"We do not belong to anyone, we are a well-organized form of anarchy, like music, after all, a well-organized form of noise" (Ralf Hutter).
In '77 the four from Dusseldorf brought their artistic philosophy of the musical worker to its full completion, a musician no longer as a star or genius and dissolute, but as a genuine worker of sound, an entity between the man (the musician) and the machine (the instrumentation, the technology), merging with the machine and becoming one, a semi-human being, a new entity born from the industrial age. Ralf Hutter, Florian Schneider, Karl Bartos, and Wolfgang Flur in the '70s revolutionized not only electronic music but the very concept of "consumer" music. Hutter and Schneider, students of Stockhausen at his study center in Cologne during the '60s, and graduated from the conservatory, spent the early '70s perfecting and studying their future approach to electronic sound. The first fruit of their years of study and research, carried out with their initial transient records, was the 1974's "Autobahn," an epochal work of fusion between electronic research and melodic construction. The same goes for the subsequent "Radio-Activity," imbued with atmospheres between synthetic-melodic perfection and research, especially through largely homemade electronic instrumentation, patented by the musicians themselves.
With "Trans-Europe Express," the definitive work of the "power station" takes shape. The music of Kraftwerk has always maintained a strong European melodic identity. Beneath the icy and metronomic perfection of their sound lies a neoclassical spirit deeply rooted in the German tradition. Even in the lyrics, the work embraces modernity and tradition, in the same unity that binds man and machine. The music creates the same union between modern technology and homage to old Europe. The high-speed train as a symbol of progress and technological advancement, the odes to Europe as a symbol of classical tradition, the bright and uniform scenarios of "Europe Endless" create fluid and lush melodic landscapes, expanded by the metronomic beat of synthetic percussion. The voice, detached, declares, "Europe endless, life is eternal (...) elegance and decadence Europe endless," in a succession of almost baroque arias created by synthesizers. The brooding gloom of "The Hall Of Mirrors" spreads coldly like a layer of thick fog, the atmospheres reach a hypnotic stasis, the melodies become dark and nocturnal, icy and minimal, with an intimate text sung by Hutter in his usual robotic tone.
In the full punk era, Kraftwerk were already projected forward, towards the future, unconcerned with current trends, they presented their approach to electronic music that would influence thousands of musicians and currents to come, from technopop, industrial, electro, house to techno. The insistent and mechanical beats that chase each other in an intoxicating expanse of decadent synthetic chants reach the sublime of "Showroom Dummies" and immerse themselves in post-industrial and technological scenarios, inhabited by mannequins gaining life and awareness of their new human nature. Machines become humanized and humans mechanized, one of the central elements of Kraftwerk's futurist poetics. The four German robots, at the peak of their inspiration, aimed for the formal perfection of their music. Their electronics combined song form and the quest for pop melodic clarity with electronic experimentation of the avant-garde of past decades, thus forming a new sound, a hybrid as strange (for the time) as it is dazzling and ahead of its time. The title track has now entered history, known worldwide, even by those who know Kraftwerk only by name or a little more. In 1948, the father of musique concrète, the Frenchman Pierre Schaeffer, composed the first ever piece of musique concrète: "Etude Aux Chemins De Fer," manipulating and arranging the advance of a running train. In '77, Kraftwerk reinvented, modernized, and constructed an epochal suite on this rhythmic theme. The pounding and geometric rhythmic clangs truly seem to come from cold rails. Opened by a majestic and resonant melody of synths and supported by pounding rhythms, "Trans-Europe Express" is the definitive realization of Kraftwerk's electronic art, with a sparse, fascinating, and emblematic text, and its main melody that leaves one breathless for its impetuous and tempestuous beauty, "Metal On Metal" is the second part of the suite, more focused on rhythm and "mathematical" noise of the industrial school.
