Krautrock is a generic name for the experimental music scenes that appeared in Germany in the late 1960s and gained popularity throughout the 1970s, especially in Britain. The term is a result of the English-speaking world's reception of the music at the time and not a reference to any one particular scene, style, or movement, as many krautrock artists were not familiar with one another. BBC DJ John Peel in particular is largely credited with spreading the reputation of krautrock outside of the German-speaking world.

Largely divorced from the traditional blues and rock & roll influences of English and American rock music up to that time, the period contributed to the birth and evolution of electronic music, ambient music, alternative music and New Age music. Key artists associated with the tag include Can, Amon Düül II, Ash Ra Tempel, Faust, Popol Vuh, Cluster, Tangerine Dream, Klaus Schulze, Neu!, and Kraftwerk.

Origin of the term[link]

The moniker "krautrock" was applied to the experimental German rock movement of the late 1960s and early 1970s by the British music press, and ironically retained by its practitioners.^[1] The term krautrock was originally a humorous one coined by the UK music press (such as New Musical Express and Melody Maker), where "krautrock" found an early and enthusiastic underground following. The term derives from the ethnic slur "kraut", and its use by the music press was inspired by a track from Amon Düül's Psychedelic Underground titled "Mama Düül und Ihre Sauerkrautband Spielt Auf" ('Mama Düül and her Sauerkrautband Strike Up').^[2][3][4] As is often the case with musical genre labels, few of the bands wished to see themselves pigeon-holed, and tended to eschew the term. The term is also a problematic category due to the considerable differences between the artists so labelled.

Musicologist Julian Cope, in his book Krautrocksampler, says "Krautrock is a subjective British phenomenon," based on the way the music was received in the UK rather than on the actual West German music scene out of which it grew.^[2] For instance, while one of the main groups originally tagged as krautrock, Faust, recorded a seminal 12-minute track they titled "Krautrock", they would later distance themselves from the term, saying: "When the English people started talking about Krautrock, we thought they were just taking the piss... and when you hear the so-called 'Krautrock renaissance,' it makes me think everything we did was for nothing."^[5]

Characteristics[link]

	"Father Cannot Yell" noicon Sound sample of the opening track from Can's 1969 album Monster Movie "Green Bubble Raincoated Man" noicon A track from Amon Düül II's 1972 album Wolf City.
Problems listening to these files? See media help.

Krautrock is an eclectic and often very original mix of post-psychedelic jamming and moody progressive rock mixed with ideas from contemporary experimental classical music (especially composer Karlheinz Stockhausen, with whom, for example, Irmin Schmidt and Holger Czukay of Can had previously studied) and from the new experimental directions that emerged in jazz during the 1960s and 1970s (mainly the free jazz pieces by Ornette Coleman or Albert Ayler). Moving away from the patterns of song structure and melody of much rock music in America and Britain, some in the movement also drove the music to a more mechanical and electronic sound (a group of 5 expatriate Americans, The Monks, who toured playing beat music clubs throughout Germany, were also exploring this industrial/mechanical sound, as evidenced on their 1966 German-only release LP "Black Monk Time"). The key component characterizing the groups gathered under the term is the synthesis of rock and roll rhythm and energy with a decided will to distance themselves from specifically American blues origins, but to draw on German or other sources instead. Jean-Hervé Peron of Faust says: "We were trying to put aside everything we had heard in rock 'n' roll, the three-chord pattern, the lyrics. We had the urge of saying something completely different."^[5]

Typical bands dubbed "krautrock" in the 1970s included Tangerine Dream, Faust, Can, Amon Düül II, Ash Ra Tempel and others associated with the celebrated Cologne-based producers and engineers Dieter Dierks and Conny Plank, such as Neu!, Kraftwerk and Cluster. Bands such as these were reacting against the post-WWII cultural vacuum in Germany and tending to reject Anglo-American popular culture in favour of creating their own more radical and experimental new German culture and identity, and to develop a radically new musical aesthetic. Many of these groups began their musical careers with little or no awareness of (or interest in) rock and roll: exposure to the increasingly radical and innovative music of the Velvet Underground, Pink Floyd, Frank Zappa, Jimi Hendrix and the Beatles, for example, led members of groups like Can and Kraftwerk to embrace popular music for the first time.

