Wir Fahren Auf Der Autobahn - Krautrock Das Erste! Quiz

Answer: Karlheinz Stockhausen

Karlheinz Stockhausen was born on the 22nd of August 1928 in the small town of Moedrath near Cologne. Between 1947 and 1951 he studied at the State Conservatory at the University of Cologne. His own compositions were first performed in public in 1951 and in 1952 he studied under the French composer Olivier Messiaen; it was here, with the group known as 'Musique Concrète', that Stockhausen first experimented with electronically generated tones. During his career, Stockhausen had produced a total of 376 works.

These were pieces written for the orchestra, choral works and purely electronic works, many of which would take an entire evening to perform. Stockhausen passed away on the 5th of December 2007 at Kuerten, Germany.

Answer: Amon

Unlike any other band of this genre, Amon Düül was not just a collection of musicians, it was also a lifestyle choice with the band members living together as a family in a commune. Interestingly, the members of Amon Düül lived in the same Berlin commune that gave rise to the Red Army Faction/Baader-Meinhof gang but were not connected in any way to the terrorist group! Before they moved to Berlin, the band were living together in Munich and were invited to play in the northern industrial city of Essen before travelling onward to Berlin to record an album.

The day before their appearance an argument erupted which led to a split; one group wanted to use their performances to promote the commune's left-leaning ideology, the other wanting more bias towards the music and freedom of expression.

This split gave rise to the band Amon Düül II which is the band that still exists today.

Answer: Klaus Schulze

One of the lesser known proponents of Krautrock is drummer and composer Klaus Schulze. After appearing briefly as a member of Tangerine Dream during 1969, he left and began composing and recording his own material; sometimes under the name Richard Wahnfried but more usually under his own name.

Other works by Schulze include the albums 'Blackdance' (1974), 'Timewind' (1975) and 'En=Trance' (1988).

Answer: Tangerine

Tangerine Dream, also commonly referred to as 'TD', are perhaps the best known of the Krautrock bands after Kraftwerk. The body of work produced by this band over the decades is impressive to say the least. TD was formed in 1967 in Berlin by Edgar Froese who, until his untimely and sudden death in 2015, had been its only continuous member.

A number of former members of the band have gone on to enjoy successful careers in their own right. The most famous line-up, consisting of Froese, Chris Franke and Peter Baumann which existed during a period known as the 'Virgin Years' (1973-1983) saw the release of some of the band's most popular works; the albums 'Stratosfear', 'Exit' and the live album 'Encore' all being some of TD's top selling recordings.

Answer: Autobahn

Mention the word Krautrock and the band Kraftwerk almost immediately springs to mind. Although the band have been satirised due to their somewhat unorthodox performance techniques, they have been responsible for a number of innovations both musically and in the development of electronic instruments. Kraftwerk was formed in 1970 and met with only limited success until the release of the groundbreaking 'Autobahn' in 1974 which was to be the last Kraftwerk recording produced by renowned engineer Konrad 'Conny' Plank.

Answer: Pierre Schaeffer

'Musique Concrète' was a style of music that made use of pre-recorded sounds. Pierre Schaeffer began experimenting with this style at the Studio d'Essai, or Experimental Studio, under the auspices of the French radio system in around 1948. He made extensive use of sound recorded on old 78rpm discs but really advanced this style once magnetic recording tape became widely available. Ironically the studio that was to contribute so much to the post war German music scene had actually been, in no small part, involved in the German defeat; Studio d'Essai had originally been a branch, of sorts, of the wartime French Resistance and had been instrumental in the preparations for D-Day and the liberation of Paris later that summer.

The term 'Musique Concrète' was first coined by Schaeffer himself in 1949.

Answer: Brain

The Brain label was founded in 1972 in the northern German city of Hamburg by former Ohr Records A&R men Bruno Wendel and Günter Körber. The Brain label was hugely successful in Western Europe during the 1970s with artists on its books such as Edgar Froese and Klaus Schulze and bands Cluster and Neu! Surprisingly, other acts signed to Brain included British jazz and blues legend Alexis Korner, hard rock bands Scorpions and Atomic Rooster and British psychedelic jazz rockers Caravan.

At the time of writing the Brain label is inactive but by no means altogether defunct.

Answer: Kling Klang

The Kling Klang Studio was founded by Florian Schneider and Ralf Hutter in an innocuous looking building at Mintropstraße 16, Dusseldorf in 1970. In 2009 it moved to another location about ten kilometres to the West of the city to the municipality of Meerbusch-Osterath.

The primary reasons for this relocation were that the old building was in need of improvement and repair and, with the band's business diversifying, it was decided that the recording of their music, their rehearsal facilities and the band's administration and handling of merchandising should all be concentrated in a single location.

Answer: Motorik

Ever felt the urge to drive just a little faster than you would otherwise when a particular track is played on the radio or on your CD player? If the answer to this question is 'yes' then it is highly likely that you have experienced the 'motorik' or a very similar style! Motorik, which translates to 'motor skill', is a drum pattern in 4/4 time which produces a relentless rhythm at a moderate tempo interspersed with regular cymbal strikes. The motorik style was popular with many Krautrock bands and gives the music a strong sense of forward motion; Kraftwerk adopted this aggressive style in a movement of their classic track 'Autobahn'.

As a playing style motorik has not been restricted to the Krautrock genre; a good example of this style in use by a rock band can be heard in the Hawkwind song 'Magnu' featured on their album 'Warrior on the Edge of Time'.

Answer: Wild partying

Over the years there has been much discussion in Krautrock circles as to exactly what the word 'Hallogallo' actually means; like many colloquialisms it may mean something slightly different from region to region. In the case of this song, Neu! founder and guitarist Michael Rother has gone on record as saying that the word means 'wild partying'. Neu! was formed in Dusseldorf during 1971 by Rother and Klaus Dinger shortly after the pair had split from Kraftwerk in 1970. Neu! was mentored by top-flight music producer Konrad 'Conny' Plank who became ultimately responsible for the recording of the band's entire body of work.