Since their inception in 1970, Kraftwerk produced eight albums, with a new rumored on the way (I've been getting tweets that Ralf Hütter has announced it on a few outlets). Known for their direct and succinct view of technology and its effects, one of my all-time favorites is a little-played cut, "Morganspaziergang" (Morning Walk).
My adventures with Germany brought me to Cologne (not far from Düsseldorf, where Krafterk is based) a number of times in the late 1990's. I lived in a small western suburb of Cologne for a summer when fulfilling an artist residency clear on the other side of the city in Deutz.
Up at the crack of dawn as I always, I'd walk down to train station and on the way, get the morning bread and coffee. German summers and neither hot nor cold, and they see direct sunlight only on occasion. The long days pass by under varying degrees of cloud cover. This makes for lush gardens, trees and shrubs, inhabited by a chorus of birds.
That's when and where I understood the clip from "Morganspaziergang". I'm not authorized to upload it here, but it's readily available. Below is the audio from YouTube with the Autobahn cover where the it appeared. Bird songs are synthesized from flutes and electronic instruments custom made by various engineers.
Hütter and Florian Schneider, one of the founding members who left in 2008, together hold patents on one of the electronic instruments they use in their work; their secretive Kling Klang Studio is a technological workplace that accepts no mail or visitors (if its location is so secret, I wonder how they'd get any mail in the first place). They're notoriously reclusive, so I'm not expecting a response to my tweet for any contribution or comment.
My adventures with Germany brought me to Cologne (not far from Düsseldorf, where Krafterk is based) a number of times in the late 1990's. I lived in a small western suburb of Cologne for a summer when fulfilling an artist residency clear on the other side of the city in Deutz.
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| A concept poster for a 2005 Kraftwek concert in Los Angeles, by the artist Emek. |
Up at the crack of dawn as I always, I'd walk down to train station and on the way, get the morning bread and coffee. German summers and neither hot nor cold, and they see direct sunlight only on occasion. The long days pass by under varying degrees of cloud cover. This makes for lush gardens, trees and shrubs, inhabited by a chorus of birds.
That's when and where I understood the clip from "Morganspaziergang". I'm not authorized to upload it here, but it's readily available. Below is the audio from YouTube with the Autobahn cover where the it appeared. Bird songs are synthesized from flutes and electronic instruments custom made by various engineers.
Hütter and Florian Schneider, one of the founding members who left in 2008, together hold patents on one of the electronic instruments they use in their work; their secretive Kling Klang Studio is a technological workplace that accepts no mail or visitors (if its location is so secret, I wonder how they'd get any mail in the first place). They're notoriously reclusive, so I'm not expecting a response to my tweet for any contribution or comment.
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