The Band Kraftwerk was a pioneer of electronic music. Karl Bartos co-responsible for their Hits such as “The Model” and “The robot”. In the interview-he tells from the very first Gig – and the end of the “verse of the port of articulation”.
Deutsche Welle: Mr. Bartos, 1990, she dropped out of the dispute at the power station, now your car comes biography. What was important to you?
Karl Bartos: George Orwell, one can read: The reality is in your head. That is, there is no objectivity. We hear but for 40 years the same story about the power plant. And I think a different perspective can be useful. I have tried to explain the creation of our music. To report about how creative ideas come about.
Before they got on, in 1975, at power plant, you have played in Düsseldorf for a long time in different Bands. How was the mood at that time?
I find the later a bit of a gift, the ’60s and’ 70s experienced. The music of the 60s had for my Generation, an incredible force. You had the message that you should not believe everything one gets from the authorities, told. I think, in this time, the youth of the whole world talked to each other. Without going through the authorities. And that has brought about this really interesting music.
Then she studied at the Robert Schumann Hochschule in Düsseldorf music. Furthermore, the contact to the power plant came, in search of a classic drummer for a Live gig.
When my Professor Ernst Göbler filed at the time, this Information, was the only one of the many Gigs I had. There were many incredible Bands at the time, an incredible number of opportunities to play live. The DJ was not invented yet. We understood at the Gig from the very beginning. You but did not know exactly where that is heading. It was not ausdefiniert, it was loose.
Karl Bartos in a Live Performance in Copenhagen in 2007
You were at the recordings for the Album “Radio-activity” and have written from the Album “Trans-Europe Express” is also on the Songs with. How was composed actually at the power plant?
In the Kling Studio sound, we had a “Writing Sessions”, that is to say, we stood in a circle and improvised. How jazz musicians actually. That was the second half of the 70s, because there was no Computer. We had a music machine that could repeat 16 tones. That was the only thing that was machined in our Studio. We improvised, looked at us, broken, laughed at us and took. From these Sessions, the raw material for our compositions. Basically, it was a single conversation that we were in the music transfer. This results in a polyphonic style of composition, polyphony was created.
It was the Band actually aware, or was it a theme, as the future has been at the forefront of their music at the time?
The reception of the power plant we could not see before. If we have stood on the sequencer (electronic device for recording, reproduction and processing of data for the creation of music, editor’s note) and turned, it was basically the continuation of the music machine, which we had since the enlightenment in Europe. The automatic music that was always interesting. And with the resources of electronics, this idea has been continued actually. But I think in the second half of the 70s was the Ultimate that the human-machine Balance really worked. The Computer has changed. I don’t want to say that you could do with the Computer, there is no interaction, but we also made a couple of mental errors.
What errors are you referring to?
We have tried to transfer the idea of Improvisation on the digital surface. And in the beginning we made the mistake that we pre-produced tracks, and we thought you either and was turned off, we, we would improvise. But of course, this was no Improvisation, but sort of a pseudo-Improvisation.
The album cover of “Electric Cafe”, 1986
It was also human as well. A Hobby, driving, racing, Parts of the Band in the 80s becoming more and more important.
Imagine, you are now driving 200 km with the bike. Why are you still in the location, if you are sitting at home on the chair? The pulse goes below 50, it has no wishes, one is absolutely happy. If this happens over a number of years, you just do not see this Drive, to invent music. What happened in the second half of the 80s with us? In retrospect, I would say: we have the music verse port light. It was a kind of competition. Us the return was missing to what was our core competence: the Autonomous imagination. Not a competition, but to listen to in itself.
You can say also quite flat: The melodies were no longer there?
I know what the right metaphor but, for me, remains the polyphony and Monophony. Earlier, we worked polyphonically, we have developed and invented to third our music. And as a result, our music was alive, and more consistent. And in the second half of the 80s, it was monotonous. It to Sequences of musical events. There is an algorithm in electronic music or in the text processing: Copy-and-paste. Copy-and-paste is not polyphonic.
After leaving Kraftwerk, Karl Bartos as a musician, DJ, music producer and Songwriter. In his autobiography (published on 25.8. at Eichborn Verlag) gives a fascinating insight into the inner workings of Kraftwerk, whose music influenced the development of Hip-Hop, Techno, and electro-pop worldwide.
The interview was conducted by Jens von Larcher.