial products couldn't provide at that time.
The
music sequencer
A music sequencer (or audio sequencer or simply sequencer) is a device or application software that can record, edit, or play back music, by handling note and performance information in several forms, typically CV/Gate, MIDI, or Open Sound Cont ...
was used by the band for the first time to control the electronic sources creating the rhythmic sound of the album ''Trans-Europe Express''.
Since 2002, Kraftwerk's live performances have been conducted with the use of virtual technology (i.e. software replicating and replacing original analogue or digital equipment). According to
Fritz Hilpert
Friedrich "Fritz" Hilpert (born 31 May 1956) is a member of the electropop group Kraftwerk.
Background
Fritz Hilpert studied trumpet and percussion at the Musisches Max-Reger-Gymnasium, Germany, until 1976. He also played drums in several live ...
, "the mobility of music technology and the reliability of the notebooks and software have greatly simplified the realization of complex touring setups: we generate all sounds on the laptops in real time and manipulate them with controller maps. It takes almost no time to get our compact stage system set up for performance.
..This way, we can bring our Kling-Klang Studio with us on stage. The physical light weight of our equipment also translates into an enormous ease of use when working with software synthesizers and sound processors. Every tool imaginable is within immediate reach or just a few mouse clicks away on the Internet."
Reclusiveness and eccentricity
The band is notoriously reclusive, providing rare and enigmatic interviews, using life-size mannequins and robots to conduct official photo shoots, refusing to accept mail and not allowing visitors at the Kling Klang Studio, the precise location of which they used to keep secret.
Another notable example of this eccentric behavior was reported to
Johnny Marr
Johnny Marr (born John Martin Maher, 31 October 1963) is an English musician, songwriter and singer. He first achieved fame as the guitarist and co-songwriter of the Smiths, who were active from 1982 to 1987. He has since performed with numerous ...
of
the Smiths
The Smiths were an English rock band formed in Manchester in 1982. They comprised the singer Morrissey, the guitarist Johnny Marr, the bassist Andy Rourke and the drummer Mike Joyce. They are regarded as one of the most important acts to emerg ...
by Karl Bartos, who explained that anyone trying to contact the band for collaboration would be told the studio telephone did not have a ringer since, while recording, the band did not like to hear any kind of noise pollution. Instead, callers were instructed to phone the studio precisely at a certain time, whereupon the phone would be answered by Ralf Hütter, despite never hearing the phone ring.
Chris Martin
Christopher Anthony John Martin (born 2 March 1977) is an English singer-songwriter and musician. He is best known as the lead vocalist, pianist, rhythm guitarist and co-founder of the rock band Coldplay. Born in Exeter, Devon, he went to Univ ...
of
Coldplay
Coldplay are a British rock band formed in London in 1997. They consist of vocalist and pianist Chris Martin, guitarist Jonny Buckland, bassist Guy Berryman, drummer Will Champion and creative director Phil Harvey. They met at University Col ...
recalled in a 2007 article in
''Q'' magazine the process of requesting permission to use the melody from the track "Computer Love" on "
Talk
Talk may refer to:
Communication
* Communication, the encoding and decoding of exchanged messages between people
* Conversation, interactive communication between two or more people
* Lecture, an oral presentation intended to inform or instruct
...
" from the album ''
X&Y''. He sent a letter through the lawyers of the respective parties and several weeks later received an envelope containing a handwritten reply that simply said "yes".
[Goddard, Simon. "The 21 people who changed music – They are the robots." '']Q Magazine
''Q'' was a popular music magazine published monthly in the United Kingdom. It was founded in 1986 by broadcast journalists Mark Ellen and David Hepworth, who were presenters of the BBC television music series ''The Old Grey Whistle Test''. '' ...
''. November 2007, p. 106.
Influence and legacy
According to music journalist Neil McCormick, Kraftwerk might be "the most influential group in pop history".
''NME'' wrote: The Beatles and Kraftwerk' may not have the ring of 'the Beatles and the Stones', but nonetheless, these are the two most important bands in music history".
AllMusic
AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...
wrote that their music "resonates in virtually every new development to impact the contemporary pop scene of the late 20th century".
Kraftwerk's musical style and image can be heard and seen in 1980s
synth-pop
Synth-pop (short for synthesizer pop; also called techno-pop; ) is a subgenre of new wave music that first became prominent in the late 1970s and features the synthesizer as the dominant musical instrument. It was prefigured in the 1960s ...
groups such as
Gary Numan
Gary Anthony James Webb (born 8 March 1958), known professionally as Gary Numan, is an English musician. He entered the music industry as frontman of the new wave band Tubeway Army. After releasing two albums with the band, he released his d ...
