''Kraftwerk 2'' is the second studio album by German
electronic
Electronic may refer to:
*Electronics, the science of how to control electric energy in semiconductor
* ''Electronics'' (magazine), a defunct American trade journal
*Electronic storage, the storage of data using an electronic device
*Electronic co ...
band
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 ...
, released in January 1972.
Background
''Kraftwerk 2'' was entirely written and performed by founding Kraftwerk 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 ...
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 ...
in late 1971, with the sessions produced by the influential
Konrad "Conny" Plank. Hütter later said of the album's recording:
Perhaps the least characteristic album of their output, it features no synthesizers, the instrumentation being largely electric
guitar
The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...
, bass guitar,
flute
The flute is a family of classical music instrument in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, meaning they make sound by vibrating a column of air. However, unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is a reedless ...
and
violin
The violin, sometimes known as a ''fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone (string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in the family in regular ...
. The electronics on display generally belong to the realm of 1960s tape-based music more usually produced in academia, with heavy use of tape echo (for example the massed looping flute layers of "Strom"), and reverse and altered speed tape effects. Overall, the sound has a rather muted, twilit, dusky feel, similar in feel to "Megaherz" on Kraftwerk's debut album, as Hütter and Schneider explored the possibilities for electronic and auto-mechanical enhancement of their music.
The lengthy, almost side-long "Klingklang" which opens the album is notable for its use of a preset
organ
Organ may refer to:
Biology
* Organ (biology), a part of an organism
Musical instruments
* Organ (music), a family of keyboard musical instruments characterized by sustained tone
** Electronic organ, an electronic keyboard instrument
** Hammond ...
beatbox to provide the percussion track. It starts with a clangourous
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 ...
-like metallic percussion montage and gives rise to the unmistakable Kraftwerk sound. Later, the song title also became the name of the band's own
self-built studio, 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 ...
. "Atem" is a recording of breathing, while "Harmonika" features a tape-manipulated mouth organ.
The cover design, credited to Ralf and Florian, further hints at a deliberate association with
conceptual art
Conceptual art, also referred to as conceptualism, is art in which the concept(s) or idea(s) involved in the work take precedence over traditional aesthetic, technical, and material concerns. Some works of conceptual art, sometimes called insta ...
, being a repeat of the first album's
pop art design – except this time fluorescent green replaces the red and the number '2' is added.
It was eventually released in the UK, combined with the first Kraftwerk album as a double LP package, by the
Vertigo
Vertigo is a condition where a person has the sensation of movement or of surrounding objects moving when they are not. Often it feels like a spinning or swaying movement. This may be associated with nausea, vomiting, sweating, or difficulties w ...
label in March 1973, more than a year after its German release in January 1972.
No material from this album has been performed in the band's live set since the Autobahn tour of 1975, and to date, the album has not been officially reissued. The band is seemingly reluctant to consider the album as a part of its canon; in later interviews, Schneider described the first three Kraftwerk albums as "archaeology". However, unlicensed CDs of the album have been widely available since the mid-1990s on the Germanofon and Crown labels. Kraftwerk has hinted that the album may eventually see a re-mastered CD release after its ''
Der Katalog'' boxed set.
Track listing
Personnel
Kraftwerk
*
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, electric piano, guitar, bass, rhythm machine, xylophone, harmonica
*
Florian Schneider-Esleben – flutes, violin, guitar, effects, xylophone
Additional personnel
*
Konrad 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 invol ...
– sound engineer
Charts
Weekly charts
References
External links
*
Kraftwerk official – Free Listening on
SoundCloud
SoundCloud is an online audio distribution platform and music sharing website that enables its users to upload, promote, and share audio. Founded in 2007 by Alexander Ljung and Eric Wahlforss, SoundCloud is one of the largest music streaming se ...
*
{{Authority control
Kraftwerk albums
1972 albums
Albums produced by Conny Plank
Philips Records albums
Vertigo Records albums