Kraftwerk’s music, techno pioneer Juan Atkins once said, “sounded like the future,” even as it drew on the classical tradition that Mr. Schneider and Hütter studied at a music conservatory in Düsseldorf. “We decided you couldn’t play the 20th century on the instruments of the 18th century,” Hütter told The Washington Post in 1981. “He worked for many, many years on other projects — speech synthesis and things like that,” Hütter told the Guardian, by way of explanation. Even after he left Kraftwerk, Mr. Schneider was still experimenting, recording the 2015 song “Stop Plastic Pollution” in support of ocean conservation. Its beat hinged on a steady drip of water, which Mr. Schneider said he recorded in a friend’s bathroom, supplemented by “a synthetic wave” that he generated to mimic the sounds of the sea.

Source: Washington Post May 06, 2020 16:59 UTC