Bernd Becher RIP

Together with his wife Hilla, Bernd Becher has acheived great success as a photographer of industrial buildings, selling tons of grayscale coffetable books to the post industrial generation and being awarded a row of prestigeous awards, including the Hasselblad Award in 2004.



A lesser known fact is that Bernd + Hilla Becher took the above picture for the inner sleeve on the first Kraftwerk album.

June 22:nd this year, Bernd Becher passed away.

The Atom

This is a pretty good looking sign, don't you think?

Begegnungen

Just wanted to let you know that Brian Eno and David Byrne has done better things than “My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts”. We'll focus on Eno.

The best examples are the two “Begegnungen” compilations (1984, 1985) and “After the Heat” (1978). These records together describe Eno's collaborations with the amazing Cluster/Kluster/Harmonia men Dieter Moebius and Hans-Joachim Roedelius. naturally, Conny Plank is involved, we wouldn't have it any other way. Mani Neumeier, the drummer from Guru Guru, is also there (but for some reason his name is not on the covers).

With these three records you sort of get everything you need at once. Heat, cool, instrumental, vocal, english, german, acoustic, synthetic. These are documents of an era. Complete aural pleasure. A genre of its own. Get them today, you will disappear when you hear the music.

Florian "Don" Schneider

Goofball heaven: Florian "Don" Schneider interviewed during the Electronic Beats festival.

Music for carports

What's going on here, then? More money for Ralf and Florian? Compare this Audi commercial with the 2003 video for Kraftwerk's "Tour de France" and judge for yourselves.

Audi R8 (Le Mans) (From the Paris car fair, that ended yesterday)



Kraftwerk "Tour de France" video, 2003

Christa Fast RIP

Christa Fast, widow of Conny Plank and proprietor of Conny's studio after Conny's death in 1987, is also gone now.

Many, including ex Kraftwerk member Wolfgang Flür, has posted their condolences here.

Congratulations, Florian!

The most solid Kraftwerk member, Florian Schneider, turns 59 today. Congratulations, etc.

This is what he used to look like:



These days he wears a hat, but the twinkle in his eye is exactly the same.