Kollektiv

BIO :

In March 1973 the band recorded its first LP, with Conny Plank as co-producer and sound-engineer, for the legendary Brain-Metronome Label. Acclaimed by progressive and krautrock fans and critics alike, it showed a different, more innovative style of playing contemporary German rock music and was honoured with a nomination for the German Schallplattenpreis. A re-release of the LP on Long Hair is planned. Kollektiv recorded new versions of two of the titles from the LP in SWFs Studio U 1 in Baden-Baden. The SWF versions of Baldrian and Gageg demonstrate the bands ability to improvise, its successful efforts to develop its best ideas and a dynamic handling of basic themes. The other three titles are snapshots of songs subjected to continuous development, yet always revolving around a fixed framework, showing remarkable instrumental ability and the desire to experiment and explore the scope for development.

A glance at the bands evolution and musical roots of the individual musicians helps explain Kollektivs musical self-confidence.

Waldo Karpenkiel remembers: Influenced by Beat-Music coming from England we started a school band, The Generals, in 1964: My twin brother Jogi was on bass, Jürgen Havix played guitar and I was the drummer. We gradually got bored with Beat-Music and started listening to early Frank Zappa, Blodwyn Pig and King Crimson records. Jazz musicians like Jimmy Smith, Wes Montgomery and Cannonball Adderly also influenced us. Then Jogi started to experiment with The Phantoms, another Krefeld band with Ralf Hütter on organs, Klaus Dapper from Duisburg on the flute and saxophone. In 1968 Jogi returned to The Generals. We decided we should work together with a wind-player and contacted Klaus Dapper. In the meantime, Ralf Hütter had founded Organisation, the forerunner to Kraftwerk.

In 1970 The Generals and Klaus Dapper became Kollektiv. Our maxim: Everything is allowed! Music as experiment! Effect machines, sometimes homemade, were used: a Zither, with an electrical amplifier played with drum sticks, the bass played with a bow. Metal sheets and rotating metal discs were used, in addition to any type of exotic instrument or outlandish machine. The musical pieces are improvisations of minimal themes, often in excess of 10, 15 or more minutes. In 1971 we were ready to go on tour. The first concert was 400km away in Wilhelmshaven. On the day before the tour we hurriedly bought an old Volkswagen bus for DM 400. It had Campari-Bitter written on it and served us well for many years. We played in almost all the relevant music clubs, at university fests and small and large festivals. We often played with Sweet Smoke, who we had befriended.

After intensive practising and all the performances we felt ready to record an LP. My brother Jogi travelled to Hamburg to meet Conny Plank and make arrangements. In March 1973 we did the recordings that were released on the Brain LP. We sent SWF (Südwestfunk Radio in Baden-Baden) some demo cassettes and they invited us to a recording session. The SWF Studio was only available for one day. Our extensive system had to be set up first and then we had to sound check, so there wasnt very much time left for the actual recording. Corrections and overdubs werent possible. We were happy with the recording though.

The first split in the band came in 1975. My brother Jogi and Jürgen Havix left the band. Jogi joined Guru Guru, where he played bass until 1979. Jürgen Havix dedicated himself to freestyle music. Jochen Schrumpf (guitar) and Detlef Wiederhöft (bass) joined the band. This line-up stayed together until 1978, then Kollektiv called it a day.

In 1979 I formed the rock-jazz big band SuperSession and we recorded several LPs, Klaus Dapper was involved too. Furthermore we were featured as guest musicians on numerous LP productions.

Kollektiv reformed in 1987 with Waldo, Klaus, Jochen, the exceptional Swedish bassist Jonas Hellborg and also as guest keyboarder Thomas Bettermann, they released a CD on ITM Records.

Back to the original Kollektiv line-up, to be heard on the SWF Sessions and the Brain-Metronome LP:

They produced an incomparable, unmistakeable sound with echoes of Organisation and early Kraftwerk: spacey but melodic, elevated yet rocking, innovative: progressive in the best sense, consequent in the realisation of intent, forging new musical territory without denying its roots. Thanks to SWF titles from that extremely creative phase, not included on the Brain LP, can now be presented for the first time!

