Kraftwerk

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**Kraftwerk** are an electronic music group from Düsseldorf, Germany active since 1970. Its founding members were Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider who met as students at the Robert Schumann Hochschule in the late 1960s, participating in the German experimental music and art scene of the time. Performing and recording albums between 1970 and 1973 with various collaborators, they were initially part of Germany's 'krautrock' music scene before breaking away to become fully electronic. Their groundbreaking 1974 album *Autobahn* brought them to a wider audience, also thanks to a successful European tour, when the duo were joined by Wolfgang Flür and Karl Bartos, who then became permanent members of the group. Further albums *Radio-Activity* (1976), *Trans-Europe Express* (1977) and *The Man-Machine* (1978) consolidated their fully electronic sound, moving from more experimental to dance music, via long-form compositions, although the group still remained largely a 'cult' music outfit.

With the dawn of the 1980s, Kraftwerk became to be considered one of the biggest influences on the British 'new romantic' and electro-pop groups of the era, with mainstream pop music catching up with their fully electronic approach. *Computer World* (1981) went some way to consolidating their popularity. Their influence on dance music of the late 80s and early 90s was demonstrated via *The Mix* (1991) which featured newly recorded versions of KArftwerk tracks from their albums *Autobahn* through to *Electric Café* (1986).

Kraftwerk have continued to be one of rock's most enigmatic groups, giving few interviews and very little publicity. The location of their recording studios, known as Kling Klang, was kept a well-guarded secret for many years. After various personnel changes,and the death of founding member Florian Schneider in 2020, Kraftwerk continue to innovate with their 3-D shows which continue to the present day.

## Links to OMD

"*Seeing Kraftwerk play at the Liverpool Empire on Sept 11th 1975 changed my life for ever. Fifteen years later I told them all that our song ‘Electricity’ was a punk homage to their title track Radio-Activity. They agreed and said that they already knew!*" - Andy McCluskey

tbc

### Songs

* VCL XI (*Organisation*, 1980) - the title of this early OMD track is based on the schematic notation of a valve "VCL 11", on the back cover of Kraftwerk's 1976 *Radio-Activity* album. It was also the name of an earlier formation of OMD. The *Organisation* album title itself takes its name from an early Hütter/Schneider formation, who released one album *Tone Float* in 1970.
* Time Zones (*Dazzle Ships*, 1983) "*On Radio-Activity, **Kraftwerk** did a song called ‘News’ which was basically recordings of newscasters. I used that as a seed kernel that germinated into ‘Time Zones’.."* - AM, 2023
* Neon Lights (*Sugar Tax*, 1991) - cover version of Kraftwerk track, first released in 1978
* RFWK (*History of Modern*, 2010) - the letters are a direct reference to the initials of Kraftwerk band members Ralf, Florian, Wolfgang & Karl.

## See also

* TOTP: 04 February 1982
* Record Mirror, 20 February 1982
* Karl Bartos
* Elektric Music