,
Ultravox
Ultravox (earlier styled as Ultravox!) were a British new wave band, formed in London in April 1974 as Tiger Lily. Between 1980 and 1986, they scored seven Top Ten albums and seventeen Top 40 singles in the UK, the most successful of which was ...
,
John Foxx
John Foxx (born Dennis Leigh; 26 September 1948) is an English singer, musician, artist, photographer, graphic designer, writer, teacher and lecturer. He was the original lead singer of the new wave band Ultravox, before leaving to embark on a ...
,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (OMD) are an English electronic music, electronic band formed in Wirral Peninsula, Wirral, Merseyside, in 1978. The group consists of co-founders Andy McCluskey (vocals, bass guitar) and Paul Humphreys (keyboar ...
,
The Human League
The Human League are an English synth-pop band formed in Sheffield in 1977. Initially an experimental electronic outfit, the group signed to Virgin Records in 1979 and later attained widespread commercial success with their third album ''Dare' ...
,
Depeche Mode
Depeche Mode are an English electronic music band formed in Basildon, Essex, in 1980. The band currently consists of Dave Gahan (lead vocals and co-songwriting) and Martin Gore (keyboards, guitar, co-lead vocals and main songwriting).
Depeche ...
,
Visage, Soft Cell, Yellow Magic Orchestra, Yellow magic orchestra.
[Petridis, Alexis.]
"Desperately Seeking Kraftwerk"
''The Guardian'', 25 July 2003. Retrieved 8 August 2013 Kraftwerk influenced other forms of music such as
hip hop, house, and drum and bass, and they are also regarded as pioneers of the Electro music, electro genre. Karl Hyde of Underworld (band), Underworld has referenced Kraftwerk as a prominent influence. Most notably, "Trans Europe Express" and "Numbers" were interpolated into "Planet Rock (song), Planet Rock" by Afrika Bambaataa & the Soul Sonic Force, one of the earliest hip-hop/electro hits. Kraftwerk helped ignite the New York electro-movement.
Techno was created by three musicians from Detroit, often referred to as the 'The Belleville Three, Belleville three' (Juan Atkins, Kevin Saunderson & Derrick May (musician), Derrick May), who fused the repetitive melodies of Kraftwerk with funk rhythms. The Belleville three were heavily influenced by Kraftwerk and their sounds because Kraftwerk's sounds appealed to the middle-class black people residing in Detroit at this time.
Depeche Mode's composer Martin Gore said: "For anyone of our generation involved in electronic music, Kraftwerk were the godfathers".
Daniel Miller (music producer), Daniel Miller, founder of Mute Records, purchased the
vocoder
A vocoder (, a portmanteau of ''voice'' and ''encoder'') is a category of speech coding that analyzes and synthesizes the human voice signal for audio data compression, multiplexing, voice encryption or voice transformation.
The vocoder was ...
used by Kraftwerk in their early albums, comparing it to owning "the guitar Jimi Hendrix used on 'Purple Haze. Andy McCluskey and Paul Humphreys, founding members of OMD, have stated that Kraftwerk was a major reference on their early work, and covered "Neon Lights" on the 1991 album, ''Sugar Tax (album), Sugar Tax''. The electronic band Ladytron were inspired by Kraftwerk's song "The Model" when they composed their debut single "He Took Her to a Movie". Aphex Twin noted Kraftwerk as one of his biggest influences and called ''Computer World'' as a very influential album towards his music and sound. Björk has cited the band as one of her main musical influences. Electronic musician Kompressor (musician), Kompressor has cited Kraftwerk as an influence. The band was also mentioned in the song "Rappers We Crush" by Kompressor and MC Frontalot ("I hurry away, get in my Chrysler. Oh, the dismay!/Someone's replaced all of my Backstreet Boys with Kraftwerk tapes!"). Dr. Alex Paterson of the Orb listed ''The Man-Machine'' as one of his 13 most favourite albums of all time. According to ''NME'', Kraftwerk's pioneering "robot pop" also spawned groups like The Prodigy and Daft Punk.
Kraftwerk inspired many acts from other styles and genres. David Bowie's "V-2 Schneider", from the 1977's ''Heroes (David Bowie album), Heroes'' album, was a tribute to Florian Schneider.
