Kraftwerk is a German band formed in Düsseldorf in 1970 by Ralf Hütter and the now deceased Florian Schneider. Widely considered as innovators and pioneers of electronic music, they were among the first successful acts to popularise the genre. The group began as part of West Germany’s experimental krautrock scene in the early 1970s before fully embracing electronic instrumentation, including synthesisers, drum machines, and vocoders.

On commercially successful albums such as Autobahn (1974), Trans-Europe Express (1977), and The Man-Machine (1978), Kraftwerk developed a self-described “robot pop” style that combined electronic music with pop melodies, sparse arrangements, and repetitive rhythms, while adopting a stylised image including matching suits. Following the release of Electric Café (1986), Wolfgang Flür left the group in 1987, followed by percussionist Karl Bartos in 1990. Founding member Schneider left in 2008.

The band’s work has influenced a diverse range of artists and many genres of modern music, including synthpop, hip hop, post-punk, techno, ambient, and club music. In 2014, the Recording Academy honoured Kraftwerk with a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. As of 2020, the remaining members of the band continue to tour.

Florian Schneider (flutes, synthesisers, violin) and Ralf Hütter (organ, synthesisers) met as students at the Robert Schumann Hochschule in Düsseldorf in the late 1960s, participating in the German experimental music and art scene of the time, which Melody Maker jokingly dubbed “krautrock”. They joined a quintet known as Organisation, which released one album, Tone Float in 1969, issued on RCA Records in the UK, and split shortly thereafter. Schneider became interested in synthesisers, deciding to acquire one in 1970. While visiting an exhibition in their hometown about visual artists Gilbert and George, they saw “two men wearing suits and ties, claiming to bring art into everyday life. The same year, Hütter and Schneider started bringing everyday life into art and form Kraftwerk”.

Early Kraftwerk line-ups from 1970 to 1974 fluctuated, as Hütter and Schneider worked with around a half-dozen other musicians during the preparations for and the recording of three albums and sporadic live appearances, including guitarist Michael Rother and drummer Klaus Dinger, who left to form Neu!. The only constant figure in these line-ups was Schneider, whose main instrument at the time was the flute; at times he also played the violin and guitar, all processed through a varied array of electronic devices. Hütter, who left the band for eight months to focus on completing his university studies, played synthesiser and keyboards (including Farfisa organ and electric piano).

The band released two free-form experimental rock albums, Kraftwerk (1970) and Kraftwerk 2. The albums were mostly exploratory musical improvisations played on a variety of traditional instruments including guitar, bass, drums, organ, flute, and violin. Post-production modifications to these recordings were used to distort the sound of the instruments, particularly audio-tape manipulation and multiple dubbings of one instrument on the same track. Both albums are purely instrumental. Live performances from 1972 to 1973 were made as a duo, using a simple beat-box-type electronic drum machine, with preset rhythms taken from an electric organ. These shows were mainly in Germany, with occasional shows in France. Later in 1973, Wolfgang Flür joined the group for rehearsals, and the unit performed as a trio on the television show Aspekte for German television network ZDF. 

With Ralf und Florian, released in 1973, Kraftwerk began to rely more heavily on synthesisers and drum machines. Although almost entirely instrumental, the album marks Kraftwerk’s first use of the vocoder, which became one of its musical signatures. 

The input, expertise, and influence of producer and engineer Konrad “Conny” Plank was highly significant in the early years of Kraftwerk. Plank also worked with many of the other leading German electronic acts of that time, including members of Can, Neu!, Cluster, and Harmonia. As a result of his work with Kraftwerk, Plank’s studio near Cologne became one of the most sought-after studios in the late 1970s. Plank co-produced the first four Kraftwerk albums.

Kraftwerk have been recognised as pioneers of electronic music as well as sub-genres such as electropop, art pop, and synth-pop. In its early incarnation, the band pursued an avant-garde, experimental rock style inspired by the compositions of Karlheinz Stockhausen. Hütter has also listed the Beach Boys as a major influence. The group was also inspired by the funk music of James Brown and, later, punk rock. Usually, the lyrics are very minimal.

Starting with the release of Autobahn, Kraftwerk began to release a series of concept albums (Radio-Activity, Trans-Europe Express, The Man-Machine, Computer World, Tour de France Soundtracks). All of Kraftwerk’s albums from Trans Europe Express onwards, except Tour de France Soundtracks have been released in separate versions: one with German vocals for sale in Germany, Switzerland and Austria and one with English vocals for the rest of the world, with occasional variations in other languages when conceptually appropriate. Live performance has always played an important part in Kraftwerk’s activities. Also, despite its live shows generally being based around formal songs and compositions, live improvisation often plays a noticeable role in its performances. This trait can be traced back to the group’s roots in the first experimental Krautrock scene of the late 1960s, but, significantly, it has continued to be a part of its playing even as it makes ever greater use of digital and computer-controlled sequencing in its performances. Some of the band’s familiar compositions have been observed to have developed from live improvisations at its concerts or sound-checks.

The band is notoriously reclusive, providing rare and enigmatic interviews, using life-size mannequins and robots to conduct official photo shoots, refusing to accept mail and not allowing visitors at the Kling Klang Studio, the precise location of which they used to keep secret. Another notable example of this eccentric behaviour was reported to Johnny Marr of the Smiths by Karl Bartos, who explained that anyone trying to contact the band for collaboration would be told the studio telephone did not have a ringer since, while recording, the band did not like to hear any kind of noise pollution. Instead, callers were instructed to phone the studio precisely at a certain time, whereupon the phone would be answered by Ralf Hütter, despite never hearing the phone ring. 

Chris Martin of Coldplay recalled in a 2007 article in Q magazine the process of requesting permission to use the melody from the track “Computer Love” on “Talk” from the album X&Y. He sent a letter through the lawyers of the respective parties and several weeks later received an envelope containing a handwritten reply that simply said “yes”.

Kraftwerk’s musical style and image can be heard and seen in 1980s synth-pop groups such as Gary Numan, Ultravox, John Foxx, Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, The Human League, Depeche Mode, Visage, and Soft Cell. They also inspired many acts from other styles and genres. David Bowie’s “V-2 Schneider”, from the 1977’s Heroes album, was a tribute to Florian Schneider who sadly passed away a few years ago.

Kraftwerk are still going today and I recommend that if you get the chance to see them you do. Their concerts are totally mesmerising.

Here is a playlist taken directly from YouTube. It contains a lot of their greatest music.

I will point out though that if any of you chaps listen to “Tour de France (Edit)” and think you recognise it then you are very naughty and need to stop watching certain male oriented TV shows late at night. How do I know this….errr, a friend pointed it out to me. Honest.

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