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viewing 1 To 14 of 14 items
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CD
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BB 484CD
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$16.50
PREORDER
RELEASE DATE: 11/21/2025
A timeless statement on media, culture, and music. Karl Bartos, renowned as an essential member and songwriter of Kraftwerk during their most innovative years, is reissuing his solo album Communication on Hamburg's Bureau B. First released in 2003, 13 years after leaving the legendary electronic group, the re-release arrives at a moment when its central theme, the transformation of culture through electronic media, feels more relevant than ever. When Bartos departed Kraftwerk in 1990, he left behind a catalogue that had redefined electronic music: "The Model," "The Robots," "Numbers," "Pocket Calculator," and many more bear his imprint as co-writer and melody-maker. 2021 Kraftwerk's classic line-up was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame for their innovative work -- the first German band ever to be honored. With the sharp-witted electro-pop of Communication, the Kraftwerk legend extended that legacy, turning his focus toward a rapidly evolving media landscape at the turn of the millennium. At the time, the album's exploration of celebrity culture, digital imagery, and the early internet felt like a glimpse into the future. Today, it reads as sharp cultural analysis of a reality that has since become ordinary. Two decades later, this reissue allows Communication to be reconsidered on its own terms. The questions Bartos posed, about image saturation, reality fragmentation, and identity commodification, resonate more strongly in the age of smartphones, social media, and streaming platforms than they did in the early 2000s. Karl Bartos: "We are living in an age of huge behavioral manipulation. Cybernetics, artificial intelligence -- this is a major challenge for humanity." Bartos's role in shaping Kraftwerk's defining sound is undisputed, yet Communication also asserts his independent artistic voice: one that critiques media while celebrating the joy of electronic sound. Its rerelease is less a nostalgic act than a reminder that Bartos's work continues to speak directly to the cultural present. With this reissue on Bureau B, Communication endures as both a document of its time and a timeless statement on media, culture, and music.
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LP
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BB 484LP
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$26.00
PREORDER
RELEASE DATE: 11/21/2025
LP version. A timeless statement on media, culture, and music. Karl Bartos, renowned as an essential member and songwriter of Kraftwerk during their most innovative years, is reissuing his solo album Communication on Hamburg's Bureau B. First released in 2003, 13 years after leaving the legendary electronic group, the re-release arrives at a moment when its central theme, the transformation of culture through electronic media, feels more relevant than ever. When Bartos departed Kraftwerk in 1990, he left behind a catalogue that had redefined electronic music: "The Model," "The Robots," "Numbers," "Pocket Calculator," and many more bear his imprint as co-writer and melody-maker. 2021 Kraftwerk's classic line-up was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame for their innovative work -- the first German band ever to be honored. With the sharp-witted electro-pop of Communication, the Kraftwerk legend extended that legacy, turning his focus toward a rapidly evolving media landscape at the turn of the millennium. At the time, the album's exploration of celebrity culture, digital imagery, and the early internet felt like a glimpse into the future. Today, it reads as sharp cultural analysis of a reality that has since become ordinary. Two decades later, this reissue allows Communication to be reconsidered on its own terms. The questions Bartos posed, about image saturation, reality fragmentation, and identity commodification, resonate more strongly in the age of smartphones, social media, and streaming platforms than they did in the early 2000s. Karl Bartos: "We are living in an age of huge behavioral manipulation. Cybernetics, artificial intelligence -- this is a major challenge for humanity." Bartos's role in shaping Kraftwerk's defining sound is undisputed, yet Communication also asserts his independent artistic voice: one that critiques media while celebrating the joy of electronic sound. Its rerelease is less a nostalgic act than a reminder that Bartos's work continues to speak directly to the cultural present. With this reissue on Bureau B, Communication endures as both a document of its time and a timeless statement on media, culture, and music.
