Kraftwerk in "Pop I Fokus" Swedish TV documentary

2005-09-04 06:25:00

Whoever is interested deeper in Kraftwerk's music and image in general - go find the subject. I watched it a couple hours ago and it shook me not less than, say, Pascal Bussy's or Flur's books. Among all other interesting things in it - Karl Bartos (now Elektric Music) praising Ralf Hutter, Wolfgang Flur (now Yamo) holding an extremely interesting tour around Kraftwerk places in Dusseldorf, Karlheinz Stockhausen listening to Autobahn and discussing early Kraftwerk years; Bjork, Moby and others.

Wolfgang shows the Kling Klang building to the TV crew. Basically, it's a five storey high building in the office district of Dusseldorf, with all windows curtained. There's one entrance door with a bell - no captions whatsoever. Wolfgang held the tour around noon, he said Ralf never wakes up that early and working day in Kling Klang actually starts at 3-5 pm. Karl Bartos agrees, he described what usual working day in Kling Klang looked like: they gathered at 5 pm, then later did a little break for coffee or nigthclub, or chit-chat about bikes. And then worked further till almost morning.

Obviously, Bartos respects Ralf a lot. Not just respects, but admires, he tells of him as of genius and unique person. To whom Karl himself is "a younger brother". Also says despite Ralf always uses phrase "Kraftwerk is Ralf and Florian", the real mastermind is Ralf himself and everything depends on him. Florian is mostly into technical details and equipment. For instance, Florian is considered to be an inventor of one of the forms of vocoder and speech generators. Initially it was a military thing but Florian adapted it to Kraftwerk needs.

Wolfgang tells a story when we was walking down the street in Dusseldorf and saw Florian with his daughter somewhere ahead. Florian, as soon as he spotted Wolfgang, crossed the street.

Really interesting film and I would be happy to share if anyone needs.