home
***
CD-ROM
|
disk
|
FTP
|
other
***
search
/
Atari Mega Archive 1
/
Atari Mega Archive - Volume 1.iso
/
demos
/
maggie9a.msa
/
DATA_KRAFTWRK.DOC
/
DATA_KRAFTWRK.DOC
Wrap
Text File
|
1992-05-12
|
9KB
|
171 lines
066010303050000132002006006010000
11
21
F0110000001
9[....◆....◆....◆....◆....◆....◆....◆....◆....◆....◆....◆....◆...]0110
üKRAFTWERK
Ç
This article appeared originally in "Tip" which is a local rag around
here that list upcoming events and such. The article is reprinted
without permission, but then I translated it so why not. Please excuse
any errors in my translation.
Computer Liebe by Willi Andresen
Calm and reduced movements are the the definitive elements in the
performance of Kraftwerk. For 21 years, minimalism has been the
highest rule for Ralf Huetter and Florian Schneider. Not only on the
concert stage, but also in an interview.
Ralf Huetter, 45, rests on the conference chair in the Cologne office
of the EMI/Electrola-Konzerns. Dressed completely in black. A face
without great emotional features. Eyes which irradiate a clear
spirit.
A Kraftwerker does not speak often and seldom extensively with the
outside world. So it was in the past. On the occasion of the release
of their hit compilation "The Mix" and the approaching concert (26 Oct,
Berlin, The Hall [okay so you missed it and it's taken me a while to
get around to doing this]) Huetter and company break through their
self-imposed professional secrecy and talk.
"The Mix" is the first true data product out of the Duesseldorfer
KlingKlang Studio. Ralf Huetter and Florian Schneider developed the
collection of hits more as a by-product, when they converted in the
past two years their entire technical lab from analog to digital
production work. "The Mix" is practically a 'live album', asserts Ralf
Huetter, old popular songs like "Autobahn" and "Roboter" achieve with
this modernization an up-to-date look. The sound lives from now on
simply as calculated data, which can be called up at any time. They
are, therefore, immortal and have staying power for eternity.
"We are always concerned with finding a form that is the most reduced
as possible," explains Huetter with a quiet voice, which reveals
pleasant little vibrations. The man-machine is cool, clear, and to the
point. "We want always to play only the fewest tones. This principle
has grown out of our specific background. The employment of computers
leads inevitably to minimalism. We play the minimalist sound-track of
our era, we don't want a Baroque overkill. Everyone can add the part
in his head, which to him seems important."
Minimalism of Tone inevitably implies a reduction of mobility.
Kraftwerk(ers) don't operate like dancing bears a la Madonna or MC
Hammer on the stage. "On stage we operate electronic control panels,
circuit switches, and keyboards," explains Huetter. "And we turn
knobs, switches, regulators, and sound filters. I have singing
fingers, speaking fingers, which communicate by technique. It goes
along with this most highly sensible technique that one can only
perform with minimal mobility. One has to visualize like the captain
Çof a spaceship. Only a few millimeters displaced, and the sound is
already away."
Ralf Huetter knows about the psychological meaning of this form of
performance. "Whoever has to produce too many notes and tones, he
attempts to cover up or overpower his anxieties. You trample on your
keyboard, strum ten tones with ten different fingers instead of
producing a single calm sound with a single finger. Okay, stagefright
belongs to the appearance. Paranoia is for us a quality of life."
In the last ten years, Kraftwerk had to collect intensive experiences.
The stars weren't particularly good for the Duesseldorfer music workers
in the 80s, who since 1968 have sent out important musical impulses
from Germany into the world.
Only two productions in a decade document the creative uncertainty with
which Huetter & Co. had to struggle. Indeed at the end of the 80s, yet
another Kraftwerk album was announced, but the news turned out to be a
rumor. With "Computerwelt" in 1981, the Kraftwerkers succeeded in a
still astounding vision of what concerns the technological and human
developments of our era. Yet "Electric Cafe" turned out to be a flop
in 1986. The buyers went off into the distance and the record company
still balks today at revealing the small number of units sold for this
work.
In the 70s, Huetter and Co. had stood as a definite motivation for
every rising Newcomer and important member of the avant garde from
Bowie to Africa Bambataa, from New Order to Depeche Mode and Front
242. Even Donna Summer and the house scene from Chicago take their
synthesized music triumph from the Rhein. "For me there has never
since been a group who has given such a unique motivation." emphasized
Andy McCluskey of OMD on the importance of the Dueselldorf Computer
caravan at one time. "They are a perfect creation."
Creations are transient. And Kraftwerk must prove in the future that
they still have a future. "We are certainly pleased when some musician
tells us what meaning our music has added to their development,"
asserts Huetter. "Yet we trouble ourselves actually very little about
the greater musical development. We concentrate on our work. What the
future will bring, that will have to show itself first. We collect
just once and will then develop. We will never speak about life at the
South Pole, as long as we have not been there. The ability of a thing
to be produced is for us very important. We reflect on our everyday
experiences and set these into music. That is how we make our
electronic folk music."
Kraftwerk have always attested to the position of the technical
developments of our time in their work, siezed innovations from
communications and techniks, and turned these into industrial tones.
Pocket calculators, monotony of locomotion on the streets and rails,
robots, computers. Huetter: "It has always interested us to make
industrial music. Assembly line music. Production processes, which
are all around us in the industrial world. Yet it exists, this odd
music world with its historical museum character. There are opera
Çhouses financed from tax money in order to produce shows that are over
100 years old. And then the same consumers go to the dentist and want
the most up-to-date high tech treatment. What a contradiction! Then
demand consequently also the dental technique from 100 years ago--that
with the sledgehammer anesthesia." Ralf Huetter, who since 1968 has
worked together with Florian Schneider and has operated since 1970 the
Duesseldorfer Music-Kraftwerk, is an original and consequential
thinker. For certain productions he hires on only additional musical
helpers. That was and remains the work principle of Huetter and
Schneider. In light of that, it was not a typical group split when
Karl Bartos and Florian Fluer left the team. Franando From-Abrantes
and Fritz Hilpert are the new helpers, who are also operating the
command posts on the stage in the up-coming appearance. Impulses for
the Kraftwerk motor are not planned from these two.
In the early years Huetter received much inspiration from the
intellectual scaffolding of the Bauhaus Masters. Thinkers such as the
Russian machine artist Eliezer Lissitzky. Also the poet Wladimir
Majakowski gave an important kick in the head to the practitioners of
the esoteric from the Rhein-Ruhr area.
Today the world around them serves alone at the warehouse for new
inspiration. "The world around us is a complete orchestra to us," says
Huetter. "The noises from cars, coffee machines, and vacuum cleaners,
we can use for our music. That is like a film. We are the
scriptwriters, who with their ears pick up everything and bring in new
pictures. I don't listen to music from other people any more. At home
I turn on no music. I don't need that. I can think my music."
Kraftwerk has never produced music in the conventional sense. They put
this approach up from the beginning as the usual Kraftwerk standard.
"We were very happy that there was no contemporary music in Germany,"
remembers Ralf Huetter. "Pop music