This is the title of a short note in the March edition of „Electronic Sound“, in regards to Jan‘s book, and the subtitle is „Reeperbahn to Autobahn in impressive tome“. „Krautrock didn‘t fall from the sky“, declares Hamburg-born, US-based author Jan Reetze. „As soon as you find out that former Kraftwerker Wolfgang Flür was in a band called „The Beethovens“ in 1966, you know there‘s a back story that needs telling.“ As we know by now, „Jan places krautrock in the wider context of Germany‘s post-war reconstruction and its popular music industry, taking you from the jazz of the 1950s, via Stockhausen and the electronic avantgard, toward the 1960s beat boom, krautrock, Neue Deutsche Welle, and on into the 1990s. Spread across 536 pages, this is a deep dive and then some.“
Approaching Hamburg, later in the day, after some wild driving through the hinterland of Neumünster (caused by a A7 highway accident), I put on post-kraut rockers „Trees Speak“, a joyful, eerie soundtrack for my Elbtunnel drive no. 8 this year.