Germany - Rest of Nordrhein-Westphalen

 Next we are heading to Düsseldorf where possibly the internationally most famous Krautrock band hails from, Kraftwerk.  They formed in 1970 around Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider, who are considered innovators and pioneers of electronic music.  They were amongst the first to experiment with synthesizer driven music with basic repetitive rhythms, drum machines and vocoders.  Here is a live version of their 1975 song Radioactivity from the album of the same name:

And talking about radioactivity, I also saw punk-rock band Die Toten Hosen at the legendary anti-nuclear festival in 1986.  They are also very much from Düsseldorf.  The name of the band literally translates as the dead trousers, which is a reference to a German phrase meaning dead boring or nothing happening.  They have been touring pretty much non-stop since 1980 and their concerts are very much the opposite of dead boring.  Here is a recent live performance of their song Du Lebst Nur Einmal (You only live once), which features on their 2019 live album Zuhause Live: Das Laune der Natour-Finale:

I promised you some German folk as well, so here comes folk trio Fiedel Michel, who were formed 1973 in Münster inspired by the big folk revival of the time.  Here's a pair of polkas from their early days called Mecklenburger Polka and Kreuzpolka with some pictures of the Mecklenburg region:

And a popular anti-war and protest song against the power of the nobility and church from the First World War called Mein Michel, which features on their 1994 compilation album Retrospective:

Singer/songwriter Hannes Wader was born in 1942 in Bielefeld.  He burst onto the scene during the 1960's folk revival amidst the student protest movement and quickly became a champion of the political left.  He was a member of the West-German Communist party until 1991 and as such was boycotted by the media for periods of his life.  In fact I'm sure I saw him live in the Communist party May tent in the 1970's.  I loved that annual event, not because I was a Communist, but because I loved the scents of exotic foods from Kurdidistan or Chile and the sounds of many global music acts. I once bumped into one of my teachers there, much to his embarrassment, as teachers could loose their jobs back then if they were even just suspected to have any sympathies with Communism.

 Wader's songs are a mixture of traditional and self-written protest songs.  It's difficult to pick just one song from his long back catalogue, but here is a live version of the anti-capitalist anthem Trotz Alledem (Despite everything), which features on his 2006 album Mal Angenommen (Let's presume):

Singer/songwriter Holger Saarmann was born in 1971 in Hagen, although he is now based in Berlin.  He accompanies his folk-inspired songs on an acoustic guitar as well as flute and accordion.  Here's the light-hearted title song from his 2009 album So Küsste Mich Meine Friseuse (This is how my hairdresser Kissed Me):

That's it from Nordrhein-Westphalen, next we are heading south to the state of Rheinland-Pfalz.  As usual you follow my virtual travels on my Tripline map.