The signature sound of krautrock mixed rock music and "rock band" instrumentation (guitar, bass, drums) with electronic instrumentation and textures, often with what would now be described as an ambient music sensibility. A common rhythm featured in the music was a steady 4/4 beat, often called "motorik" in the anglophone music press.

History[link]

By the end of the 1960s, the American and British counterculture and hippie movement had moved rock towards psychedelia, heavy metal, progressive rock and other styles, incorporating, for the first time in popular music, socially and politically incisive lyrics. The 1968 German student movement, French protests and Italian student movement had created a class of young, intellectual continental listeners, while nuclear weapons, pollution, and war inspired protests and activism.^[6] Avant-garde music had taken a turn towards the electronic in the mid-1950s. The avant-garde minimalist music current which emerged in the beginning of the 60s with the works of Americans La Monte Young, Terry Riley and Steve Reich using drones and loops (often with synthesizers and tapes) in a kind of psychedelic and space-oriented music.

These factors all laid the scene for the explosion in what came to be termed krautrock, which arose at the first major German rock festival in 1968 in Essen.^[7] Like their American, British and international counterparts, German rock musicians played a kind of psychedelic music. In contrast, however, there was no attempt to reproduce the effects of drugs, but rather an innovative fusion of jazz, free-jazz and the electronic avant-garde, and strikingly innovative as a fusion of psychedelia and the electronic avant-garde. That same year, 1968, saw the foundation of the Zodiak Free Arts Lab in Berlin by Hans-Joachim Roedelius, and Conrad Schnitzler, which further popularized the psychedelic-rock sound in the German mainstream.^[6] Originally krautrock was a form of Free art, which meant that krautrock bands gave their records away for free at Free Art Fairs.

The next few years saw a wave of pioneering groups. In 1968, Can formed by two former students of Karlheinz Stockhausen, adding jazz to the mix (and in that way the krautrock scene can be seen to parallel the emerging Canterbury scene in England at the same time), while the following year saw Kluster (later Cluster) begin recording keyboard-based electronic instrumental music with an emphasis on static drones. In 1970, Popol Vuh became the first krautrock group to use an electronic synthesizer, to create what would be known as "kosmische musik". By 1971, the bands Tangerine Dream and Faust began to use electronic synthesizers and advanced production. The term Kosmische musik dates from that period.^[6] The bands Tangerine Dream, Ash Ra Tempel, Sand (Golem album) and Cosmic Jokers (all linked by collaboration with Klaus Schulze), would follow suit in the years to come. Faust also made use of synthesizers and tape manipulation in a way foreshadowing the noise rock of the future.

In 1972, two albums incorporated European rock and electronic psychedelia with Asian sounds: Popol Vuh's In den Gärten Pharaos and Deuter's Aum. Meanwhile, kosmische musik saw the release of two double albums, Klaus Schulze's Cyborg and Tangerine Dream's Zeit (produced by Dieter Dierks), while a band called Neu! began to play highly rhythmic music. By the middle of the decade, one of the best-known German bands, Kraftwerk, had released albums like Autobahn and Radioaktivität ("Radio-Activity" in English), which laid the foundation for the British 1980s synthpop/new wave music, electro, techno and other styles later in the century.

The release of Tangerine Dream's Phaedra in 1974 marked a divergence of that group from krautrock to a more melodic sequencer-driven sound that was later termed Berlin School. In that same year Klaus Schulze delivered one more LP of pure krautrock, Blackdance, and then began to release a more expansive version of the kind of music that TD was making.

By the mid-late 1970s onward the terms electronic rock, electronic music, new instrumental music and new age have been used more often than Krautrock and Kosmische Musik, though the early scene continues still today to be regarded as a style in and of itself.

East Germany[link]

By the early 1970s experimental West German rock styles had crossed the border into East Germany, and influenced the creation of an East German rock movement referred to as Ostrock. On the other side of the Wall, these bands tended to be stylistically more conservative than in the West, to have more reserved engineering, and often to include more classical and traditional structures (such as those developed by Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht in their 1920s Berlin theatre songs). These groups sang in German, often featuring poetic lyrics loaded with indirect double-meanings and deeply philosophical challenges to the status quo. The best-known bands representing these styles in the GDR were The Puhdys and Karat. Krautrock must generally be regarded, however, as a primarily West German phenomenon; the East German musical avant-garde may be argued to have been more genuinely represented by, for example, political singer-songwriter Wolf Biermann, whose work more aptly bears comparison to Woody Guthrie or early Bob Dylan than to any progressive rock artists.

