BBH_Labs – Kraftwerk just jamming

Kraftwerk, just jamming, in a spellbinding film from 1973

Ben Malbon

15/12/2009

We’re hopelessly devoted fans of Kraftwerk here at BBH Labs, almost certainly in a way that is slightly backward. Only last week we pledged to listen to nothing but Kraftwerk until the end of 2010 (much to the delight of those sitting near us).

This is an incredible piece of film. It’s from 1973 and shows Ralf & Florian just noodling, in some cases with non-electronic instruments (shock, horror) such as flute. The homemade drum machine looks fairly lo-fi; quite a lot of tinfoil being used there too.

We also stumbled across a couple of other short films in the YouTube crates. First an amusing documentary clip about ‘Autobahn’ from 1975. “Next year Kraftwerk hope to eliminate the keyboards altogether and build jackets with electronic lapels that would be played by touch”.

And then this 10-minute clip from a 1973 French documentary.

Brilliantly evocative films from the birth of electronic music.

Thanks to Paul Matheson for sending the Tanzmusik piece.