【コラム】 Krautrock（クラウトロック）通史 ― 無限運動としてのドイツ実験音楽

Column en History Krautrock Techno

06 Oct 2025

【コラム】 Krautrock（クラウトロック）通史 ― 無限運動としてのドイツ実験音楽

Introduction: Why “krautrock”?

Text: mmr｜Theme: Krautrock is an important trend that deeply influenced later generations of music such as experimental music, electronic music, post-rock, and techno that originated in Germany.

“Krautrock”——.It was originally a derogatory name given by a British music magazine. “Sauerkraut” is a slang term for German people. However, young people in the late 1960s reversed that label and used it as a banner for creating their own music.

Postwar Germany.Memories of defeat, the flood of American and British culture, and the emptiness of not having a voice. Krautrock was born out of this “nothingness.” It is not just a musical movement, but a reconstruction of the post-war generation’s identity. Eventually, it became a “philosophical movement of sound” that reinvented the history of rock.

Chapter 1: Creation from nothing - Postwar Germany and the reconstruction of sound

1968.Student movements gripped Berlin and Paris, and culture was beginning to intertwine with politics. At the same time, Karlheinz Stockhausen’s electronic music was blaring on the Cologne radio station. His abstract, mathematical sound construction instilled in later young people a sense of ``designing sound from scratch.’’

CAN’s founders Holger Czukay and Irmin Schmidt were his students. Having received a classical education, they viewed rock as an extension of modern music, rather than as anti-art. Their experimental spirit connects with the commune culture that followed the student movement, and the studio transforms into a ``social experimental site.’’

“We don’t have the blues. We just have to make our own sound.” — Holger Czukay (CAN)

This attitude of searching for the “sound of one’s own country” was the origin of krautrock.

Chapter 2: CAN - The Philosophy of Rhythm and the Science of Improvisation

“Inner Space Studio” is an old castle on the outskirts of Cologne. This is where the myth of CAN was born. Jaki Liebezeit’s metronome-like drums, Michael Caroli guitar, And Damo Suzuki, a vocalist who has wandered from Japan.

In 1970, he happened to meet Damo Suzuki, a Japanese hippie singing on the streets of Cologne. That night, they were already on stage and the album ``Tago Mago’’ was born. “Would you like to take the stage?”—the impromptu night began instantly. He ended up becoming a member of the band.

Their music is a “fluid rhythm” that rejects structure. Especially on the album “Tago Mago” (1971), the songs were rearranged through editing. This gave rise to the concept that “recording tape itself is an instrument.” Shukai’s editing techniques were similar to later hip-hop sampling.

“Rhythm rules time. But improvisation frees you from time.” — Jaki Liebezeit

CAN’s sound is a “listening journey.”An endless groove that swims between stillness and movement, chance and order. It would later influence Radiohead, The Fall, and even Aphex Twin.

Chapter 3: NEU! - Minimalism and running towards the future

NEU! was formed after Kraftwerk’s early members Klaus Dinger and Michael Lotter left the group. The sound was “pure movement” with all unnecessary decorations removed.

Dinger’s drum continues to tick at a constant speed, like a never-ending conveyor. This beat eventually became known as ``Motorik’’. Rotor’s guitar and bass slide like a streamline, Music has made “moving forward” itself an objective.

NEU! recorded in the studio due to a lack of funds. Rotating the tape in reverse, changing the speed, cutting and pasting the sounds, It shook the boundary between “life” and “machine.”

“Motorik is the sound of ``human continuation,’’ not a machine.” — Klaus Dinger

This simple rhythmic structure is similar to David Bowie’s Berlin trilogy. He also left a huge influence on Brian Eno’s ambient works. In NEU!’s sound, the listener realizes that time is not a straight line but a circle.