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2LP
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BB 400LP
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Double LP version. Narrative film music and sound design for Robert Wiene's classic 1920 psychological thriller. Digitally restored in 4K by the Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau-Foundation. Musician and writer Karl Bartos has long been admirer of Weimar-era culture. During his time in Kraftwerk, he helped create the stunning track Metropolis, directly inspired by a band viewing of the classic 1927 Fritz Lang film of the same name. The original orchestral music composed for The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari by Giuseppe Becce had long been lost and in 2005, after watching the film, Bartos imagined what it would be like to create an entirely new one in the 21st Century in his home studios in Hamburg. Now with crystal clear images, digitally restored by the Friedrich-Wilhelm Murnau-Foundation, the film is visually the best quality it has ever been, and now, with Bartos' soundtrack, there is impressive sound to go with the haunting vision. For the task, Bartos ransacked his own library of musical compositions, recreating pieces he had written as a young classical musician in his pre-Kraftwerk days whilst creating new sounds, melodies and textures. The intention was not simply to write a film score per se. This was to be an immersive listening experience with special sound effects to match the action as the listener enters the film as both spectator and participant. A creaking door, footsteps on gravel, the turning of pages in a ledger, a half-heard fragment of dialogue are seamlessly synchronized to the action on screen. The listener can hear melodies that lie within the tradition of the Baroque Age of Bach, the early Romanticism of Mozart, the dissonance of Schoenberg, the unsettling metric play of Stravinsky and the harshly dramatic repetitions of Philip Glass. From outside of the classical tradition there is the folklorist bricolage of the fairground barrel organ tempered playfully by some psychedelic backwards musique concrete along with some melodies which would not have been out of place on a Kraftwerk album from the classic era. All the time the listener is on a journey, sounds move in and out, music weaves and entwines, the soundscape is immersive and intoxicatingly rich.
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CD
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BB 400CD
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Narrative film music and sound design for Robert Wiene's classic 1920 psychological thriller. Digitally restored in 4K by the Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau-Foundation. Musician and writer Karl Bartos has long been admirer of Weimar-era culture. During his time in Kraftwerk, he helped create the stunning track Metropolis, directly inspired by a band viewing of the classic 1927 Fritz Lang film of the same name. The original orchestral music composed for The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari by Giuseppe Becce had long been lost and in 2005, after watching the film, Bartos imagined what it would be like to create an entirely new one in the 21st Century in his home studios in Hamburg. Now with crystal clear images, digitally restored by the Friedrich-Wilhelm Murnau-Foundation, the film is visually the best quality it has ever been, and now, with Bartos' soundtrack, there is impressive sound to go with the haunting vision. For the task, Bartos ransacked his own library of musical compositions, recreating pieces he had written as a young classical musician in his pre-Kraftwerk days whilst creating new sounds, melodies and textures. The intention was not simply to write a film score per se. This was to be an immersive listening experience with special sound effects to match the action as the listener enters the film as both spectator and participant. A creaking door, footsteps on gravel, the turning of pages in a ledger, a half-heard fragment of dialogue are seamlessly synchronized to the action on screen. The listener can hear melodies that lie within the tradition of the Baroque Age of Bach, the early Romanticism of Mozart, the dissonance of Schoenberg, the unsettling metric play of Stravinsky and the harshly dramatic repetitions of Philip Glass. From outside of the classical tradition there is the folklorist bricolage of the fairground barrel organ tempered playfully by some psychedelic backwards musique concrete along with some melodies which would not have been out of place on a Kraftwerk album from the classic era. All the time the listener is on a journey, sounds move in and out, music weaves and entwines, the soundscape is immersive and intoxicatingly rich.
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2LP/DVD
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BB 400LTD-LP
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Limited LP box (2000 copies worldwide). Includes the album on double LP, the Caligari movie on DVD, and 16-page booklet. Narrative film music and sound design for Robert Wiene's classic 1920 psychological thriller. Digitally restored in 4K by the Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau-Foundation. Musician and writer Karl Bartos has long been admirer of Weimar-era culture. During his time in Kraftwerk, he helped create the stunning track Metropolis, directly inspired by a band viewing of the classic 1927 Fritz Lang film of the same name. The original orchestral music composed for The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari by Giuseppe Becce had long been lost and in 2005, after watching the film, Bartos imagined what it would be like to create an entirely new one in the 21st Century in his home studios in Hamburg. Now with crystal clear images, digitally restored by the Friedrich-Wilhelm Murnau-Foundation, the film is visually the best quality it has ever been, and now, with Bartos' soundtrack, there is impressive sound to go with the haunting vision. For the task, Bartos ransacked his own library of musical compositions, recreating pieces he had written as a young classical musician in his pre-Kraftwerk days whilst creating new sounds, melodies and textures. The intention was not simply to write a film score per se. This was to be an immersive listening experience with special sound effects to match the action as the listener enters the film as both spectator and participant. A creaking door, footsteps on gravel, the turning of pages in a ledger, a half-heard fragment of dialogue are seamlessly synchronized to the action on screen. The listener can hear melodies that lie within the tradition of the Baroque Age of Bach, the early Romanticism of Mozart, the dissonance of Schoenberg, the unsettling metric play of Stravinsky and the harshly dramatic repetitions of Philip Glass. From outside of the classical tradition there is the folklorist bricolage of the fairground barrel organ tempered playfully by some psychedelic backwards musique concrete along with some melodies which would not have been out of place on a Kraftwerk album from the classic era. All the time the listener is on a journey, sounds move in and out, music weaves and entwines, the soundscape is immersive and intoxicatingly rich. DVD is European PAL format, region-free.
