Electronic Breath

Old School
Kraftwerk

The band was created in Dusseldorf

    It’s time for another classic, and another group of weirdoes. Yes, that’s Kraftwerk. They are considered pioneers of electronic music and they deserve that name.

Short history

    The band was originally created back in 1970, in Germany, by Ralf Hutter and Florian Schneider who met each other in Robert Schumann Hochshule College.        The first few albums contained various traditional instruments (guitars, violins, flutes, bass etc.), and did not really resemble the Kraftwerk sound that everyone one knows today. Basically they were explorations of the musical medium, making instrumental albums only .Only later did the group start using the instruments that made theirs sound known- synthesizers and drum machines. Also, in the album Ralf und Florian they first used the vocoder, which later became an irreplaceable tool in their music.

The custom build vocoder(on top of making great music,
they pushed the limits of music technology)

    Real fame to the fathers of electronic music came from the 1974 album Autobahn, with which they toured in US, Canada and UK. With another album, Radio-Activity being awarded “Gold disc” in France they became a bright star in the music of the day.

Many more studio albums and tours later, Minimum-Maximum was released, which was the bands first live album. It included shows from the tour of 2004 and was praised by critics.

Up to this day, Kraftwerk are actively creating and performing music around the world.

Interesting facts

Just facts

• The band is known for its seclusion from the outer world. For example, the phone in their studio does not make any sound when it rings. Kraftwerk say that they do not like to get interrupted while they work in the studio. This means that in order to call them, you have to do it on a set time, only then will someone answer you
• The band influenced so many musicians, including Depeche Mode, Visage, Ultravox and John Foxx.  Oh, and techno lovers out there, did you know that the famous “Belleville three”, the fathers of Detroit techno (and techno in general) used Kraftwerk samples in their early work
• The name Kraftwerk actually means “power plant” in German