NEU!, electricity, droning

My girlfriend and I were waiting for the bus the other night when this truck/bus came racing by:
photo by Solveig H. Olsen
I want to believe that Michael Rother and Klaus Dinger of NEU! are onboard and they're forever racing the autobahns of the world...they've got a studio in there with a drumkit and guitars and stuff. Rocking out while the bus races on.

There's a medicine factory across the street from where we live. One of the machines emits a humming drone that you can hear quite distinctly. Seeing the photo above again this morning made me want to listen to Neu!, so I put debut album Neu! on the turntable and while lead track "Hallogallo" faded in I was thrilled to realize that the music from the factory across the street was in the same key as the music on the LP. A rather amazing moment, hearing the machine and the musicians droning in unison...
View from our window. Medicine factory across the street. Photo by Knút H. Eysturstein

Neu! in beautiful rotation. Photo by Knút H. Eysturstein

I like living in the city, for now. All these sounds and noises. When they come together.

Adding to the urban/krautrock/koschmische feel of the situation is the fact that we can also see four towering chimneys of a "kraftwerk" (power plant) from our window. Some times smoke rises from the chimneys and at night there are red lights that shine. A constant reminder of this power source that sustains many of us living here.
Behind the branches, the four chimneys of the kraftwerk. Photo by Knút H. Eysturstein

Those German musicians in the 70's made some amazing things. There is a certain beauty and poetry in kraftwerks, cars, autobahns, electricity, urbanity and noise. Those guys saw it and conveyed it. Not that the countryside is forgotten, it's also there as a possibility. Right now, there's a bird singing outside our window. Go figure :)

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