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CD+DVD BOX
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BB 400LTD-CD
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Limited CD box (2000 copies worldwide). Inclues the album on CD, the Caligari movie on DVD, and 48-page booklet. Narrative film music and sound design for Robert Wiene's classic 1920 psychological thriller. Digitally restored in 4K by the Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau-Foundation. Musician and writer Karl Bartos has long been admirer of Weimar-era culture. During his time in Kraftwerk, he helped create the stunning track Metropolis, directly inspired by a band viewing of the classic 1927 Fritz Lang film of the same name. The original orchestral music composed for The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari by Giuseppe Becce had long been lost and in 2005, after watching the film, Bartos imagined what it would be like to create an entirely new one in the 21st Century in his home studios in Hamburg. Now with crystal clear images, digitally restored by the Friedrich-Wilhelm Murnau-Foundation, the film is visually the best quality it has ever been, and now, with Bartos' soundtrack, there is impressive sound to go with the haunting vision. For the task, Bartos ransacked his own library of musical compositions, recreating pieces he had written as a young classical musician in his pre-Kraftwerk days whilst creating new sounds, melodies and textures. The intention was not simply to write a film score per se. This was to be an immersive listening experience with special sound effects to match the action as the listener enters the film as both spectator and participant. A creaking door, footsteps on gravel, the turning of pages in a ledger, a half-heard fragment of dialogue are seamlessly synchronized to the action on screen. The listener can hear melodies that lie within the tradition of the Baroque Age of Bach, the early Romanticism of Mozart, the dissonance of Schoenberg, the unsettling metric play of Stravinsky and the harshly dramatic repetitions of Philip Glass. From outside of the classical tradition there is the folklorist bricolage of the fairground barrel organ tempered playfully by some psychedelic backwards musique concrete along with some melodies which would not have been out of place on a Kraftwerk album from the classic era. All the time the listener is on a journey, sounds move in and out, music weaves and entwines, the soundscape is immersive and intoxicatingly rich. DVD is European PAL format, region-free.
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LP BOX/2x7"/CD
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TR 20615BOX
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Communication is the debut solo album by ex-Kraftwerk member Karl Bartos. Originally released in 2003 - 13 years after leaving the legendary electronic group - The album, referred to as his "lost album", is a concept record that deals with communication at the incredibly pivotal time in electronic media and digital culture. "Communication is about the way images shape our view of the world and how electronic media is going to change the contents of our culture." (Karl Bartos, 2003). However, such was the sense of foresight and depth of thought that Bartos applied to the world of communication in a vastly-shifting aeon that this theme remains as relevant as ever in 2016. Bartos produced Communication with sound engineer Mathias Black at his home studio in Hamburg between August 2002 and January 2003. The programmatic track "15 Minutes Of Fame" was the first single Bartos released and it was an exciting peek into the world that was his upcoming full album. Bartos used the Andy Warhol phrase as a template to comment on the rise of celebrity culture unleashed by casting shows, reality TV programs and cooking contests. Communication takes this theme and societal observations further by focusing them through multiple aspects, of what Bartos calls our "new media reality". Bartos's work should be received and understood as an amalgamation, and presentation, of both sound and vision. A heavy force in both the world of music and film, Karl Bartos has been presenting his live show, which includes his own self-directed films, on an international scale since 2000. Exclusively for the release of Communication, Bartos developed a pictographic visual language that the Hamburg-based agency, Weissraum, then further adapted for a variety of formats. Communication is the reintroduction of timeless statement. "It is not the business of music to be fashionable. The meaning of music is to bring people together." (Karl Bartos, 2016) Re-mastering by Michael Schwabe, Monoposto Düsseldorf, Germany. Artwork by weissraum.de. This edition of 1000 comes as a limited and hand signed box, including: 12" vinyl album Communication, an exclusive poster for "I'm The Message", limited 7" vinyl single Life, limited 7" vinyl single 15 Minutes Of Fame, three 7" photoprints, one signed photoprint signed by Karl Bartos, digipak album CD Communication, USB card including all audio formats with 12" remix by Matthew Herbert, video, graphics.