Influence on later generations[link]

Krautrock was highly influential on the development of post-punk, notably artists such as The Fall, Joy Division, Public Image Ltd, and This Heat. The genre was also a strong influence to David Bowie's Station to Station (1976) and this kind of experimentation led him go to his 'Berlin Trilogy'.^[8][9] By the late 1990s and early 2000s, with the resurgence of electronic music and a new generation rediscovering much of the early German music, krautrock came to be considered a style in and of itself. Artists such as Stereolab, John Frusciante, The Mars Volta, Deerhunter, Wilco, Laika, Mouse on Mars, Bowery Electric, I Am Spoonbender, Tortoise, and Fujiya & Miyagi working under the post-rock and electronica rubrics have often cited bands in the krautrock canon as being among their more significant influences.

The electronic experimentation for which krautrock laid the groundwork had a clear direct influence on artists who went on to develop industrial music from the late seventies onwards, such as Cabaret Voltaire, Throbbing Gristle, Psychic TV, and Coil.

Krautrock has also been an influence on Hawkwind, in particular Dave Brock who supposedly penned the sleeve notes for the British edition of Neu!'s first album ^[10]

Radiohead has covered Can's song "Thief" and cite Can, Faust, and Neu! among their influences, while The Secret Machines not only covered Harmonia's "(De Luxe) Immer Wieder" on their The Road Leads Where It's Led EP, but have also played live with Michael Rother.^[11] Porcupine Tree has also covered Neu!'s "Hallogallo" as a demo for their album Signify. The band Wilco has shown a growing krautrock influence in their music, specifically on Yankee Hotel Foxtrot and several songs on A Ghost Is Born, especially "Spiders (Kidsmoke)."^[12] In interviews Jeff Tweedy has often spoken of his admiration for Can and Neu!. Current 93 covered Sand's "When the May Rain Comes" on their album Thunder Perfect Mind. Julian Cope has always cited krautrock as an influence, and wrote the book Krautrocksampler on the subject. The Kosmische Club was founded in London at his suggestion in 1996, with the motto "Music from the Future", and did much to promote the genre on the underground music scene, including promoting gigs featuring many of the original German musicians and through a weekly radio show on Resonance FM since 2002.

The Legendary Pink Dots claim heavy influence from krautrock—naming in particular Can, Faust and Neu!—with one of their few cover songs being Neu!'s "Super" on the Cleopatra Records album A Homage to NEU!, which featured covers and remixes by bands including Autechre, Dead Voices On Air, Khan, System 7, James Plotkin, as well as an original track from Michael Rother.

Other artists[link]

See also[link]

• Space music
• Ambient music
• Berlin School of electronic music
• Electronic art music
• Electronic music
• Experimental music
• German rock
• Kosmische Kuriere
• Space rock

References[link]

• Buckley, David (2000) [1999]. Strange Fascination – David Bowie: The Definitive Story. London: Virgin. ISBN 0-7535-0457-X. 
• Pegg, Nicholas (2004) [2000]. The Complete David Bowie. London: Reynolds & Hearn. ISBN 1-903111-73-0. 

External links[link]

• Introduction to German Krautrock
• The Kosmische Club
• The Crack In The Cosmic Egg Krautrock Encyclopedia
• A Short History of Krautrock
• Krautrocksite - Online-Magazin from Germany
• Krautrock Album Database
• Krautrock-World - Krautrock WebRadio from Germany
• Krautrock or Kosmische Musik?
• das plumpe denken website on Krautrock (in English)