Chapter 4: Faust - The Art of Collage and Destruction

This studio is a converted farmhouse in the countryside of Wünme. A group of people holed up there, mixing tapes, noise, radio snippets, samples, everything - that’s Faust. They created new music by completely destroying the “rock format.”

member Jan Ermler says. “We didn’t believe in rock. The only thing we believed in was ‘recorded tape.’”

The jacket of his 1971 debut album “Faust” was printed on transparent vinyl to resemble a pulsating heart. Music was also fragmented. The songs have no melody, and are more like listening to a radio program. However, it was a challenge to the very framework of pop music.

They were strongly influenced by pop art and Dadaism. The punk, industrial, and sampling cultures that followed were all based on Faust’s genes.

“Destruction is the beginning of creation.” — Jan Ermler (Faust)

Chapter 5: Kraftwerk - The origins of techno and inorganic beauty

Düsseldorf. The straight roads and cold texture of the industrial city became music. Kraftwerk by Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider In the early days, it was improvisational rock that made full use of flute and organ.

However, in 1974, with Autobahn, they suddenly began to “design” music. Electronic sounds, rhythm machines, and “humans as machines.” Even on stage, they performed with no emotion and no expressions.

This complete anonymity was heresy in the rock scene at the time. However, there was an attitude of searching for a ``new subject for Germans.’’ Denying the past (war) and finding salvation in the future (technology).

“We are machines made by human hands, and music is a reflection of that.” — Florian Schneider

Kraftwerk’s minimal and linear sound is a blend of Detroit techno, synth pop, It influenced all of hip-hop and house. The “future” that they saw is now in our current musical landscape.

Chapter 6: Cluster - The boundary between silence and electronics

Revolution in silence

Unit Cluster by Dieter Möbius and Hans-Joachim Roedelius. Unlike CAN and Faust, they are hardly “noise” or “rock”. The reverberations and breathing of the city were felt between the inorganic electronic sounds and silence.

His debut album, Cluster 71 (1971), is a series of experimental tape sounds, but also somehow meditative. The follow-up, ``Zuckerzeit’’ (1974), was produced by Neu!’s Klaus Dinger and introduced a minimalist and comfortable rhythm. Electronic sounds became the “sounds of everyday life” - one of the origins of what later became Ambient and Electronica.

“The nothingness between the sounds is the space in which we compose.” - Hans-Joachim Roedelius

Chapter 7: Harmonia - Cluster meets Neu!

In 1973, Neu!’s guitarist Michael Rother joined the two members of Cluster, and Harmonia was born. The setting is Forst, a rural village in northern Germany.They set up a studio in a place where trains rarely come.

Birth of “pastoral electronic music”

Harmonia’s sound is between the silence of Cluster and the rhythm of Neu!. In Musik von Harmonia'' (1974), gentle electronic undulations spread out like a green landscape. Their follow-up,Deluxe’’ (1975), was described by Brian Eno as ``the most important band in the world,’’ and he himself later visited Forst to record a co-written song.

“Their sound was the pastoral music of the future” - Brian Eno

The sonic spirit born from Forst has been passed down to Ambient, Post-rock, and even contemporary environmental music.

Chapter 8: Popol Vuh - Spirituality and Sound in Images

Popol Vuh stands out among krautrock. Leader Florian Fricke was deeply devoted to religious music and philosophy, and was an early adopter of the Moog synth. However, what he was aiming for was not the coldness of electronics, but mystery and inner sound.

Resonance with Herzog

Film director Werner Herzog fell in love with their spiritual sounds and used them in many of his films, including Aguirre,''Nosferatu,’’ and Fitzcarraldo.'' The music ofAguirre’’ (1975) shook the audience’s consciousness like a hallucination echoing in the Andes mountains.

“The sound of Popol Vu was the words of prayer that the soul heard.”

It can be said that Krautrock’s ``spiritual experiment’’ reached its religious peak here.

