trans-europe express

Kraftwerk took their electronic blues to the next station with the mechanized rhythms and panoramic pulses of this conceptual, pan-cultural tour de force. 'Trans-Europe Express' reflects a move away from their nationalistic German roots toward a more diverse European focus. During the tour for their previous album 'Radio Activity', the band decided to abstain from drugs and alcohol while performing. Karl Bartos reflects that "it's not easy to turn knobs on a synthesizer if you are drunk or full of drugs. ... We always tried to keep very aware of what we were doing while acting in public."

The band began recording 'Trans-Europe Express' at their experimental Kling Klang studio in Düsseldorf after they had installed the Synthanorma Sequenzer, a customized 32-step 16-channel analogue sequencer made for them by Matten & Wiechers. Ralf Hütter (synthesizer, orchestron, synthanorma-sequenzer, electronics) and Florian Schneider (vocoder, votrax, synthesizer, electronics) produced the album and steered the direction of the sound, while Bartos and Wolfgang Flür provided electronic percussion. Hütter and Schneider had also met with David Bowie and Iggy Pop while they were recording in Berlin, which influenced the theme and lyrics. They did field recordings from train bridges to get the actual sound that the locomotives would produce and altered them with synthesizers to make them danceable. The minimalistic melodies evoke a sense of modern alienation that comes hand in hand with technology and travel in a post-war world. In the US, 'Trans-Europe Express' didn't break the top 100 of the album chart; but in Europe it did much better, going to number thirty-two in Sweden and the UK, number eight in Italy, and peaking at number two in France.

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'Europe Endless'

'Trans-Europe Express'

'Franz Schubert' / 'Endless Endless'

'Trans-Europe Express' 
full album:



1 - Europe Endless [00:00]
2 - The Hall of Mirrors [09:42]
3 - Showroom Dummies [17:39]
4 - Trans-Europe Express [23:54]
5 - Metal on Metal [30:31]
6 - Abzug [32:42]
7 - Franz Schubert [37:37]
8 - Endless Endless [42:04]

Bonus:

9 - Les Mannequins (French Version) [43:01]
10 - Les Mannequins (Single Version) [49:02]
11 - Showroom Dummies (Remix) [51:43]
12 - Showroom Dummies (Special Disco Version) [54:22]
13 - The Hall of Mirrors (Single Edit) [1:00:21]
14 - Trans-Europe Express (Single Edit) [1:05:01]
15 - Trans-Europe Express (Instrumental) [1:08:54]
16 - Trans-Europe Express/Metal on Metal (Long Version) [1:12:14]
17 - Europe Endless (Live at Paradiso '76) [1:25:55]

18 - Trans-Europe Express (Live at Paradiso '76) [1:39:15]