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Krautrock, the music of a generation that wanted to break with the past.

Krautrock, which I prefer to call cosmic music, is an extremely experimental genre born in West Germany between the late Sixties and the early Seventies, blending elements of psychedelic rock, electronics and minimalism.  

The term “krautrock” was coined by the English press in an ironic and derogatory way, deriving from “kraut”, a slur used to refer to Germans, and that’s why I don’t like it, so I use it only because it’s very common and immediately recognizable.

Krautrock emerged from the rubble of postwar Germany, from a generation of musicians driven by the desire to break radically with the past.  Young people born after World War II rejected both their parents’ silence about Nazism and German commercial music.  Moreover, there was a strong will not to emulate American rock or British pop, but to create something authentically German.

The student and counterculture movements that developed in Berlin, Cologne and Munich between 1966 and 1969 provided fertile ground for musical experimentation.  Between 1968 and 1971, bands like Amon Düül and Tangerine Dream began combining long psychedelic jams with noise and rudimentary electronics.

In Düsseldorf, between 1971 and 1974, bands like Neu! and Kraftwerk codified the Motorik beat, a steady, linear 4/4 pulse that removed the typical time changes of Anglo-American rock.  

Each city developed its own distinctive sound: Cologne became the base of Can, known for their hypnotic, funk style; Munich hosted Amon Düül II, who mixed hippy commune influences and hard rock; Berlin was the home of Tangerine Dream, pioneers of cosmic and ambient music.

Toward the mid-’70s, groups like Kraftwerk completely abandoned guitars to embrace pure synth-pop, marking the end of the classic krautrock era.  Despite its initially non-commercial character, krautrock has had a lasting impact on music history.  Without it, post-punk, New Wave (David Bowie drew heavily on this genre for his Berlin trilogy), techno music and post-rock would not have been born.

Krautrock stands out for its unique musical approach, abandoning the typical song structure (verse-chorus) in favor of a hypnotic, repetitive atmosphere and a fusion of traditional and electronic instruments.  The “straight beat”, the Motorik, a steady, geometric 4/4 drum rhythm, devoid of the embellishments and “fills” typical of American rock, creates a hypnotic effect, a sense of perpetual motion, like an endless journey. 

The rhythm remains unchanged, with no speeding up or slowing down, maintaining a constant intensity for the entire duration of the track. 

Open structures, often long instrumental suites exceeding 10 or 20 minutes, allow musicians to freely explore sound. 

Groups like Can, for example, recorded hours of free improvisation, then selected and edited the tapes, thus creating the final track.  Minimalism, characterized by insistence on a single chord or on a bass line repeated for whole minutes (drone technique), helps create a hypnotic, mesmerizing atmosphere. 

The pioneering use of primitive synthesizers, such as oscillators, noise generators and early synths (Moog, EMS VCS3), made it possible to create spatial, alien atmospheres.  Guitars and drums, filtered through echo effects (delay), frequency modulations and distortions, took on a “non-human” sound, contributing to the track’s alienation.  Finally, the use of tapes as an instrument, with magnetic loops and editing techniques derived from classical avant-garde music (musique concrète), added a further level of experimentation and innovation to krautrock.

Düsseldorf was the cradle of a revolutionary musical movement that laid the foundations for modern electronic music.

Kraftwerk, who started with flutes, percussion and distortions, then invented electronic music as we know it today. Their 1974 album “Autobahn” is considered the manifesto of the genre.

Neu!, born from the union of two former Kraftwerk members, Michael Rother and Klaus Dinger, are considered the founding fathers of the Motorik beat, a minimal, obsessive sound that directly influenced punk and post-punk. 

In the mid-’70s, in Düsseldorf, the parallel project La Düsseldorf was also born, characterized by a more pop, energetic sound and a precursor to New Wave.

In Cologne, instead, the music scene was characterized by groove and experimentation.

Can, one of the most innovative bands ever, brought together classically and jazz-trained musicians with a funk drummer, Jaki Liebezeit.  Famous for their long hypnotic jams, their sound was shaped by the analog editing of bassist Holger Czukay.

Faust, on the other hand, were famous for their radical, chaotic approach: they used industrial noises, cement mixers on stage, tape collages and songs shattered by sudden rhythm changes.

In Berlin, the music scene was dominated by cosmic and ambient music.

Tangerine Dream, led by Edgar Froese, soon abandoned guitars to create entirely electronic, hypnotic suites, becoming pioneers of ambient music and New Age.

Popol Vuh, linked to Munich and led by Florian Fricke, combined synthesizers (they were among the first to use the Moog), piano and acoustic instruments, creating spiritual, ancestral music. They are famous for the soundtracks to Werner Herzog’s films.

Amon Düül II, pioneers of Munich’s psychedelic rock and hippy commune, were marked by a powerful, theatrical, dark and chaotic sound.

Among the soloists and key figures of krautrock, Klaus Schulze, initially drummer for Tangerine Dream and Ash Ra Tempel, became one of the most prolific solo artists of cosmic electronic music, dominated by keyboards and modular synthesizers.

Conny Plank, while not a leading musician, was the producer and sound engineer behind almost all the genre’s masterpieces, working with bands like Neu!, Kraftwerk and Cluster. His recording studio in Cologne shaped the “krautrock sound”. 

