The  earliest  known  bigraphic  fact
related  to  the  work of german band
Kraftwerk 
 says that Ralph Hutter and
Florian   Schneider-Eselben   met  on
Duseldorf   music  conservatorium  in
1968.  and soon started their musical
careers  under the name Organisation
.
Till  1972.   they released two LP's,
one named Kraftwerk 
(german for power
plant)  which  they  kept  as a group
name.   After  the  Ralph und Florian
LP, released in 1973, group is joined
by  Karl  Bartos  and  Wolfgang Flur.
From  that  moment  on,  they totally
abandoned traditional instruments and
become one of the earliest electronic
groups.

Their  first  really articulated work
is  LP  Autobahn
  released  in  1974.
which   they   naively  sold  to  the
publisher for 2000$ only a few months
before  the same single reaches Top 5
on both sides of Atlantic.  With this
song  they  introduced  a totally new
form of music:  22 minutes of musical
drive with a "wolkswagen" has a point
of making a average listener avare of
the  values  of  the  everyday  sound
ambient  which  surrounds  us.  A few
years   alter  Hutter  says:   "While
you're  walking  down the street, the
vehicles  are playing you a symphony.

In  Autobahn  the cars are mumbling a
melody,  and  in Trans Europe Express

the train itself is singing!"

Radio-Activity 
  (1976)   and   Trans
Europe  Express
  (1977) followed, and
then  a trilogy of their best albums:
The   Man  Machine
  (1978),  Computer
World 
  (1981)   and   Electric  Cafe

(1986).   Big  pause between last two
albums was broken with the release of
the single Tour The France
 (1983).

Since  1986.  some say that the group
has     drained     their    creative
potentials,  and  the others say that
Hutter  and  company  are only having
fun  watching tha avalanche that they
started.   In  seventies  their music
had the impact only sporadicly in the
works  of  David  Bowie and Iggy Pop,
but  in  the  next decade whole music
styles   were   inspired   by   their
records.    Techno-pop   borrows  its
arrangements from Computer World
, and
some of the songs from the same album
had  the  first  signs of Acid-House.
In  the  same  way in their works you
can   find   the   first   traces  of
Indusrial  Rock, Electro-Body,
 "music
with  bleeps"...   Since  1982.  when
Afrika  Bambaataa  did it, till today
when  KLF  or Shamen do it, to rub of
Kraftwerk,  copy  thier rhythmic line
or  simply  take  a  piece  of  their
composition  in  their  own menans to
show "a good taste".

Having in mind these "borrowings" and
more   the   meaning  of  thier  work
Kraftwerk   decided   to   do  a  big
clean-up,  by  releasing  The  Mix
, a
compilation  of  their greatest hits.
Then  they went on a world tour which
started  last month in Great Britain.
Bartos   and  Flur  left  and  formed
Elektrik   and   Fritz   Hilpert  and
Fernand Abrantes took their places.

Next   time   something   more  about
Kraftwerk concerts...