"Franz Schubert": the title says it all, the four robots pay homage to the great German classical composer with a wonderfully melancholic and neoclassical synthetic gem, splendid and perfect melodies drawing landscapes of a Europe suspended between past and present, and when in "Endless Endless" an inhuman and artificial voice appears for a few seconds, an ultra-modern train speeds towards the future, passing through valleys and infinite fields golden in the sun.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
02 The Hall of Mirrors (07:54)
The young man stepped into the hall of mirrors
Where he discovered a reflection of himself
Even the greatest stars discover themselves in the looking glass
Even the greatest stars discover themselves in the looking glass
Sometimes he saw his real face
And sometimes a stranger at his place
Even the greatest stars find their face in the looking glass
Even the greatest stars find their face in the looking glass
He fell in love with the image of himself
and suddenly the picture was distorted
Even the greatest stars dislike themselves in the looking glass
Even the greatest stars dislike themselves in the looking glass
He made up the person he wanted to be
And changed into a new personality
Even the greatest stars change themselves in the looking glass
Even the greatest stars change themselves in the looking glass
The artist is living in the mirror
With the echoes of himself
Even the greatest stars live their lives in the looking glass
Even the greatest stars live their lives in the looking glass
Even the greatest stars fix their face in the looking glass
Even the greatest stars fix their face in the looking glass
Even the greatest stars live their lives in the looking glass
Even the greatest stars live their lives in the looking glass
03 Showroom Dummies (06:13)
1 2 3 4 [in German]
We are standing here
Exposing ourselves
We are showroom dummies
We are showroom dummies
We're being watched
and we feel our pulse
We are showroom dummies
We are showroom dummies
We look around
and change our pose
We are showroom dummies
We are showroom dummies
We start to move
And we break the glass
We are showroom dummies
We are showroom dummies
We step out
And take a walk through the city
We are showroom dummies
We are showroom dummies
We go into a club
And there we start to dance
We are showroom dummies
We are showroom dummies
[repeat to fade]
We are showroom dummies
Europe endless
Endless endless endless endless
Europe endless
Endless endless endless endless
Parks, hotels and palaces
Europe endless
Parks, hotels and palaces
Europe endless
Promenades and avenues
Europe endless
Real life and postcard views
Europe endless
Europe endless
Endless endless endless endless
Europe endless
Endless endless endless endless
Elegance and decadence
Europe endless
Elegance and decadence
Europe endless
04 Trans-Europe Express (06:52)
Trans-Europe Express
Trans-Europe Express
Trans-Europe Express
Trans-Europe Express
Trans-Europe Express
Trans-Europe Express
Trans-Europe Express
Trans-Europe Express
Rendezvous on Champs-Elysees
Leave Paris in the morning on T.E.E.
Trans-Europe Express
Trans-Europe Express
Trans-Europe Express
Trans-Europe Express
In Vienna we sit in a late-night cafe
Straight connection, T.E.E.
Trans-Europe Express
Trans-Europe Express
Trans-Europe Express
Trans-Europe Express
From station to station
back to Dusseldorf City
Meet Iggy Pop and David Bowie
Trans-Europe Express
Trans-Europe Express
Trans-Europe Express
Trans-Europe Express
07 Endless Endless (00:55)
Endless
Endless
Endless
Endless
Endless
Endless
Endless
Endless
Endless
Endless
Endless
Endless
Endless
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Other reviews
By Qzerty
An album a masterpiece of inspiration, composition, production, and content.
Trans-Europe Express deserves to be listened to at least once in a lifetime by anyone who calls themselves a music enthusiast.
By Breus
"The album's title-track...offering a vivid sensation of cultural and emotional journey projected both towards the past and the years to come."
"The formula...no one before them had consolidated so evidently in black and white."
By R13569920
It’s as if the train had been sampled, we are indeed in the carriage observing Europe flowing from Berlin to Paris up to the predictable, shrill final brake at the station.
Trans Europe Express remains the album to be prioritized to get to know this unique and fascinating band, which had the merit of imposing a musical and cultural aesthetic through its albums.
By 123asterisco
A finite time (about 40 minutes) is capable of becoming a concrete image of infinite time.
The product of human industry, finally emancipated from human perishability, becomes eternal.