v t e Avant-garde movements Visual art Abstract expressionism Art Nouveau Conceptual art Cubism Cubo-Futurism De Stijl Ego-Futurism Fauvism Impressionism Post-Impressionism Color Field Incoherents Lyrical Abstraction Minimalism Mail art Neue Slowenische Kunst Nonconformism Pop art Rayonism Suprematism Vorticism Nouveau réalisme Music Ars subtilior Avant-garde jazz Avant-garde metal Free jazz Industrial music Krautrock Musique concrète No Wave Noise music Post-rock Progressive Rock Rock in Opposition Serialism Second Viennese School Drone music Literature and poetry Acmeist poetry Angry Penguins Asemic writing Cyberpunk Experimental literature Flarf poetry Imaginism Language poets Neoteric Oberiu Oulipo Visual poetry Nouveau roman Cinema and theatre Cinema pur Dogme 95 Drop Art Epic theatre Remodernist film Theatre of the Absurd Theatre of Cruelty General Bauhaus Dada Expressionism Fluxus Futurism Lettrism Modernism Minimalism Postminimalism Neo-minimalism Neo-Dada Neoism Postmodernism Primitivism Russian Futurism Russian symbolism Situationist International Social realism Socialist realism Surrealism Symbolism Book

Achim Reichel
Reichel performing in 1971
Background information
Born	(1944-01-28) 28 January 1944 (age 68) Hamburg, Germany
Genres	Psychedelic rock, Krautrock
Occupations	Musician, songwriter, producer
Instruments	Vocals
Associated acts	The Rattles
Website	achim-reichel.de

Achim Reichel (born on January 28, 1944) is a musician, producer and songwriter from Hamburg, Germany. He is known for his 1991 single "Aloha Heja He", and serving as the frontman for the 1960s beat group The Rattles, who, among other achievements, were selected to open for The Beatles on the Fabs' last-ever tour of Europe in 1966.^[1]

In 1968, he co-founded the psychedelic pop group Wonderland, which also included English ex-patriate Les Humphries who would soon start his own Les Humphries Singers. In 1971, Reichel left the group for his own progressive Krautrock solo project, A. R. & Machines, of which the first album Die grüne Reise (The green journey) was critically acclaimed and likened to bands such as Kraftwerk and Tangerine Dream.

Since 1975, Reichel has taken a keen interest in recording traditional German songs and classic poetry as modern-style music, which includes such albums as Dat Shanty Alb'm (1975), Klabautermann (1977), Regenballade (1978), Fledermaus (1988), Melancholie & Sturmflut (1991, including the hit "Aloha Heja He"), Wilder Wassermann (2002), and Volxlieder (2006).^[1]

Discography[link]

• AR3 (1972)
• AR IV (1973)
• Erholung (1974)
• Autovision (1974)
• Dat Shanty Alb'm (1976)
• Klabautermann (1977)
• Regenballade (1977)
• Heiße Scheibe (1979)
• Ungeschminkt (1980)
• Eine Ewigkeit Unterwegs (1986)
• Fledermaus (1988)
• Melancholie Und Sturmflut (1991)
• Wahre Liebe (1993)
• Nachtexpress (1994)

[edit] With A.R. & Machines^[2]

• Die grüne Reise (The green journey) (1971)
• Echo (1972)

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official website
• Achim Reichel discography at Discogs

This article about a German singer is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v t e

Guru Guru
From left: Hans Reffert, Peter Kühmstedt, Mani Neumeier, Roland Schaeffer (2007)
Background information
Origin	Germany
Genres	Krautrock, Experimental rock, Psychedelic rock, Progressive rock
Years active	1968–present
Website	www.guru-guru.com
Members
Mani Neumeier Hans Reffert Peter Kühmstedt Roland Schaeffer
Past members
Eddy Naegeli Jim Kennedy Uli Trepte Ax Genrich Bruno Schaab Conny Veit Hans Hartmann Houschaeng Nejadepour Jogi Karpenkiel Josef Jandrisits Butze Fischer Hellmut Hattler Dieter Bornschlegel Peter Wolbrandt Erwin Ditzner Barbara Lahr Uli Zuefle Razem Ruebel Luigi Archetti and many others

Guru Guru is a German Krautrock band formed in 1968 as The Guru Guru Groove by Mani Neumeier (drums), Uli Trepte (bass) and Eddy Naegeli (guitar) later replaced by American Jim Kennedy (guitar). In time for their debut in 1970, Ax Genrich had replaced Kennedy to solidify the classic Guru Guru line up.

