Worldtronics: Opening

In the beginning there was Krautrock. For there would be no electronic music without the German avant-garde sound of the 1970s. Consequently, WORLDTRONICS 2007 starts with Harmonia, the legendary Krautrock super-group, The band was formed in 1974 by Dieter Moebius and Hans-Joachim Roedelius, the Cluster musicians, and Michael Rother, ex-Neu! and ex-Kraftwerk. In their search for unique sounds, the radical pop pioneers ditched the drums for a drum machine, played frog concerts through filters, echoes, distorters, mixed playful texts with strict formal concepts and anticipated ambient music. For a time, these sound-tinkerers found a supporter in Brian Eno.

At WORLDTRONICS they will be playing together again – in concert – for the first time in thirty years, and only shortly after the release of Harmonia Live 1974, a hitherto unreleased cut of the electronic godfathers. It just goes to show how right Julian Cope was in his standard work Krautrock Sampler, where he describes Harmonia as playing heavenly music that resounds only temporarily in the real world. Incidentally, as a special attraction, the Choir of World Cultures, conducted by pop-electronics lady Barbara Morgenstern, will be improvising a title together with Harmonia.