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7"
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TR 20614EP
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Communication is the debut solo album by ex-Kraftwerk member Karl Bartos. Originally released in 2003, 13 years after leaving the legendary electronic group. Originally released in 2000, the programmatic track "15 Minutes of Fame" was the first single Bartos released and was an exciting peek into the world that was his upcoming full album. Inspired by Andy Warhol's statement, "In the future, everybody will be world famous for 15 minutes," Bartos used this as a template to comment on the increasing rise of celebrity culture unleashed by casting shows, reality TV programs, cooking contests etc.
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CD
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TR 20612CD
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Communication is the debut solo album by ex-Kraftwerk member Karl Bartos. Originally released by Sony Music in 2003, 13 years after Bartos left the legendary electronic group, it has now been fully remastered for this reissue, complete with the bonus track "Camera Obscura" -- a song that transcends the term "bonus" and in the context of this edition becomes essential. The album is a concept record that deals with communication at the pivotal time in electronic media and digital culture shortly after the turn of the millennium. As Bartos put it in 2003, "Communication is about the way images shape our view of the world and how electronic media is going to change the contents of our culture." The world of media that Bartos described and envisioned has since become a day-to-day reality. This continued thematic resonance fully justifies the re-release of this definitive work, but there is another reason -- Bartos's former Kraftwerk colleagues also released an album in 2003, their first after a ten-year break and their first since Bartos left the band, and the media focused its attention on Kraftwerk's Tour de France Soundtracks, drawing interest away from Communication. Communication was so overshadowed that it is often referred to as Bartos's "lost album." Bartos produced the album with sound engineer Mathias Black at his home studio in Hamburg between August 2002 and January 2003, but he had been developing its concept since the turn of the millennium. Communication captures his reaction to the all-encompassing influence of digital media on society, cultural awareness, and communication, the very basis of contemporary human existence, focusing this theme through multiple aspects of what Bartos calls "new media reality." It's a conceptual framework that makes this overlooked electropop classic arguably more relevant in 2016 than when it was first released. Its remains without any loss of musical power, and Bartos's sense of joy in making the music as palpable as ever, vividly rendered in remastered sound by Michael Schwabe at Monoposto, Düsseldorf. Communication documents and proves that Bartos created his own musical language ahead of, and independent from, the cultural zeitgeist or anything resembling a fleeting fashion, and connects seamlessly to Bartos's critically acclaimed 2013 follow-up, Off the Record (BB 079CD/LP). Simply put, Communication is the reintroduction of a timeless statement. "It is not the business of music to be fashionable. The meaning of music is to bring people together." --Karl Bartos, 2016
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LP+CD
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TR 20611LP
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2021 restock; 180-gram LP version. Includes CD. Communication is the debut solo album by ex-Kraftwerk member Karl Bartos. Originally released by Sony Music in 2003, 13 years after Bartos left the legendary electronic group, it has now been fully remastered for this reissue, complete with the bonus track "Camera Obscura" -- a song that transcends the term "bonus" and in the context of this edition becomes essential. The album is a concept record that deals with communication at the pivotal time in electronic media and digital culture shortly after the turn of the millennium. As Bartos put it in 2003, "Communication is about the way images shape our view of the world and how electronic media is going to change the contents of our culture." The world of media that Bartos described and envisioned has since become a day-to-day reality. This continued thematic resonance fully justifies the re-release of this definitive work, but there is another reason -- Bartos's former Kraftwerk colleagues also released an album in 2003, their first after a ten-year break and their first since Bartos left the band, and the media focused its attention on Kraftwerk's Tour de France Soundtracks, drawing interest away from Communication. Communication was so overshadowed that it is often referred to as Bartos's "lost album." Bartos produced the album with sound engineer Mathias Black at his home studio in Hamburg between August 2002 and January 2003, but he had been developing its concept since the turn of the millennium. Communication captures his reaction