D>Elektro 1.2.2 - Sounds + Elements -2 - Sound | Factory

D>Elektro |1.2.2| |>Sounds + Elements

|> History/ies + Sounds

of modern electronic / experimental music in Germany |<

D>Elektro 1.2 - |> expanded concept <|

|1.2.2| Sounds + Elements

|> Experiments | Sounds + Concepts |

| Sound | Factory | Trance

"We don't see ourselves as musicians, who, in the flash of a moment, have that one grandiose idea and say: 'That's it!'.
We regard ourselves als music-workers. That's why we have this studio, the Kling Klang studio, where we are working for ten years now, everyday."
Ralf Huetter [Kraftwerk]

|> Work in the Soundfactory | Machinetrance |

In Kraftwerks minimalistic approach the term 'work' is of essential significance, with which, very concsiously, they link themselves to a certain German tradition:

"We are working in a factory. Kraftwerk represents a factory that produces sounds - that's why we would define our existence as those of soundworkers. (...)
It was the Bauhaus idea to link art and technology. An artists is not an isolated being who just creates for creation's sake, but part of a functional community.
In the same sense we are musical workers.

Ralf Huetter [Kraftwerk]

^{[Kraftwerk - an electronic ensemble]}

For the musicians of Kraftwerk the step from classical to electronic instruments meant much more than the opportunities to create new sounds.
It liberated them from certain worn-out working-processes and ideas of virtuosity that had become obsolete.

"With our musical machines the question of virtuosity is no longer relevant. With the computer I can play faster than Rubinstein - and so it is no longer important.
All the virtuosity we need is inside our machines.
You can spend more time on developing and structuring the music - and so we concentrate on a direct minimalism. If we can put an idea in one or two notes, it is much better to do that, than to use 100 notes for it.
It is about getting closer to the music.
It is about thinking and hearing - no longer about gymnastics."

Ralf Huetter [Kraftwerk]

Also for Kraftwerk - who so often were accused of a putative coldness and simplicity of their beats and sound - minimalism and repetition were used as the basic elements, to generate feelings and trance - but in their own particular way: as machinetrance and Techno-rhythms.

"The dynamics of the machines, their 'soul' has always been part of our music. States of trance are bound to repetitions - and everyone is looking for states of trance in his life: sexual, emotional, physical etc...
So, machines can produce the perfect trance."

Ralf Huetter [Kraftwerk]

However, the radical otherness of the German electronic music didn't only became manifest in it's minimalism and the playing itself, but in all aspects of it's production.

D>Elektro |1.2.2| |>Sounds + Elements<|

|>Sound | Factory | Trance <|