[Roy Carr & Charles Shaar Murray (1981). ''Bowie: An Illustrated Record'': p. 92.] Post-punk bands Joy Division and New Order (band), New Order were heavily influenced by the band. Joy Division frontman Ian Curtis was a fan, and showed his colleagues records that would influence their music. New Order also sampled "Uranium" in its biggest hit "Blue Monday (New Order song), Blue Monday". Siouxsie and the Banshees recorded a cover of "Hall of Mirrors" on their 1987 album ''Through the Looking Glass (Siouxsie and the Banshees album), Through the Looking Glass'', which was lauded by Ralf Hütter: "In general, we consider cover versions as an appreciation of our work. The version of 'Hall of Mirrors' by Siouxsie and the Banshees is extraordinary, just like the arrangements of Alexander Bălănescu for his Balanescu Quartet release [of ''Possessed'', 1992]. We also like the album ''El Baile Alemán'' of Señor Coconut a lot." Members of Blondie (band), Blondie have admitted on several occasions that Kraftwerk were an important reference for their sound by the time they were working on their third album ''Parallel Lines''. The worldwide hit "Heart of Glass (song), Heart of Glass" turned radically from an initial reggae-flavoured style to its distinctive electronic sound in order to imitate the technological approach of Kraftwerk's albums and adapt it to a disco concept. Simple Minds and U2 each recorded cover versions of "Neon Lights"; Simple Minds' version was included on their 2001 all-covers album Neon Lights (album), Neon Lights and U2 included "Neon Lights" as the B-side of their 2004 single "Vertigo (U2 song), Vertigo". LCD Soundsystem song called "Get Innocuous!" is built on a sample of "The Robots". Rammstein also covered their song "Das Model#Rammstein cover, Das Modell", releasing it as a non-album single in 1997. John Frusciante cited the ability to experiment of the group as an inspiration when working in a recording studio.
In 1989, a speeded up version of Kraftwerk's song "Electric Café" began appearing as the theme song for a series of sketches on ''Saturday Night Live'' called "Sprockets (Saturday Night Live), Sprockets", a German television spoof by Mike Myers (actor), Mike Myers.
The 1998 comedy ''The Big Lebowski'' features a fictional band called Autobahn, a parody of Kraftwerk and their 1974 record ''Autobahn''.
In January 2018, BBC Radio 4 broadcast the 30-minute documentary ''Kraftwerk: Computer Love'', which examined "how Kraftwerk's classic album ''Computer World'' has changed people's lives."
In October 2019, Kraftwerk were nominated for induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for 2020. On 12 May 2021, Kraftwerk were announced as an official inductee into the Hall, for the class of 2021.
Band members
Current members
*
Ralf Hütter
Ralf Hütter (born 20 August 1946) is a German musician and composer best known as the lead singer and keyboardist of Kraftwerk, which he founded with Florian Schneider in 1969. On May 12, 2021, Kraftwerk was announced as one of the inductees of ...
– lead vocals, vocoder, synthesizers, keyboards
(1969–present); organ, drums and percussion, bass guitar, guitar
(1969–1974)
*
Fritz Hilpert
Friedrich "Fritz" Hilpert (born 31 May 1956) is a member of the electropop group Kraftwerk.
Background
Fritz Hilpert studied trumpet and percussion at the Musisches Max-Reger-Gymnasium, Germany, until 1976. He also played drums in several live ...
– electronic percussion
(1987–present)
* Henning Schmitz – electronic percussion, live keyboards
(1991–present)
* Falk Grieffenhagen – live video technician
(2012–present)
Former members
*
Florian Schneider
Florian Schneider-Esleben (7 April 194721 April 2020) was a German musician. He is best known as one of the founding members and leaders of the electronic band Kraftwerk, performing his role with the band until his departure in 2008.
Early li ...
– synthesizers, background vocals, vocoder, computer-generated vocals, acoustic and electronic flute, live saxophone, percussion, electric guitar, violin
(1969–2008, died 2020)
*
Karl Bartos
Karl Bartos (born 31 May 1952) is a German musician and composer known for his contributions to the electronic band Kraftwerk.
Career
Karlheinz Bartos was born on 31 May 1952 in Marktschellenberg, Germany, named after his grandfathers Karl and ...
– electronic percussion, vocals, live vibraphone, live keyboards
(1975–1990)
*
Wolfgang Flür
Wolfgang Flür (born 17 July 1947) is a German musician, best known for playing percussion in the electronic group Kraftwerk from 1973 to 1987. Flür claims that he invented the electric drums the group used throughout the 1970s. However, pa ...