Chapter 9: Klaus Schulze - The Lone Traveler of the Synthesizer

Former Tangerine Dream drummer and electronic music seeker Klaus Schulz. He expanded on krautrock through solitary studio work rather than in a group setting. They constructed long tracks, each lasting over 30 minutes, and created it as if to ``sculpt’’ time with sound.

His masterpieces “Timewind” (1975) and “Moondawn” (1976) are electronic meditations with endless rhythms and sequencers. For later Jean-Michel Jarre, Vangelis, and even Techno writers, he became the starting point for the ``philosopher of electrons’’.

“The synthesizer is my universe. Solitude is the fuel for creativity.” - Klaus Schulze

Chapter 10: Krautrock Genes - To the Next Generation

In the late 1970s, young people in Germany were once again undergoing change. Krautrock’s experimental spirit manifests itself in punk and new wave. In Berlin, David Bowie and Brian Eno created the ``Berlin Trilogy’’ and absorbed Kraut’s aesthetic.

Bowie’s “Low” (1977) is a fusion of Neu! and Cluster.
Joy Division and The Fall reinjected motorik rhythms into rock.
In the 90s, Stereolab and Tortoise combined krautrock with pop.

Krautrock is more than just a genre name. This is the very spirit of ``finding your own sound.’’

Chronology of major krautrock bands

flowchart TD title["Krautrock major band chronology"] A1968["1968 : Formation of CAN (Cologne)"] A1970["1970 : Formation of Kraftwerk (Dusseldorf)"] A1971a["1971 : Formation of Faust (Wuppertal)"] A1971b["1971 : Neu! Formed (Dusseldorf)"] A1971c["1971 : Tangerine Dream『Alpha Centauri』"] A1972["1972 : Popol Vuh『Hosianna Mantra』"] A1973["1973 : Cluster『Zuckerzeit』"] A1974["1974 : Harmonia Formation (Forst)"] A1975["1975 : Klaus Schulze『Timewind』"] A1977["1977 : Bowie & Eno, Berlin Trilogy"] A1990s["1990s: Stereolab / Tortoise wave of reappraisal"] A1968 --> A1970 --> A1971a --> A1971b --> A1971c --> A1972 --> A1973 --> A1974 --> A1975 --> A1977 --> A1990s

City map (geographical base)

Cologne: CAN, Popol Vuh
Düsseldorf: Kraftwerk, Neu!
Wuppertal: Faust
Berlin: Tangerine Dream, Klaus Schulze
Lower Saxony: Cluster, Harmonia

Although the distances between the cities were close, the philosophies of sound were surprisingly different. Krautrock is a “philosophical map of sound” for each city.

Glossary

Terminology	Meaning
Motorik	Constant 4/4 beat established by Neu!A linear, trance-like rhythm.
Cosmic Music	Space-oriented electronic music by Tangerine Dream, Klaus Schulze, and others.
Continental Rock	Musical expression from a European perspective, as opposed to Anglo-American rock.
Kraut	Originally British slang.It was originally a derogatory term, but was later redefined as a word of pride.
Motorik Groove	The rhythm of “Ein-zwei-drei-vier…“.A symbol of minimalism and euphoria.

Discography Guide

Artist	Representative works	Year	Links
CAN	Tago Mago	1971	Amazon
Kraftwerk	Autobahn	1974	Amazon
Neu!	Neu!	1972	Amazon
Faust	The Faust Tapes	1973	Amazon
Tangerine Dream	Phaedra	1974	Amazon
Cluster	Zuckerzeit	1974	Amazon
Harmonia	Deluxe	1975	Amazon
Popol Vuh	Aguirre	1975	Amazon
Klaus Schulze	Timewind	1975	Amazon

Final chapter: In search of freedom of sound

Krautrock was a movement that used sound to ask, ``What is freedom?’’ during the period of national reconstruction. What was there was a refusal to follow existing culture and a will to create their own future.

It is a story of a universal creative spirit'' rather than aGerman origin.’’ Tapes, rhythms, electronic waves–they still play in the underground studio.