U96 and Wolfgang Flür (ex-Kraftwerk) release collaboration album + new Wolfgang Flür album in the making
German techno/electronic legends U96 will release a new album with former Kraftwerk member Wolfgang Flür on September 4th. The album, called “Transhuman”, contains 14 tracks and 2 U96 Bonus tracks. It will be available online, on CD and also on a limited double Red Vinyl edition via the German label UNLTD-Recordings. The New York record label Radikal Records has secured the rights to the album for the US and Canada.
At the frontline of electronic music for many years were the German act Kraftwerk and moost do know the band via their longstanding career. Wolfgang Flür was Kraftwerk’s drummer in the years between 1972 and 1987 and therefore involved in the most seminal albums by the group from Düsseldorf. U96 (Ingo Hauss & Hayo Lewerentz) from its side rose to fame in the 1990s with hits such as “Das Boot”, “Love Sees No Colour”, “Night In Motion” and “Heaven”.
“Transhuman” and an updated version of “Zukunftsmusik (Radiophonique)” will be released as lead singles, including experimental video clips.
The best of both worlds
“Transhuman is a stylistic mélange of our different histories,” says Wolfgang Flür.
Hauss: “Pieces like ‘Zukunftsmusik’ and ‘Transhuman’ don’t tell a story in the classic sense, they articulate emotions and associations in very few words, bringing to mind recordings such as RadioAktivität, Autobahn and Die Mensch-Maschine. In addition Transhuman, features a number of melodies created on the basis of computer algorithms, in other words fractal music which takes us even further back in history, to Klaus Schulze, Stockhausen, the electronics laboratories of the fifties and sixties and the musique concrete compositional technique.”
U96 and Flür met in person for the first time in the early 2000s.
Hayo Lewerentz: “Of course there was no way past Kraftwerk for any German artist who worked with electronic music, synthesizers and creative studio options in the eighties. We were occupied day and night with how that band created their incredible sounds.”
Later Flür offered Lewerentz, who ran the electro label Major Records, new songs for release, and the latter went on to remix Flür’s track “Beat Perfecto”, among others. Subsequent to the creative collaboration between Hauss, Lewerentz and Flür on “Reboot”, the trio exchanged more than forty fragments of ideas online over the past two years, which eventually spawned the 14 songs on “Transhuman”.
Lewerentz: “In addition there are two more tracks, which will feature on Wolfgang’s upcoming album “Magazine” at the end of the year.”
Tour in the making
Joint concerts by U96/Wolfgang Flür are also in the making. Lewerentz: “We’re hoping to do a few shows together next year. There’s definitely been a lot of interest from the promoters.”
14 tracks
- Transhuman
- Hamburg – Düsseldorf
- Zukunftsmusik (Radiophonique)
- Specimen
- Clone
- To The Limit
- Zufallswelt
- Planet In Fever
- Shifted Reality
- Kreiselkompass
- Data Landscape
- Transhumanist
- Sexersizer
- Maschinenraum
Support Side-Line
More people read Side-Line than ever, and there is still no paywall and no advertising. Readers pay for it instead - from $5 a month.
Why we ask
Advertising revenues across the media are falling fast. Unlike many news organisations we have not put up a paywall, and we refuse to add annoying advertising, so we need to ask for your help. Side-Line’s independent journalism takes time, money and hard work to produce, and we do it to push the artists we like, who are equally fighting to survive.
Handled by PayPal.
Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!
