From January 6 – 13, 2015, electronic music pioneers KRAFTWERK will perform the 3-D concert series Der Katalog – 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 at Berlin’s Neue Nationalgalerie. In these multimedia events surround sound and 3-D projections will blend perfectly with the architecture of the transparent universal space of Mies van der Rohe.
With KRAFTWERK’s performance, the Nationalgalerie takes temporary leave of this important building, which from 1968 to today has hosted numerous collection presentations and exhibitions and in January 2015 is closing for several years of renovations.
With the 3D concert series Der Katalog – 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8, KRAFTWERK presents eight performances from January 6 – 13, 2015, each evening focusing on one of their legendary albums. Each multimedia performance will be complemented with a selection of additional compositions from their back-catalogue. Following their own history, the albums will be presented in chronological order:
1 Autobahn (1974), 2 Radio-Aktivität (1975), 3 Trans Europa Express (1977), 4 Die Mensch-Maschine (1978), 5 Computerwelt (1981), 6 Techno Pop (1986), 7 The Mix (1991), and 8 Tour de France (2003).
The multimedia project KRAFTWERK was founded by Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider in 1970 in Düsseldorf’s experimental art scene. At the same time, the group established the legendary Kling-Klang-Studio, where all KRAFTWERK albums were conceived, composed, and produced. Numerous live performances were held at art museums and galleries in the surrounding Rhine region.
KRAFTWERK then went on to write music history over more than four decades, celebrating success worldwide. They are considered a key influence on a wide range of musical styles, including electro, hip-hop, synthpop, minimal, and especially techno. Already since the early years in the early 1970s, KRAFTWERK engaged with the developments of modern technology and anticipated the soundtrack of our digital computer age, definitively shaping it. Very early on, they took up the issue of a world dominated by machines, computers, and data, with their electronic and synthetic sounds, automatic and machine-based rhythms, with their sound poetry, strongly reduced texts, and an appearance modeled on robotics in terms of both their music and language.