– electronic percussion
(1973–1987)
* Stefan Pfaffe – live video technician
(2008–2012)
*
Fernando Abrantes
Fernando Fromm-Abrantes (born 1960) is a German-Portuguese producer and musician.
Background
He is a former member/keyboardist of the electronic/experimental pop band Kraftwerk.
He went to the German school in Lisbon. After finishing school he ...
– electronic percussion, synthesizer
(1991)
* Klaus Röder – electric guitar, electronic violin
(1974)
*
Emil Schult
Emil Schult (born 10 October 1946) is a German painter, poet and audio-visual artist.
Biography
After studying Sinology in Münster, Schult joined the Academy of Art in Düsseldorf in 1969 to study Fine Arts in the printmaking class of Dieter ...
– electric guitar, electronic violin
(1973)
*
Michael Rother
Michael Rother (born 2 September 1950) is a German experimental musician, best known for being a founding member of the influential bands Neu! and Harmonia (band), Harmonia, and an early member of the band Kraftwerk.
Early life and educatio ...
– electric guitar
(1971)
*
Klaus Dinger
Klaus Dinger (24 March 1946 – 21 March 2008) was a German musician and songwriter most famous for his contributions to the seminal krautrock band Neu!. He was also the guitarist and chief songwriter of new wave group La Düsseldorf and brief ...
– drums
(1969–1971; died 2008)
* Plato Kostic (a.k.a. Plato Riviera) – bass guitar
(1973)
* Andreas Hohmann – drums
(1969)
* Thomas Lohmann – drums
(1969)
* Eberhard Kranemann – bass guitar
(1969–1971)
* Houschäng Nejadépour – electric guitar
(1969–1971)
* Peter Schmidt – drums
(1969–1971)
* Karl "Charly" Weiss – drums
(1969; died 2009)
Timeline
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id:Keyboards value:purple legend:Keyboards
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at:06/06/2005 #>Minimum Maximum<#
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at:21/12/2020 #>Remixes<#
color:Studio
at:01/11/1970 #>Kraftwerk<#
at:01/01/1972 #>Kraftwerk 2<#
at:01/10/1973 #>Ralf and Florian<#
at:01/11/1974 #>Autobahn<#
at:01/10/1975 #>Radio-Activity<#
at:01/05/1977 #>Trans-Europe Express<#
at:01/05/1978 #>The Man-Machine<#
at:01/05/1981 #>Computer World<#
at:01/12/1986 #>Electric Café<#
at:04/08/2003 #>Tour de France Soundtracks<#
Discography
* ''
Kraftwerk
Kraftwerk (, "power station") is a German band formed in Düsseldorf in 1970 by Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider. Widely considered innovators and pioneers of electronic music, Kraftwerk were among the first successful acts to popularize the ...
'' (1970)
* ''
Kraftwerk 2
''Kraftwerk 2'' is the second studio album by German electronic band Kraftwerk, released in January 1972.
Background
''Kraftwerk 2'' was entirely written and performed by founding Kraftwerk members Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider in late 1 ...
'' (1972)
* ''
Ralf und Florian
''Ralf und Florian'' (English title: ''Ralf and Florian'') is the third studio album by the German electronic band Kraftwerk. It was released in October 1973 on Philips. It saw the group moving toward their signature electronic sound.
Along wit ...
'' (1973)
* ''
Autobahn
The (; German plural ) is the federal controlled-access highway system in Germany. The official German term is (abbreviated ''BAB''), which translates as 'federal motorway'. The literal meaning of the word is 'Federal Auto(mobile) Track'. ...
'' (1974)
* ''
Radio-Activity
''Radio-Activity'' (German title: ''Radio-Aktivität'') is the fifth studio album by German electronic music band Kraftwerk, released in October 1975. The band's first entirely electronic album is also a concept album organized around the theme ...
'' (1975)
* ''
Trans-Europe Express'' (1977)
* ''
The Man-Machine
''The Man-Machine'' (german: link=no, Die Mensch-Maschine) is the seventh studio album by German electronic music band Kraftwerk. It was released on May 1978 by Kling Klang in Germany and by Capitol Records elsewhere. A further refinement of the ...
'' (1978)
* ''
Computer World
''Computer World'' (german: link=no, Computerwelt) is the eighth studio album by German electronic band Kraftwerk, released on 10 May 1981.
The album deals with the themes of the rise of computers within society. In keeping with the album's con ...
