Florian turns 62 today

Congratulations again, Florian!

See Florian visiting the recent Musikmesse in Frankfurt, here and here.

Illustration above courtesy of Erik Blad

Related:
Florian, 61!
Congratulations, Florian

Yamo on MySpace

Wolfgang Flür has taken his Yamo project to MySpace. Nothing exciting, except the term Musik Soldat (music soldier) and a caricature. And there are tons of interesting, historic photos in the "My Pics" section.

Visit Yamo here: http://www.myspace.com/yamomusic

Computer Liebe in Jazz

Swedish jazz pianist Jan Lundgren and his trio will release the album "European Standards" in April. On the album, a companion to the previously released "Swedish Standards", the trio covers a list of European songs, from The Beatles "Here, There And Everywhere" to Krystof Komeda's "Rosemary's Baby". And Kraftwerk's "Computer Liebe". I heard the entire piece on Swedish radio yesterday, and it's not bad at all.

Short sample here, from the label site.



This reminded me of another Kraftwerk jazz version - "Trans Europe Express" as recorded by Christian Prommer and released last year by Sonar Kollektiv. Preview here. It's track 6.

Brand NEU!

Horrible news! Oasis and Kasabian will be featured on a soon to be released NEU! tribute record. Ciccone Youth will also be on it, so there is some consolation to be found. But the album seems to be made up mostly from previously recorded songs, which is also boring as hell.

Funny thing - information on this release is all over the internet now. But nobody mentions which label will release the album. That might be because everyone uses the same source, The Quietus.

The full list:

Ciccone Youth - Two Cool Rock Chicks Listening To Neu!
Primal Scream - Shoot Speed / Kill Light
Pets With Pets - We Only Found This Place
Oasis - I Can See It Now
Foals - Titan Arum
Cornelius - Wataridori
Holy Fuck - Super Inuit
LCD Soundsystem - Watch The Tapes
Kasabian - Stuntman
School Of Seven Bells - Device fuer M
Fujiya & Miyagi - Electro Karaoke
Hook & The Twin - They'll Get Your Head
La Dusseldorf - Sketch 1_08
Michael Rother - Neutronics 98

The Best of Kraftwerk Songbook

It's true, or at least it looks to be true. January 31st, in just a few days time, Bosworth will release a new Kraftwerk Songbook, called "The Best of Kraftwerk Songbook". The songbook contains arrangements for piano, vocal and guitar for 12 Kraftwerk songs, all collected from their 1970's albums "Autobahn", "Radio-Aktivität" and "Trans Europa Express.

As all song titles on the back cover of the book (at least the now publiched version) are in German, I'd expect all lyrics to be written in German, but who knows - the book could be bilingual.



The complete list of songs:

Autobahn
Kometenmelodie 1
Kometenmelodie 2
Radio-Aktivität
Ätherwellen
Antenne
Ohm Sweet Ohm
Trans Europa Express
Metall Auf Metall
Schaufensterpuppen
Spiegelsaal
Europa Endlos

But this is not the first time Kraftwerk's music is released in noted form. There is, for example, this UK published set of sheet music for Autobahn:





... and a US version:





... and Kometenmelodie 2, in both English and German versions:





... and an italian edition of Trans-Europe Express:









... and a version published in the US:





... and Tour De France:







... and The Model, naturally published in the UK:

Florian Schneider quits

This announcement was made on one of the larger Kraftwerk fan sites yesterday:

Florian Schneider leaves Kraftwerk…

Florian Schneider leaves Kraftwerk after a 40 years partnership with Ralf Hütter.

This partnership has generated an incredible music and huge advances in music technology.

Florian is a great musician, always seeking the perfect sound through technology. Refined and perfected sounds and vocoders to impossible levels of perfection.

Our thanks for the state of art that led to Kraftwerk’s music all these years.

And our wishes for success Florian’s new projects as well as to this new Kraftwerk.

There is nothing to indicate the origin of the message and there is no mention of it on Kraftwerk's site or on their MySpace page.

As Schneider hasn't been appearing live with Kraftwerk recently (his replacement being Stefan Pfaffe), this news item, however bad it might be, shouldn't affect the already planned tour dates.

Still, I am glad that I have been able to see Kraftwerk performing, with Mr Schneider, thrice over the last 20 years or so.

Knitted Man-Machine

Woderful idea from Mishka. Still available, but in large sizes only - from here and here.