Music[link]

Guru Guru were related to the free jazz music scene both through their work with Swiss pianist Irène Schweizer and through Neumeier, who had already won several jazz prizes. The band was also influenced by rock music, such as Jimi Hendrix, Frank Zappa, The Who, Rolling Stones and early Pink Floyd.

Among the band's friends were Amon Düül, Can and Xhol Caravan, with whom Guru Guru played jam sessions.

Guru Guru, live in 2007

Frontman Mani Neumeier (drummer and singer) has an original style of playing drums, and is known in the European jazz rock-scene. He was also involved in numerous other projects, as Tiere der Nacht, The Psychedelic Monsterjam, Damo Suzuki's Network, Globe Unity Orchestra, Harmonia, Acid Mothers Guru Guru, Voodootrance & Lover 303.

Social environment[link]

Guru Guru's live performances in the late 1960s and early 1970s were politically left-oriented. They organized concerts together with the Socialist German Student Union, read political texts between the songs, and sometime played at the jails. Their shows were extravagant and anarchistic, some of the musicians lived together in a commune in German Odenwald region, experimented with hallucinogens (one of their songs is titled The LSD March/German: Der LSD-Marsch). Mani Neumeier is one of the organizers of the annual Krautrock-Festival Finkenbach.

Publicity[link]

Guru Guru has released over 40 LPs and CDs, and has sold over 500,000 records. The band has played numerous live concerts, appeared in films, radio and television. In 1976 Guru Guru was the first German band to play live on the WDR TV show Rockpalast.

Discography[link]

• 1970 UFO
• 1971 Hinten
• 1972 Känguru
• 1973 Guru Guru
• 1973 Don't Call Us, We Call You
• 1974 Dance of the Flames
• 1974 Der Elektrolurch(2 LP)
• 1975 Mani und seine Freunde
• 1976 Tango Fango
• 1977 Globetrotter
• 1978 Live (2 LP)
• 1979 Hey du
• 1981 Mani in Germani
• 1983 Mani Neumeiers neue Abenteuer (aka Guru Mani ... )
• 1987 Jungle
• 1988 Guru Guru 88
• 1988 Live 72
• 1992 Shake Well – MC
• 1993 Shake Well
• 1995 Wah Wah
• 1996 Mask (limited edition)
• 1997 Moshi Moshi
• 1999 Live 98 (3 CD - Set, also on 2 LP)
• 2000 2000 Gurus
• 2003 Essen 1970
• 2005 In the Guru Lounge
• 2007 Wiesbaden 1972
• 2008 PSY
• 2009 Live on tour 2008
• 2009 Wiesbaden 1973
• 2011 Doublebind

Mani Neumeier's discography: see Mani Neumeier

External links[link]

• Official website
• Interview with Mani Neumeier
• Guru Guru discography at Discogs

Conrad ("Conny") Schnitzler (17 March 1937 – 4 August 2011) was a prolific German experimental musician. Schnitzler's father was German, his mother was Italian. He had a wife and they had three children,^[1] one of whom is son Gregor Schnitzler, who was born in 1964 in Berlin and who is a film director.^[2]

Life[link]

Schnitzler was born in Düsseldorf. He was an early member of Tangerine Dream (1969–1970) and a founder of the band Kluster. He left Kluster in 1971, first working with his group Eruption and then focusing on solo works. Schnitzler participated in several collaborations with other electronic musicians.^[3]

Conrad Schnitzler died from stomach cancer on 4 August 2011 in Berlin.^[4]

Discography[link]

Note: Schnitzler's full discography would be difficult to catalog, as he had many private, limited and one-off releases.

