Electri_City: The Duesseldorf School of Electronic Music

By Rudi Esch

Just like Memphis and Rock'n'Roll, Dusseldorf is regarded as the Mecca for electronic music. The capital of North Rhine-Westphalia became the centre of an analog electronic movement from the early 1970s to the mid-1980s.

This is the oral account of the city's most influential bands, including Kraftwerk, NEU!, DAF, Die Krupps and many more. This history uncovers the myths and reality of the bands emerging from the artistic backdrop of a wealthy German post WWII modernistic city and explores the emergence of the electronic scene in Dusseldorf and the conditions that fostered such a creative explosion and became so influential for musicians and artists all over the world.

Interviews include Daniel Miller (Mute Records), Paul Humphreys and Andy McCluskey (OMD), Martyn Ware (Human League), Glenn Gregory (Heaven 17), Rusty Egan (Visage) Ryuichi Sakamoto and producer Giorgio Moroder.

'The way Mute Records Daniel Miller recalls first hearing Kraftwerk s Radio-Activity album on one of Alan Fluff Freeman s rock-radio fantasias is illustrative of this book s scope. There are extended interviews... illuminating accounts... masses of local colour.' Roy Wilkinson, **** MOJO

'...Rudi Esch tells the story of the city s musical evolution, from the first stirrings of Krautrock in the 1960s through to the avant-dance scene it hosted in the 1908s, via the accounts of participants and eyewitnesses. Not everyone sees eye to eye; Neu s Klaus Dinger was a truculent character, while resentment of Kraftwerk s Ralf Hutter and Florian Schneider considered rich boys who failed to empathise with the struggles of fellow musicians abounds. Interviews with Daniel Miller, Rusty Egan and OMD's Andy McCluskey emphasise the transformative effect of Dusseldorf on the UK scene.' David Stubbs, Classic Rock

'This city [Dusseldorf] clearly has a greater claim to the birthplace of electronic music than any other, and with this sterling book ore people will finally learn of its significance' Ben Murphy, Electronic Sound Magazine

Publication Date: 26.08.16
ISBN: 9781785581199
Extent: 448 pages
Format: Paperback

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