Finally, Brian Eno and Michael Rother, with the supergroup Harmonia (born from the union of members of Neu! and Cluster) and the solo collaborations with the Englishman Brian Eno, defined the boundaries of modern ambient music.

The genre had a huge impact on the music that came after, laying the groundwork for the shift from classic rock to the electronic, alternative and independent music of the ’80s, ’90s and 2000s. 

Neu! and Can were true pioneers of post-punk and alternative rock, stripping away the virtuosity typical of American and European rock and showing the world how powerful repetition and rhythm could be.  Their sound, with Neu!’s robotic beat and Can’s hypnotic bass lines, became the essence of post-punk in the late ’70s. 

Bands like Sonic Youth, Radiohead and Stereolab also drew inspiration from them. Radiohead, for example, incorporated krautrock’s hypnotic repetition into albums like “Kid A” and “A Moon Shaped Pool” (the track “Ful Stop” is a clear example). Stereolab, instead, built their entire career inspired by Neu!’s Motorik beat.  Finally, the mathematical groove of Can’s drummer, Jaki Liebezeit, was sampled by major hip-hop artists like Kanye West (on the track “Drunk and Hot Girls”) and A Tribe Called Quest.

The meeting between Cluster, Neu! and British producer Brian Eno revolutionized electronic music, shifting its image from “spacey” and cold to warmer and more evocative.  Thanks to the albums born from this collaboration, Eno was able to define the ambient genre as we know it today. 

The influence of these artists is also palpable in David Bowie’s Berlin Trilogy: struck by the pastoral, minimal synthesizers of Harmonia and Cluster, Bowie moved to Germany to record Low and “Heroes”. 

Faust paved the way for the use of industrial noises and mechanical objects as musical instruments.  Historic bands of the ’80s took cues from Faust’s approach, marked by the use of drills, sheet metal and a chaotic aesthetic, turning it into a defined musical genre. 

Ash Ra Tempel and Popol Vuh were true pioneers, laying the foundations for genres like shoegaze and sound art.  These projects pushed the limits of how music could interact with images or represent moods.  Manuel Göttsching’s saturated, stretched and expanded guitars, with Ash Ra Tempel, anticipated by a full twenty years the floating textures that characterize shoegaze bands.  On the other hand, Popol Vuh’s approach to Herzog’s film soundtracks revolutionized music for cinema, influencing contemporary composers and the use of spiritual drones across various media.

Dom added a crucial, dark and intriguing element to the genre’s story: cosmic acid folk and the more shadowy psychedelia. Dom enriched the krautrock family tree of influences with distinctive traits.

Dom, originally from Düsseldorf, are considered pioneers of Dark Acid Folk and sonic “Bad Trips”. Unlike Neu!’s motorik beat or Cluster’s pure electronics, they released only one legendary album in 1972, titled “Edge of Time”. Their music blends acoustic guitars and traditional folk elements, such as the transverse flute, with drifting organs, spectral drones and disorienting electronic effects, creating a sonic experience that represents a true psychedelic “bad trip”.

Dom’s influence on later music is notable. Together with Popol Vuh, they are considered the spiritual grandparents of apocalyptic folk and of modern bands that took those mysterious, rural acoustic atmospheres and made them even darker, contributing to the development of proto-industrial.

The genre’s influences are strong in contemporary projects:

I.E.M., an acronym for Incredible Expanding Mindfuck, Steven Wilson’s instrumental, avant-garde solo project.  This project was born between 1996 and 2001.  Among Wilson’s main influences are Can, Neu! and early Tangerine Dream.  With I.E.M., Wilson wanted to express his deep love for classic krautrock. The music is almost entirely improvised in the studio and blends the typical obsessive jazz-funk bass lines of the Cologne school with distortions, organs and analog cosmic atmospheres, breaking with the rigid structures of new prog.

Kanaan, a contemporary Norwegian power trio made up of guitar, bass and drums. Their music sits between heavy psych, stoner rock and jazz fusion.  They draw directly on the abrasive, acid energy of Amon Düül II (whose most famous track is actually titled “Kanaan”) and the minimalism of Neu!.  Their sound is driven by the propulsive Motorik beat, enriched by heavy layers of fuzz distortion. Their long instrumental tracks start from a riff or a simple beat repeated until it creates a hypnotic atmosphere, alternating moments of cosmic calm with sudden chaotic, noisy explosions, an inheritance from the most extreme German psychedelia.

Full Earth, a Norwegian avant-garde music collective, born in Oslo as a kind of experimental supergroup, led by Kanaan’s drummer, Ingvald Vassbø.  Among their main influences are Popol Vuh, Harmonia, Cluster and cosmic minimalism.  Their debut album, “Cloud Sculptors”, is a monumental work that alternates suites of over 20 minutes with short organ pieces.  On this record, krautrock is reinterpreted through the use of the Farfisa organ, vintage analog synthesizers and cyclical rhythmic textures that recall ’70s avant-garde electronics, all fused with the powerful sound of modern stoner, in line with bands like Elder.

Similarly to the genome of modern human beings, which preserves genetic traces of encounters and crossbreeding that happened tens of thousands of years ago with other now-extinct human species—traces of prehistoric, raw and primordial DNA—contemporary music, mainstream music, contains traces of krautrock DNA, a genre that, starting from pure chaotic and cacophonous experimentation, managed to shape the music that followed up to today.

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