20090123

The Best of Kraftwerk Songbook



It's true, or at least it looks to be true. January 31st, in just a few days time, Bosworth will release a new Kraftwerk Songbook, called "The Best of Kraftwerk Songbook". The songbook contains arrangements for piano, vocal and guitar for 12 Kraftwerk songs, all collected from their 1970's albums "Autobahn", "Radio-Aktivität" and "Trans Europa Express.

As all song titles on the back cover of the book (at least the now publiched version) are in German, I'd expect all lyrics to be written in German, but who knows - the book could be bilingual.



The complete list of songs:

Autobahn
Kometenmelodie 1
Kometenmelodie 2
Radio-Aktivität
Ätherwellen
Antenne
Ohm Sweet Ohm
Trans Europa Express
Metall Auf Metall
Schaufensterpuppen
Spiegelsaal
Europa Endlos

But this is not the first time Kraftwerk's music is released in noted form. There is, for example, this UK published set of sheet music for Autobahn:





... and a US version:





... and Kometenmelodie 2, in both English and German versions:





... and an italian edition of Trans-Europe Express:









... and a version published in the US:





... and Tour De France:







... and The Model, naturally published in the UK:

20090106

Florian Schneider quits



This announcement was made on one of the larger Kraftwerk fan sites yesterday:

Florian Schneider leaves Kraftwerk…

Florian Schneider leaves Kraftwerk after a 40 years partnership with Ralf Hütter.

This partnership has generated an incredible music and huge advances in music technology.

Florian is a great musician, always seeking the perfect sound through technology. Refined and perfected sounds and vocoders to impossible levels of perfection.

Our thanks for the state of art that led to Kraftwerk’s music all these years.

And our wishes for success Florian’s new projects as well as to this new Kraftwerk.


There is nothing to indicate the origin of the message and there is no mention of it on Kraftwerk's site or on their MySpace page.

As Schneider hasn't been appearing live with Kraftwerk recently (his replacement being Stefan Pfaffe), this news item, however bad it might be, shouldn't affect the already planned tour dates.

Still, I am glad that I have been able to see Kraftwerk performing, with Mr Schneider, thrice over the last 20 years or so.

20090102

Knitted Man-Machine



Woderful idea from Mishka. Still available, but in large sizes only - from here and here.