“We were very much influenced by the futuristic silent films of Fritz Lang; Metropolis and Dr Mabuse […] We feel that we are the sons of that type of science fiction cinema. We are the band of Metropolis. Back in the 20’s, people were thinking technologically about the future in physics, film, radio, chemistry, mass transport…everything but music. We feel that our music is a continuation of this early futurism. When you go and see Star Wars, with all its science fiction gadgets, we feel embarrassed to listen to the music…19th century strings! That music for that film!? Historically, we feel that if there ever was a music group in Metropolis, maybe Kraftwerk would have been that band”.
-Ralf Hütter quoted in Tim Barr: "Kraftwerk": From Dusseldorf to the Future (With Love) (1998)
These sentiments (uttered some time in the late 70's) come to mind whenever I listen to my 2nd hand copy of The Electric Moog Orchestra's LP Music From Star Wars (1977). I wonder if Hütter would have had an easier time digesting the synthesized timbres of the Moog synthesizers?
While the synths do add a futuristic dash to the mood and while it's a lot of fun to listen to in comparison to the original, it must be said that the Moogs don't really pull of the dynamics we're accustomed to via the orchestral version. Probably since John Williams wrote the music with an orchestra in mind. So it's not just a timbral issue but also a question of form and structural content.
Hütter expresses his dislike of the "19th century strings" of Star Wars while underlining his admiration for Metropolis. The funny thing is that Hütter makes no mention of the Metropolis score: an original score by German composer Gottfried Huppertz that's very much of the "19th century strings" variety. Drawing mainly from romantic composers Richard Wagner and Richard Strauss the score also throws in some "Dies Irae" (an oft quoted 13th century hymn) for scenes of apocalyptic imagery.
(Danish director Carl Th. Dreyers 1943 masterpiece Vredens Dag also takes both its title and theme music from "Dies Irae").
Though the Huppertz score played a big role in the making of the movie - apparently Huppertz was on set playing excerpts on piano for emotional effect - Hütter can be forgiven for not mentioning it since to my knowledge the score wasn't actually recorded and released along with the movie until 2001. So when Hütter made his remarks in the late 70's he may not have been aware of the score.
Add to that the fact that Metropolis is from 1927 and any big advancements in electronic instruments and music where yet to be seen. The Theremin - among the earliest electronic instruments - was patented in 1928, the year after Metropolis, and didn't see notable sci-fi soundtrack use until 50's b-movie classics like The Day The Earth Stood Still and Forbidden Planet and the Star Trek tv-series. Forbidden Planet was released twenty years before the first Star Wars, yet it features a soundtrack of radically abstract synthscapes that leave the musical conservatism of Star Wars dead in the water.
According to documentary Kraftwerk and the Electronic Revolution the music of Forbidden Planet was in fact one of the many sources of inspiration for the German rock scene in the late 60's and early 70's. Which brings us back to Kraftwerk:
While searching through relevant clips for this blog post I came across this video where someone has set the Kraftwerk track "Metropolis" (The Man-Machine, 1978) to the opening sequences of Metropolis.
It's quite eerie how well the visuals and the music sync together! I don't know whether Kraftwerk intended this - whether they recorded the track to go along with the movie or not - but I do get the feeling that Hütter was on to something. Kraftwerk could have been that band...
4/30/12
4/19/12
Berlin!
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Photo by Solveig H. Olsen |
I've driven through parts of Germany before so technically I've been in the country but I've never stayed in any particular place for days, nevertheless visited the capital city. In many ways I'm happy that I didn't go there until now because over the years I've come to know and relish many things about German culture so it was great to actually go there after the fact.
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Walking along Karl-Marx-Allee, a monument of DDR architecture (kitsch classic or classic kitsch?). Fernsehturm in the distance. Photo by Solveig H. Olsen |
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At Alte Nationalgalerie. The painting is Liszt am flügel by Josef Danhauser. A funny/interesting painting for musicologists. Photo by Solveig H. Olsen |
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Metropolis (Lang, 1927) original movie poster |
Add to that my extra-curricular interest in and love of German rock music of the 70's (lovingly dubbed "krautrock" by UK journalists back in the day). Bands like Kraftwerk, Can, NEU!, Tangerine Dream, Cluster, Harmonia, Faust, Ash Ra Tempel, Amon Düül II and Popol Vüh. My favorite of the bunch is probably Kraftwerk whose output it is hard to overestimate in regards to electronic popular music of the last 40 years. I've actually written exam papers on Kraftwerk in relation to Stockhausen's electronic work so in a way this interest is omni-curricular (!)
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Kraftwerk: Autobahn album cover |
Which is a reason why it was so amazing to arrive in Berlin and experience how it's not just hearsay: techno and house music really does seem to be all over the place. Several record shops that we went to had dance oriented music as their main selection with rock and pop often designated to a couple of crates in the corner. Likewise, we noted how many clothes and 2nd hand shops had the almighty four to the floor beat as sonic accompaniment (though we did also attend other record shops with huge selections of rock and many other styles).
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At Oye Records on Oderbergerstrasse in Prenzlauer Berg. Diggin' through crates for cool schallplaten. Photo by Solveig H. Olsen |
The city holds many different clubs and places dedicated to the aforementioned techno and the flagship of 'em all is Berghain.
The club takes its name from its location near the border between Kreuzberg and Friedrichshain. The building is a former power plant, rustically beautiful in an industrial area near the Ostbahnhof station. Quite a symbolic building/location. A Kraftwerk where power and thumping four to the floor beats are produced.
When we left at half past six in the morning there was still a long queue outside and everyone was still on an upwards slope. Since we also wanted to do other things on Sunday we had to leave "early".
Berghain also runs its own record label called Ostgut Ton. They've released a ton of great stuff over the last few years. You can buy records in the cloakroom in Berghain which was great. I bought two vinyls on our way out. A Tobias remix EP with remixes by Efdemin and Ricardo Villalobos and the debut album by Shed, called Shedding The Past. Here's the beautiful cover:
I could go on about these and other things that are to be found in Berlin, but there's no avoiding the fact that Berlin is also affected by what isn't there anymore. It's a city and country with a history like no other and it's good to see that the city deals with the difficult parts - the holocaust especially - in different ways. We visited both the Denkmal Für Die Ermordeten Jüden Europas as well as the Jüdische Museum.
Jüdische Museum in particular came across as a poignant attempt to articulate the cultural and human gap left since WW2. The architecture of the museum reflects these issues in many ways that are both poignant and open to interpretation. It's quite redundant to explain in words what it's like to visit the place, so I recommend you to go there instead and see for yourself.
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Jüdische Museum, designed by Jewish-American architect Daniel Liebeskind. Photo by Solveig H. Olsen |
To finish of this blog I'll leave you with a little video that Solveig filmed on a Sunday afternoon in Berlin. It sums things up nicely. Thanks for reading!
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