The rhythm of the road

It is now just over 50 years since German four-piece band Kraftwerk first released Autobahn, which is both the name of an album and its main single. Incredibly, both still sound very futuristic, and although robot voices and computer noises might seem a bit clichéd, it’s only because Kraftwerk basically invented the blueprint for ‘future’ music by experimenting with vocoders, synthesisers, repetitive beats and a lot more.

Back in an age where the airwaves were mostly filled with radio-friendly rock’n’roll and disco-derived pop about teenage love, Kraftwerk’s 23-minute song about the German motorway system must have landed like a UFO. It brought the band near-immediate international recognition, ranking high in both the UK and US charts, while impacting an entire generation of fans and musicians, firmly putting electronic music on the map.

Cologne airport is in fact a more appropriate starting point for a musical road trip than it would first appear. The brutalist Terminal 1 building was designed by the architect father of Kraftwerk co-founder Florian Schneider. Schneider started the band after meeting fellow student Ralf Hütter at art school, but rather than focus on the material side of things, the duo became obsessed with creating a new German culture they could claim for themselves and be proud of, untarnished by the horrors of the past.

Travel was a key part of this philosophy. Not only did it enable young Germans to leave behind the nationalist mindset that had plagued their parents’ generation, but it reinforced ideas of a trans-national European identity they could be proud of. The thriving German automotive industry was helping to spread this possibility to the masses, as was the ever-expanding network of high-speed roads that linked the country from top to bottom. In short, driving a German car on a German motorway was progressive, modern and forward-looking: something worth celebrating in music.

Autobahn A57 is the road we take to get from the airport to Düsseldorf. As we snake through Cologne and head north, the landscape feels in sync with what we’re hearing through the speakers. Not only is this one of the oldest motorways in the country, it also might have heavily inspired the band while recording the album. At the time, Kraftwerk split their time between their base in Düsseldorf and producer Conny Plank’s studio on the outskirts of Cologne. This constant commute probably inspired them to musically emulate a car journey on the motorway, and some say the song’s unusual 23-minute length is based on the time it takes to drive between the two places.

Later, as we head out of the city, the landscape follows a series of changes. The urban perimeter blends into heavy industry and giant power infrastructure, before phasing out into verdant countryside. Much like the great German composers of the past, such as Beethoven and Mendelssohn, who celebrated the natural landscape around them, Kraftwerk also decided to faithfully represent their surroundings.