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.

The Conny Plank

Konrad “Conny” Plank , producer to the stars, died of cancer in 1987 as one of the worlds most important music producers. His technological savvy and his sensitive ear helped creating krautrock, and cast the foundation for the modern electronic scene.

When Plank is mentioned these days, it is most often in connection to the early Kraftwerk albums. But plenty of other german prog/kraut/psych celebrities has visited his studio to record: Neu!, Cluster, Guru Guru. And we definitely can't forget his work with Dieter Moebius or Brian Eno (or Devo, Ultravox, Eurythmics, …), and we absolutely must not forget DAF and their Plank produced albums “Gold und liebe” and “Alles ist gut”.

During the seventies, Conny built his own studio in Cologne. The studio has up until recently been run by Conny's widow, Krista. Recent rumors tell us that the studio is now beind closed down, and that the entire thing might be for sale. If this is true: buy it!

And by the way, if you for some reason would stumble upon the 1981 album "Biomutanten" by Les Vampyrettes, a collaboration between Plank and Holger Czukay of Can, but that as well.

By pressing down a special key ...

According to persistent rumors, klingklang.com and the EMI site, it seems that Krafterk's most elaborate package ever will be released within a few weeks. It's the Minimum-Maximum box set, containing a double dvd, a double cd and an 88 page book, all packed in a box resembling a laptop computer. "Notebook" is the name of the beast.

While looking at the preview pictures, i noted that the keyboard on this cardboard laptop is equipped with an extra key, just left of the space key, with an eight note on it. One might guess that this is the modern version of that "special key" you press down to "create a little melody", according to the "Pocket Calculator" lyrics.

You might also ask yourself if the "qwertz" keyboard on the picture belongs to the german edition only, and if the english language edition will be equipped with a "qwerty" keyboard instead. But on the other hand, maybe you shouldn't.

Building/sines

The video "Building/sines" depicts the premiere performance of Joan Chia's interpretation of the Kraftwerk song “The Model”, played on the church bells of the National Carillon in Canberra. It is briliant, in part because of the beautiful wind and birds sounds outside the church. All music should be played on huge instruments.

See for yourself here.

Die Mensch Maschine

The best song in later year Kraftwerk concerts has without a doubt been "Man-Machine". It is not th ebest song they've ever made, it is'nt even from their best album (which is Trans-Europe Express most of the time, or Autobahn, or one of the two traffic cone adorned albums), but the combination of the “The Man Machine, Machine, Machine, Machine, Machine, Machine, Machine, Machine…” chorus, the dauntingly efficient sound quality, and the larger than large graphics building those exact words, is just unbeatable.



Another good thing with the same name is “Die Mensch Maschine“, a tv program from 1981 that among other things contain a side-view Ralf Hütter talking about being "musik-arbeiter" and bilding their own instruments, and a funny Florian Schneider forming his mouth to "a" and "o" shapes while playing those same vowels from his Texas Instruments calculator while playing “Pocket Calculator”.



Towards the end of the show, Hütter bends his hand into a small cone that he holds up in front of his mouth while singing. A strange fenomenon also discussed (in swedish) in 2002 and, in more detail, in 2004.