Kraftwerk

Kraftwerk (pronounced , German for "power plant") are a German avant-garde musical group who have made significant contributions to the development of electronic music. The band was founded by Florian Schneider and Ralf Hütter in 1970, but became widely known as a quartet consisting of Wolfgang Flür and Karl Bartos alongside the founding members.

History

Kraftwerk was founded in 1970 by Florian Schneider-Esleben (flute) and Ralf Hütter (keyboards), the pair setting up their Kling Klang studio in Düsseldorf. The two had met as students in the late 1960s, and had already released one album (Tone Float) playing in a five-piece improvisation group called Organisation.

Related Topics:
1970 - Florian Schneider-Esleben - Ralf Hütter - Kling Klang - Düsseldorf - Tone Float - Organisation

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The early Kraftwerk line-ups (1970-1974) fluctuated, Hütter and Schneider working with around half a dozen other musicians over the course of recording four albums and sporadic live appearances - most notably guitarist Michael Rother and drummer Klaus Dinger, who left to form Neu!.

Related Topics:
Michael Rother - Klaus Dinger - Neu!

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The input, expertise and influence of producer/engineer Conny Plank was also significant. Plank worked with many other leading German acts (including members of Can, Neu!, Cluster, Harmonia) and largely as a result of his work with Kraftwerk, Plank's studio in Cologne (Köln) became one of the most sought-after studios in ] in the late 1970s. Plank produced the first four Kraftwerk albums, but ceased working with them after the commercial success of Autobahn, apparently over a dispute about contracts.

Related Topics:
Conny Plank - Can - Neu! - Cluster - Harmonia - Cologne - 1970s

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Painter Emil Schult became a regular collaborator with the band beginning in 1973 (originally playing bass guitar and electric violin, then designing artwork and additional lyrics, and accompanying them on tour).

Related Topics:
Emil Schult - 1973

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What is generally regarded as the classic Kraftwerk line-up formed in 1975, for the Autobahn tour. This saw the band presented as an electronic quartet, with Hütter and Schneider joined by Wolfgang Flür and Karl Bartos as electronic percussionists. This quartet would be the band's public persona for their classic output of the 1970s and 1980s. (Flür had joined the band in 1973 as a drummer, in preparation for a television appearance to promote their third album. This show saw the public debut of the group's striking self-built electronic percussion pads, played by Flür.)

Related Topics:
Wolfgang Flür - Karl Bartos

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The band is notoriously reclusive, so much so that it is rumoured that their own record company does not have their phone numbers. Another notable example of their eccentric behaviour was reported to Johnny Marr of The Smiths by Karl Bartos, who explained, that anyone trying to contact the band for collaboration, would be told that their studio telephone did not have a ringtone, as during recording the band did not like to hear any kind of noise pollution. Instead, they were instructed to phone the studio at a certain time on the dot, whereupon the phone would be answered by Ralf Hutter, despite himself never hearing the phone ring.

Related Topics:
Johnny Marr - The Smiths

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After years of withdrawal from live performance, Kraftwerk began to tour again more regularly in the late 1990s, and then in 2004 and 2005. Ralf had wanted to play more shows over the years, but the undertaking of shipping all their huge, analog equipment hindered world tours and travel outside of Europe. Up until 2003 they stated they were working on new material — though speculation about release dates fell through several times. Like a number of other recording artists, Hütter and Schneider appear to have become increasingly perfectionist in their attitude towards recording and releasing their music.

Related Topics:
1990s - 2004 - 2005

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The growing time between recordings, the rarity of live performances and the increasingly exacting and protracted nature of the recording process were major reasons behind the departure of Flür and especially Bartos, whose improvisations were an essential part of the earlier Kraftwerk recordings. Following the departure of Flür and Bartos, various Kling Klang studio personnel such as Fritz Hilpert and Henning Schmitz have appeared in the Kraftwerk live line-up.

Related Topics:
Kling Klang - Fritz Hilpert - Henning Schmitz

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The single Expo 2000, their first new song in 13 years, was released in December, 1999, and was subsequently remixed by contemporary electronic musicians such as Orbital. (A live version of Expo 2000 also appears on the Minimum-Maximum live album, where it is called "Planet of Visions".) An announcement by their record company of a July 22, 2003 release also fell through, with the perfectionists delaying again for several weeks. The new album, Tour de France Soundtracks, was finally released in August 2003, making it the first album of new Kraftwerk material since 1986's Electric Cafe.

Related Topics:
December, 1999 - Orbital - Minimum-Maximum - July 22 - 2003 - August 2003

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