Krautrock: The Rebirth of Germany Page #5

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And you see that oven?

That was the only way we could heat the studio in winter.

HE LAUGHS:

You can imagine the cold fingers and cold feet!

It's so special to have this view.

You look for miles and you don't see any human structure.

In 1974, Harmonia's ambient electronica came to the attention

of a British rock star in search of a new direction.

I first liked Roxy Music without knowing Brian,

and I thought to myself,

"What a stupid, extravagant guy that must be."

Just from the picture.

He came to a concert of Harmonia in Hamburg in '74,

he was very nice,

and we said to him, "Come to our place and let's do some real music."

Another two years passed before he rang and said, "Can I come and see you?"

And that's what he did.

Brian came to our house to learn from us

and we didn't go to him to learn from him,

he didn't know what to do, really, I think in this moment.

He was at a dead end of a street.

There was not the idea to record an album.

We just exchanged ideas, took walks and played ping-pong,

and stuff like that. It was a very pleasant stay.

And at the end we had I think three tapes full of music which Brian took with him and -

he brought those blank tapes with him, we were poor,

and we didn't have blank tapes...

It did really change a lot in our life.

But he said to me once in the studio, "Don't worry, Moeby, you will be rich as well one day."

But he still is not right!

He left Forst and the idea was to continue working together

but that didn't happen. He left to record - I think it was - Low with David Bowie...

In 1976, David Bowie started a new career in a new town.

Bowie was famous for being in the right place at the right time,

and in '76 he knew Berlin was the place to be.

Accompanied by Brian Eno, Bowie would record his albums Low and Heroes

in Berlin's magnificent Hansa Studio.

My memories are that this room has a nice acoustic, maybe you can listen to it.

You can hear this little echo behind my claps.

And I think that was what David Bowie liked very much with this big hall by the wall.

The studio's control room, now a bar, looked out upon a watchtower on the Berlin Wall.

I am quite sure they knew what was going on here.

When we sat in front of this console with a few lamps on top,

I just directed one of the lamplights to the policeman, and David and Tony

just jumped down under the console and said, "Don't do that!"

And I said, "It's funny, it's a joke. They would never hurt us anyway."

Bowie would assimilate some of the Krautrock vibe on both albums.

Side two of Low would showcase Eno's Cluster influences.

And Bowie originally intended to record Heroes with Krautrock musicians.

# I...

# I wish I could swim

# Like the dolphins

# Like dolphins can swim... #

David Bowie called me in '77 and that would have been interesting to record

with Brian Eno and David Bowie in Berlin but something went wrong.

# We can beat them

# For ever and ever... #

He said that those two tracks of Neu! '75 were his favourite tracks -

Hero and After Eight.

It's anybody's guess where the name for that album came from.

Released in '77, Heroes was a big hit for David Bowie.

But the real heroes were the Krautrockers.

# Ich...

# Ich bin dann Konig

# Und du...

# Du Konigen

# Obwohl sie

# Unschlagbar scheinen

# Werden wir Helden

# Fur einen Tag. #

The funny thing is...

they're doing something they call Krautrock again.

So I have to decide, shall I go there?

What I fear is that it's only related to the word Krautrock

and not to the music, and even if it's related to the music,

it misses the more important part, being Krautrock as part of a social movement.

And you can play the records again, but this won't come back.

Krautrock may be over but theirs is not an unhappy ending.

Today these artists remain as gloriously uncompromising as they ever were.

Unlike many of their Anglo-American peers,

they have refused to be drawn into becoming establishment figures.

There are no Knights of the Realm here,

just happy experimental musicians.

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