Page 16 - Zone Magazine Issue 007

like Techno and Electro. Kraftwerk went on a word tour in 1981 and
had great success in Japan. Four Specially built robots, looking identical to the band members replaced the band on some promotional gigs.
1983 the single "Tour de France“ was released. They already complete the album but release of "Techno Pop“ was canceled and the tracks of this album were released in seriously edited versions in November 1986 on the album "Electric Cafe“.
This was the first album created fully digital. The video for the song "Music Non-stop“ from this album, produced in the New York Institute of Technology was running in an hourly loop on MTV. As 2nd spin off from this album "Der Telefonanruf“ sung by Karl Bartos was released.
In the 90´s the complete archive of the Kling Klang studios was converted to digital technology which was also effecting the stage show.
In June 1991 there was a remix release of "Die Roboter“ as a single (top 10 in Germany, France, USA and Japan). Karl Bartos left the band before the 10th album "The Mix“ was released which consists of new digitally produced tracks as well as mixed up classics.
In July of the same year the band started a European tour with some specially designed robots that were also presented on TV, Video and Photo sessions.
1992/93 Kraftwerk made the title song for the MTV show "Music non-stop“ which was not only a remake of the older track from the Techno-Pop Era 1983 and 1986 but a completely new composition.
There were also gigs at the big Greenpeace event in 1992 and 1993 as well as concerts at Ars Electronica (Linz/Austria) and the KlangArt- Biennale in Osnabruck/Germany. At the same time the Balanescu-quartett played their interpretation of Kraftwerk classics.
Concerts at the electro festival "Tribal Gathering“ and at the opening of "Zentrum fur Kunst und Medientechnologie“ (Karlsruhe/ Germany) followed in 1997.
Floria Schneider became Professor for Medial Art and Performance at the Karlsruhe "Hochschule fur Gestaltung (HfG)“.
1998 they made another world tour through Japan, USA, Europe and for the first time South- america with gigs at the Sonar festival in Barcelona and Roskilde festival in Denmark.
A new beginning in 1999 Kraftwerk was back with the jingle and the single for the EXPO2000 in Hannover including a remix by Detroit Techno Project Underground Resistance.
2002 they presented the first concerts completely in virtual technology in the Cité de la Musique in Paris. The equipment was reduced from a heap of hardware to 4 laptop computers and some additional MIDI controllers. They played on software synths and sequencers.
After a gig at the Electraglide festival in Tokyo and Osaka in December an Australian Tour followed in spring 2003. After the "Tour de France“ Kraftwerk released the concept album "Tour de France Soundtracks“. This was the first to hit No.1 in the German album charts.
2004 the world tour was continued. This tour was nearly completely sold out with 105 concerts until middle of 2005. At this time the double live CD/4 vinyl box named Minimum-Maximum was released. This release was nominated for the Grammy Award 2005 for best Electronic Dance Album.
2006 they went on a summer tour (with Hutter, Schneider, Schmitz and Hilpert) with gigs in Bergen, Oslo, Saalburg (Sonne Mond und Sterne festival), Pardubice (Summer of Love) and Gent (I love Techno).
They Toured in 2008 in USA, Poland and Ireland (with Hutter, Schmitz, Hilpert and Stefan Pfaffe as video operator) was done without Florian Schneider. In November and December they absolved further gigs in Australia and New Zeeland. Short time after that Florian Schneider announced that he was leaving the band. This was officially confirmed by EMI.
For several festival gigs some of the songs were removed from the playlist, others were played in short versions.
In 2009 all albums from Autobahn to Tour de France were re-released under the title "Kling Klang digital Remaster 2009“. For this the 70s albums were tusked with new cover artworks and the title "Electric Cafe“ was changed into the former planned "Techno Pop“
From October 15th to November 13th there was an exhibition at the "Kunstbau der städtischen Galerie im Lenbachhaus“ in Munich called "Kraftwerk 3D“. In this exhibition they showed a multichannel 3D Video installation and the band did 3 sold out concerts for the opening where they played the complete concert in front of a 3D video projection for the first time. This became an essential part of all further shows.
2012 Kraftwerk played 8 shows, one for every released album, at the Museum of modern Art
(MoMa) in New York. All those shows were sold out in a short time.
2013 this concept was transferred to other locations. In the surrounding field of the concert in Dusseldorf there was a scientific congress about the phenomenon Kraftwerk for the first time with also a Photo exhibition by their band Photographer Peter Boettcher. For the first time Stefan Pfaffe was replaced by Falk Grieffenhagen who has cooperatively developed the 3D concept on stage.
On January 26th 2014 Kraftwerk was honored with the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. In January 2015 the series of the 8 concerts
were given in the Berlin National Gallery. The band inspired countless artists as like
David Bowie, Human League, Depeche Mode, Duran Duran, Alphaville, O.M.D., Rammstein, Ultravox, Moby, New Order and Front242 (and of course myself too). They also greatly influenced the US Electro-Funk scene with Afrika Bambaataa and many others and later the Detroit Techno scene with their minimalistic arrangements and dance conform beats. Jeff Mills and Derrick May, two of the pioneers of the Detroit scene directly call Kraftwerk one of their inspirations.
Even after years they still inspire other artists and parts of their work are still found in actual releases such as Jay Z feat. Foxy Browns – Sunshine (Die Mensch-Maschine) or Coldplay – Talk (Computerliebe) and Senor Coconut interpreted chosen tracks as latin versions on his album "El Baile Aléman“.
All in all this is a story of an unimaginable success. As Michael Rother said: “ The record labels of the beginning of Kraftwerk had the same status that nowadays the internet has".
In that times you could be released when you were able to hold a guitar in the right way and get a sound out of it...“ Kraftwerk was on the right spot at the right time. Sure, some kind of luck may have been a part of this success, but Kraftwerk was always one step ahead and has always taken opportunities. So this is not only the result of luck but of hard work, innovation and the avant-gard minded artists.
Connect:
https://www.facebook.com/KraftwerkOfficial/
http://www.discogs.com/artist/4654-Kraftwerk/ http://www.kraftwerk.com/
Words By Harald Meyer
16 ZONE-MAGAZINE.IE