Intuitive Music

The term Krautrock -meaning Dutch Rock- was first used by English journalist Ian McDonald in 1972 to define the emerging German scene after 1968, though most of the artists labeled under the krautrock flag refuse to have anything to do with it. Krautrock, all in all, included several bands that includes a huge range of different musical styles, and which were only similar in their attitude of creativity and experimentation. If there is a real common ground in all of this artists that may be the talent that they had to create their own music language with an extreme lack of resources, in a totally underground level, and in a country that was completely out of the commercial rock market. What really made all of these artists special is their capability to turn the handicaps into virtues and to accept their limitations, supplying them with creativity and talent.

As the keyboardist from Can, Irmin Scmidt, said in the 70’s “Is impossible to talk about a German underground scene. Each city has a different style, generally imported from the hip communities in London and New York with the exception of Berlin… Berlin doesn’t imitate anybody”.

The krautrock music should be differenced into four separate scenes, if ever was a krautrock secene, corresponding to different German cities: the Cologne scene, headed by Kratftwerk, Can and Floh De Cologne; the “Munich sound”, represented by Amon Duul, Popol Vuh, Mythos, and George Deuter; the Berlin scene which featured Cluster, Ash Ra Tempel, Cosmic Jokers and Tangerine Dream; and the Dusseldorf scene with Neu! and La Dusseldorf. Apart from these four important nucleus, Faust started their own musical adventure at the famous commune in Hamburg.

In the same way, krautrock music could be divided in different genres represented by the music development of different artists. Although they started originally as an avant-garde oriented band, Kraftwerk represents the synth pop branch of the German sound. Neu!, Cluster, Faust and Can were probably the closer ones to experimental avant-garde rock and pre-punk. Amon Duul represent the most acid and psychedelic side of the scene. And finally Tangerine Dream, Ash Ra Tempel, Cosmic Jokers, Klaus Schulze and Cluster were the pioneers of the sequential electronic music, space music and ambient electronica.

Some of the krautrock artists, such as Neu! and Can>, were highly influenced by Frank Zappa’s acid rock, the avant-garde German composer Karlheinz Stockhausen, and New York’s New Music school with composers like Terry Riley, Steve Reich, La Monte Young and Pillip Glass. Krautrock artists such as Neu!, Faust and Can defied the conventions of rock music imposed from the U.S. and England and broke all the rules to create a challenging new musical language.

Krautrock bands created unintentially the very first foundations of punk rock in the early 70’s, when artists like Neu! and Faust would play monotone basses and wild drums and vocals. Krautrock has been an important background for the forthcoming electronic music in the 80’s and 90’s and it is still a main key for the modern electronic artists. During the late 90’s and 00’s a new generation of avant pop, post rock and electronica artists rediscovered krautrock.

Krautrock also represents the European legacy to modern electronic music. Artists such as Tangerine Dream, Neu! , Amon Duul, and Can were pioneers of electronic and synthesizer music in the early 70’s.