Manfred Steinheuer, February 2001

Translation: Annette Duffy

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ABOUT "KOLLEKTIV LIVE 1973" out on LongHair

What you hear are rich bass sounds, distinctive drums, guitar, flute and saxophone electronically alienated by echo, ringmodulators, octavoice, vibrators and sound filters - all this leads to the conclusion that the subconscious communication during the process of music making and a collective processing of sound images and moods are in foreground. "It sounds like wild animals, goblins, imps and witches on brooms", was the comment of one mother. A live concert of the group Kollektiv could be interpreted in all sorts of ways. Since their formation in early 1970 their music had attracted a growing number of fans, and until 1975, when this first formation split up, the group had played in nearly every club in Germany. They had a wide variety of headlines in the press, such as "Krefeld amateurs showed modern jazz at its best in the club Cartoon", "Jazz musicians breaking new grounds", "Collective interpretations", "Krefeld Rock Group Kollektiv - a creative unity", "Music by Kollektiv: appealing and catching", "2000 enthusiastic fans at the rock festival saw a pop-rock-jazz-formation." The band's official information sheet is able to tell us: Kollektiv has existed since early 1970. Guitarist Jürgen Havix and drummer Waldemar Karpenkiel used to make commercial pop music and had been founding members of the "Generals", one of the most popular pop groups of the left lower Rhine region. Jürgen Karpenkiel (bass guitarist) had played in several groups together with Ralf Hütter (Kraftwerk). Klaus Dapper, flute and saxophone (formerly with Isaias Feuerwagen) had played with the famous composer and church musician Peter Janssen. Together with him he made radio, TV and record recordings, and went on a South America tour in summer 1971. The music of the group features elements of pop, jazz and blues. Part of their music is arranged, but their themes do leave a lot of room for free interpretations. Their most important aim is to invent their own, independent music with today's musical tools for expression, and a spontaneity that will appeal to their listeners. Who? Why? What?

Founding member Klaus Dapper answered these questions in early 1974, in an article that appeared in the contemporary magazines Sounds and Pop.

Kollektiv? Who are they? In early 1970 Jogi Karpenkiel called me and asked me whether I felt like opening a new group together with him and two of his friends. We had first met in 1967, I think, when I had joined a blues group in Krefeld, where he had played together with Ralf Hütter, long before Ralf joined Kraftwerk. Jogi wastelling me that he and the other two guys had been playing English and American style music the past few years (bibabaluma schis mei bebi!) and were pretty sick of it now. They really wanted to have a go at their own music and I was feeling the same, but had got tangled up in jazz pretty much. But then, at a Zappa concert, the Mothers got to me so much that I swore to myself: no more jazz. This paved the way for our first rehearsals together, and since then Kollektiv has existed in its original formation: Jogi Karpenkiel plays the bass guitar and takes care of most of the organisation for the group. Waldemar Karpenkiel, Jogi's twin brother, plays the drums. Jürgen Harvix plays the guitar and other string instruments, many of which he makes himself, and Klaus Dappner plays the flute and the saxophone. What does the name Kollektiv stand for?

Well, no, we did not share the typical farmhouse. But still, the name expresses what we feel we are. We do have different social and musical backgrounds, but I know few bands that are as close as we are and whose members share the same aims and values, not just with regard to music. We do not separate into soloist and accompanist (rhythm slave). Each musician and each instrument has the same rights. Our pieces aren't individual compositions; they are born out of and grow through creative collaboration. After all, our name is saying: we are our own roadies, manager, technicians, bus-driver, record producers and article writers, and three of us share the same birthday.

This CD is the first in a series of live-recordings of the band Kollektiv done between 1973-1978, and will particularly appeal to those who love experimental progressive rock music. The live appearance on stage is particularly suited to bring out their musical genius. The CD "SWF-Sessions", already published in 2001 on Long Hair (LHC05) is an impressive proof for how well the band was able to play live. Although the recordings were not done during a live concert, they were recorded in the SWF (Radio/Broadcasting) studio under live conditions, which means without the possibility for corrections or overdubs.

Translation: Dr. Martina Husler

Manfred Steinheuer, March 2005