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[thekrautrock]

No German musician of that generation accepts the word KRAUTROCK, or the word as it is understood by the English writers. And fair enough. None of the Krautrock groups are actually Krautrock. Indeed, in the very unlikely event that any of them were to nod in assent and agree of themselves, 'Yes, Krautrock. That's us in a nutshell', your respect for them would fall away. How are Kraftwerk, who ruthlessly stripped away both guitars and hair from their sound and appearance, Krautrock? Can's Jaki Liebezeit is equally bemused that such a phrase should apply to Can, who were ... well, Can. Faust composed a track by the title of 'Krautrock' for their album Faust IV, but as an act of deep sarcasm at the English-imported tag, which they found both insulting and injurious. Conrad Schnitzler, who detested hippie culture, also titled a piece of his 'Krautrock', as if to say, 'Listen. It patently isn't.'  How could a single word encapsulate both the spacey, ambient extremes of Ash Ra Tempel and the heavy industrial collage of Faust? The faux-bourgeois placidity of Kraftwerk and the angry, messy agitation of Amon Duul? The ecclesiastical heights of Popol Vuh and the sacrilegious depths of Can? The extreme, maximal, suffocating noise of Kluster and the spare, horticular, ambient beauty of Cluster?

David Stubbs

[thekrautrock]

**Recorded 1972 in an air-raid shelter in Düsseldorf. 

<< On the back of the record there’s a note: “As we played down there in the old bunker, suddenly a strange atmosphere began to work. The ghosts of the past whispered. There has been fear, desperation – but also hope. Maybe you will feel such impressions too, by listening carefully.” >> 

[thekrautrock]

Ash Ra Tempel

“Was in Dir, in uns lebt, unsere Schwingungen, ist in allem: Das Paradies das Leben heist”. What lives in you, in us, our vibrations, it is in everything: the paradise called life. 

“Nada Brahma” – The world is sound.

[thekrautrock]

Zodiak Free Arts Lab, Berlin (1968-69)

[thekrautrock]

**See you later, Internet. I’ll be busy with this for a while. ;)

[thekrautrock]

KRAUTROCK - THE REBIRTH OF GERMANY

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I fly the aeroplane, and you play for us

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Agitation Free - Malesch (1972)

[thekrautrock]

Osnabrück/Germany 1999 marks the beginning of SANKT OTTEN’s musical cruise. Stephan Otten turned the knobs and Carsten Sandkämper sang. German vocals met Slow-Mo Pop sounds. The acoustic Film Noir for beginners and advanced students of melancholy. In the meantime the vocals have been banned. ‘Instrumental’ is the mantra. But the modus operandi remains unchanged. The never-ending clash between Electronics and handmade music. Postrock without Rock, Ambient meets Electronic Krautrock. The holy alliance with the virtual sound surface. Menacing but not mean. The silence before the storm and the silence afterwards.

[thekrautrock]

Mitten ins Ohr: Eine Reise durch die Krautrock-Szene

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Klaus Schulze

[thekrautrock]

Eschewing the Anglo-American jazz/blues tradition, they took their inspiration from elsewhere: the mysticism of the East; the fractured classicism of Stockhausen; the pneumatic repetition of industry, and the dense forests of the Rhineland; the endless winding of Autobahns.

David Stubbs