'' (1981)
* ''
Electric Café
''Electric Café'' is the ninth studio album by German Electronic music, electronic band Kraftwerk, originally released in 1986. In October 2009 it was re-released under its original working title, ''Techno Pop''. The initial 1986 ''Electric C ...
'' (1986)
*''
The Mix'' (1991)
* ''
Tour de France Soundtracks
''Tour de France Soundtracks'' (renamed to ''Tour de France'' for its remastered release) is the eleventh studio album by German electronic music band Kraftwerk. It was first released on 4 August 2003, through Kling Klang and EMI in Europe and As ...
'' (2003)
Videography
* ''Romantic Warriors IV: Krautrock'' (2019)
Awards and achievements
Grammy Awards
, -
, 24th Annual Grammy Awards, 1982
, "
Computer World
''Computer World'' (german: link=no, Computerwelt) is the eighth studio album by German electronic band Kraftwerk, released on 10 May 1981.
The album deals with the themes of the rise of computers within society. In keeping with the album's con ...
"
, Grammy Award for Best Rock Instrumental Performance, Best Rock Instrumental Performance
,
, -
, 48th Annual Grammy Awards, 2006
, ''
Minimum-Maximum
''Minimum-Maximum'' is the first official live album release by Kraftwerk, released in June 2005, almost 35 years after the group gave its first live performance. The album features two CDs of tracks recorded on the group's world tour during 200 ...
''
,
Best Dance/Electronic Album
The Grammy Award for Best Dance/Electronic Album is an award presented at the Grammy Awards — a ceremony that was established in 1958 — to recording artists for quality albums in the dance music and electronica genres. Honors in several categ ...
,
, -
, 56th Annual Grammy Awards, 2014
, Kraftwerk
, Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, Lifetime Achievement Award
,
, -
, 57th Annual Grammy Awards, 2015
, ''
Autobahn
The (; German plural ) is the federal controlled-access highway system in Germany. The official German term is (abbreviated ''BAB''), which translates as 'federal motorway'. The literal meaning of the word is 'Federal Auto(mobile) Track'. ...
''
, Grammy Hall of Fame, Hall of Fame
,
, -
, rowspan="2", 60th Annual Grammy Awards, 2018
, rowspan="2", ''
3-D The Catalogue
''3-D The Catalogue'' (german: 3-D Der Katalog) is the second official live album and most recent release by German electronic music band Kraftwerk. It was released on 26 May 2017 and was released on several formats, including a four-disc Blu-r ...
''
,
Best Dance/Electronic Album
The Grammy Award for Best Dance/Electronic Album is an award presented at the Grammy Awards — a ceremony that was established in 1958 — to recording artists for quality albums in the dance music and electronica genres. Honors in several categ ...
,
, -
,
Best Surround Sound Album
The Grammy Award for Best Immersive Audio Album (until 2018: ''Best Surround Sound Album'') was first awarded in 2005, as the first category in a new "Surround Sound" field.
This field currently holds the Best Immersive Audio Album award as its s ...
,
See also
* Grammy Award recipients for Best Dance/Electronic Album
* List of ambient music artists
* List of Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees
References
Sources
*
*
Further reading
* Tim Barr, ''Kraftwerk: From Düsseldorf to the Future'' 1998
* Vanni Neri & Giorgio Campani: ''A Short Introduction to Kraftwerk'' 2000
* Albert Koch: ''Kraftwerk: The Music Makers'' 2002
* Kraftwerk: ''Kraftwerk Photobook'' 2005 (included in the ''Minimum-Maximum Notebook'' set)
* Sean Albiez and David Pattie: ''Kraftwerk: Music Non-Stop'' 2010
* David Buckley: ''Kraftwerk: Publikation'' 2012
* Toby Mott: ''Kraftwerk: 45 RPM'' 2012
* ''The Guardian'': "Kraftwerk sue makers of Kraftwerk charging devices" 2015
External links
*
*
*
Kraftwerk: Free Listeningat SoundCloud
ANTENNA– The International Kraftwerk Mailing List (since 2003 September)
*
Kraftwerk FAQ– The Kraftwerk FAQ: Frequently asked questions and answers
BBC Radio 1 Kraftwerk documentary 2006 Kraftwerk documentary with Alex Kapranos
Kraftwerk Vinyl Site for collectorsAllKraftwerkMats's Kraftwerk Pagewith lots of images and information, since 1997
Good evening Kraftwerk, good evening Stuttgart!by the European Space Agency
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Kraftwerk,
1969 establishments in West Germany
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Grammy Award winners for dance and electronic music
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