1970

• Electronic Meditation (with Tangerine Dream)
• Klopfzeichen (with Kluster)

1971

• Zwei-Osterei (with Kluster)
• Schwarz (a.k.a. Eruption)

1973

• Rot
• Slowmotion

1974

• Blau
• Work in Progress
• The Red Cassette
• The Black Cassette

1978

• Con

1980

• Auf Dem Schwarzen Kanal (EP)
• Consequenz (with Wolfgang Seidel)
• Die Wandelnde Klangwolke Aus Berlin

1981

• Contempora
• Con 3
• Conrad & Sohn (with Gregor Schnitzler)
• Conal
• Control
• Gelb (reissue of The Black Cassette as an LP)
• Grün
• Context

1982

• Convex
• The Russians Are Coming (EP)
• Container

1983

• Con 3.3.83

1984

• Con '84

1985

• Con '85

1986

• Concert
• Consequenz II (with Wolfgang Seidel)
• Micon in Italia (with Michael Otto)
• Face On Radio (with Wolfgang Hertz)
• Con '86
• GenCon Productions (with Gen Ken Montgomery)
• Conversion Day

1987

• Congratulacion
• Contrasts (with Wolfgang Hertz)
• Black Box 1987
• Contra-Terrene
• Conditions of the Gas Giant

1988

• ConGen: New Dramatic Electronic Music (with Gen Ken Montgomery)
• CS 1 – CS 13: January 1988 – December 1988
• Concho (with Michael Chocholak)
• GenCon Dramatic (GenCon Live) (with Gen Ken Montgomery)

1989

• Constellations
• CS 89/1 – CS 89/12: January 1989 – December 1989
• The Cassette Concert (with Gen Ken Montgomery)

1990

• Kynak (Camma) (with Giancarlo Toniutti)
• CS 90/1 – CS 90/12: January 1990 – December 1990
• Confidential Tapes
• 00/001 – 00/004: Confidential Tapes

1991

• Contempora 00/014 – 00/031

1992

• Tolling Toggle (with Jorg Thomasius)
• Tonart Eins (with Tonart)
• Ballet Statique (reissue of Con)
• Contempora 00/032 – 00/039

1993

• Clock Face (with Jorg Thomasius)
• Tonart Zwei (with Tonart)
• Con Brio
• Contempora 00/040 – 00/044

1994

• Blue Glow
• Con Repetizione
• Contempora 00/045 – 00/053

1995

• Charred Machinery
• Electronegativity

1997

• 00/106
• The Piano Works 1
• 00/44

1999

• Construction
• 00/071: Piano
• 00/063: Piano
• Con/Solo/1
• 00/121: Piano
• 00/139: Concert
• Con/Solo/2
• Computer Jazz

2000

• The 88 Game
• 5.5.85 (Concert)

2001

• Conal2001
• Acon (with Hans-Joachim Roedelius)

2002

• Con '72

2003

• Live Action 1997
• Gold
• Contakt

2004

• Con '72 Part II

2005

• Mi.T.-Con 04 (with Michael Thomas Roe)

2006

• Moon Mummy
• Zug
• Aquatic Vine Music (with Michael Thomas Roe)
• Conviction
• Con 2+
• ElectroCon
• Klavierhelm
• Trigger Trilogy

2007

• Mic + Con 07 (with Michael Thomas Roe)

2008

• Kluster 2007 (with Michael Thomas Roe and Masato Ooyama)
• rare tracks 1979–1982 (with Remixes by Dompteur Mooner) Erkrankung durch Musique Records
• 20070709 (with Bernhard Woestheinrich)

2009

• Aquafit (with Big Robot) – Karisma. Norway
• Kluster 2008: Three Olympic Cities Mix (with Michael Thomas Roe and Masato Ooyama)
• Horror Odyssee (with Big Robot) – TIBProd. Italy

2010

• Kluster 2009: Three Voices (with Michael Thomas Roe and Masato Ooyama)

2011

• Consequenz 010B (with Wolfgang Seidel) – Mirror Tapes
• Kluster CMO 2010 (with Michael Thomas Roe and Masato Ooyama)
• Against The Grain (with Håvard Tveito, Ole Christensen, Kjetil Manheim, Johannes Stockhausen Hektoen, Fredrik Owesen, Tord Litleskare, Nils Martin Haugfoss, Marius Håndlykken, Shawn Ytterland and Vigleik Skogerbø)

References[link]

External links[link]

• Conrad Schnitzler Official
• Conrad Schnitzler Official (CON-tribute)
• Reviews of Schnitzler's work
• Schnitzler's entry in The Cassette Mythos
• Live at CTM08 in Berlin
• http://www.myspace.com/mitconmusic Mi.T.-CON
• http://mit-conmusic.com/ Mi.T.-CON