These Days, Kraftwerk Is Packing Light

For 15 years, Kraftwerk sightings were as infrequent as Kraftwerk interviews and releases. For a group that seemed to thrive on notions of motion -- cars on "Autobahn," trains on "Trans-Europe Express," bicycles on 1983's "Tour de France" single -- Kraftwerk suddenly seemed to be going nowhere really slowly. Hutter and Schneider emerged as cycling fanatics who seemed to be far more interested in riding than recording (in his autobiography, Bartos cited that as a major factor in his leaving the group).

Poetically, Kraftwerk's first album in 17 years, 2003's "Tour de France Soundtracks," was a musical celebration of the centennial anniversary of the world's most famous cycle race, as well as the 20th anniversary of Kraftwerk's own "Tour de France," a song originally intended for an album titled "Techno-Pop." That album was abandoned after Hutter almost died after splitting his skull in a 1982 bike crash; only the single came out. Soon after, Kraftwerk got caught up in the digital revolution, and, after retrenching, released what might have become its final album, 1986's ill-received "Electric Cafe." But like a well-greased bicycle wheel that refuses to stop spinning, "Tour de France" came to fruition as "Tour de France Soundtracks," with identical cover art.

"It was 'the unfinished symphony,' " Hutter says. "It was like a film script put aside with a single in '83. Then with the anniversary, the idea came back: Now is the time we must do it and really finish this album."

Tracks like "Elektro Kardiogramm," "Vitamin," "Aero Dynamik" and "Titanium" proved to be comfortingly familiar, but Kraftwerk's perfectionism kept "Tour de France Soundtracks" from coming out until weeks after the Tour itself had crossed the finish line. But nothing could diminish Kraftwerk's pleasure at being part of the race, sometimes literally, in the race director's helicopter or lead car.

"Sometimes in the German press, [Tour rider] Jan Ulrich gets called 'Kraftwerk on wheels,' " Hutter notes proudly. "We know all these roads in the French and Italian mountains because we've ridden them ourselves -- of course in our rhythm and with our friends. So we have been inside the Tour de France, and we did the final mix right when we got back into the studio."

That's not all they've been doing at Kling Klang. Kraftwerk oversaw the digital transfer of the band's vast archives of recordings and sound sources from degenerating master tapes. Much of that was to allow the creation of a mobile Kling Klang, substituting portable laptops for cumbersome analog gear that at one point weighed six tons and was none the more reliable for it. Now if there's a problem, Kraftwerk just reboots.

Additionally, they digitally remastered the entire Kraftwerk catalogue, which will be available as single albums or as a complete set. And a five-city tour that includes shows Monday and Tuesday at the 9:30 club celebrates the June 7 release of "Minimum-Maximum," the band's first live recording. The 22-track double CD was recorded during last year's world tour and refutes the notion that a Kraftwerk show could be played by preprogrammed robots, though robot doubles will make their traditional appearance on, what else, "We Are the Robots."

Hutter says "connecting the visual elements in performance is also very important for us. When we started in the late '60s, we used projectors with photos or drawings, and we've always designed our videos, working with artists and computer graphics, incorporating all kinds of visual elements [also digitally retouched]. It's really like electronic architecture."

All of that, Hutter says, has made performing a lot more fun in recent years.

"Now we produce loudspeaker music, and we can hear it the way it was composed, where before that was only possible on a studio recording. But there was always more to these compositions, and it really comes into the room with 'Trans-Europe Express' or 'Man-Machine,' where the humming of the cars and the environmental quality of the music surround you."

As for the old equipment, it's safe.

"At certain times we exchanged certain modules or old analog synthesizers, when we were out of production or they were out of function. We couldn't even sell them because no one wanted them, so we kept them in our archives. We have a little Kling Klang museum where we have all the prototypes and our original synthesizers from the 'Autobahn' days, all these sequencers with old material. They're all functioning, and we can use them in connection with the digital equipment. The La Cite de la Musique [museum] in Paris wanted us to give it to them, with the robots, but we're still using it so we can't do that."

And that Kraftwerk museum . . . is it open to the public?

"No, it's underneath our studio," Hutter laughs. "The doors are closed."

KRAFTWERK -- Appearing Monday and Tuesday at the 9:30 club.