to the all-encompassing influence of digital media on society, cultural awareness, and communication, the very basis of contemporary human existence, focusing this theme through multiple aspects of what Bartos calls "new media reality." It's a conceptual framework that makes this overlooked electropop classic arguably more relevant in 2016 than when it was first released. Its remains without any loss of musical power, and Bartos's sense of joy in making the music as palpable as ever, vividly rendered in remastered sound by Michael Schwabe at Monoposto, Düsseldorf. Communication documents and proves that Bartos created his own musical language ahead of, and independent from, the cultural zeitgeist or anything resembling a fleeting fashion, and connects seamlessly to Bartos's critically acclaimed 2013 follow-up, Off the Record (BB 079CD/LP). Simply put, Communication is the reintroduction of a timeless statement. "It is not the business of music to be fashionable. The meaning of music is to bring people together." --Karl Bartos, 2016
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7"
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TR 20613EP
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Two tracks from ex-Kraftwerk member Karl Bartos's 2003 album Communication, released in advance of the album's 2016 remastered reissue (TR 20612CD/20611LP). A classically trained percussionist and keyboard player, Bartos was a key member of Kraftwerk's classic line-up between 1975 and 1990, co-writing such masterpieces as "The Model," "The Robots," "Numbers," and "Pocket Calculator." Communication is full of melody-driven numbers that operate in a dual universe of pop and electronica. Lead single "Life" is perhaps the most perfect representation of this; its lyrics speak volumes, while its breezy, harmonious, infectious structure almost seems to pay return tribute to New Order, a group that greatly admired Bartos's work.
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CD
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BB 079CD
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Well-known as one-quarter of the "classic" Kraftwerk line-up, Karl Bartos' new album is an audio-visual sensation. Lost for many years, some of his early music has been re-conceived and re-contextualized in a thrilling modern setting. Here's the story: during Kraftwerk's heyday, Karl Bartos wrote -- off the record -- a secret acoustic diary. Based on his musical jottings (rhythms, riffs, hooks, sounds, chords, and melodies) this is what he has come up with today -- 12 brand-new, exciting, timeless songs. Many of Kraftwerk's most influential rhythms and memorable melodies were actually conceived in his home studio. They would later be used on an unstoppable succession of hits from the Düsseldorf band as they ascended to the lofty heights of popular music culture. As a major contributor to The Man-Machine (1978) and Computer World (1981), Bartos has had a decisive influence on Kraftwerk's music. Rolling Stone author Mike Rubin says of these years: "there's something timeless and universal about their songwriting of this period." The Kraftwerk team went on to achieve worldwide success and cult status: in 1982 "The Model" went to the UK's number one spot. The track has become a classic in the history of music, along with "The Robots," "Metropolis," "Neon Lights," "Numbers," "Pocket Calculator," "Home Computer," "Tour de France," "Musique Non-Stop," and "The Telephone Call." Kraftwerk have been one of the most sampled artists of all time, and there have been countless cover versions of their songs. In 2012, Kraftwerk performed a retrospective of this repertoire in the Museum of Modern Art, New York. Karl Bartos left the band in 1990. Subsequently, he became an independent producer and writer -- for his project Electric Music as a solo artist, and also together with fellow friends and musicians -- Bernard Sumner (New Order), Johnny Marr (The Smiths), and Andy McCluskey (OMD). In 2004 he co-founded the Master of Arts course "Sound Studies -- Acoustic Communication" at the Berlin University of the Arts (UdK), where he was a visiting professor, teaching Auditory Media Design up until 2009. For Off the Record, Karl Bartos has opened up his music archive for the very first time. He rediscovered and analyzed hundreds of tapes, piles of sheet music, and years of digital media. Inspired by his acoustic diary and adding his experience as a composer and producer, he has created 12 brand new songs -- written and performed with masterful skill. It took him two years to accomplish this original Bartos album: iron crystal music, vocoder newspeak, robot sounds, digital glitch, techno pop, catchy melodies, electronic avant-garde, roaring silence, futurism, and, of course, those rhythms. Rhythms of brutal, minimalistic impact as found on the much-sampled "Numbers" recorded three decades ago and described by Mike Banks of Underground Resistance as "the secret code of electronic funk."
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LP+CD
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BB 079LP
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180 gram vinyl version with CD.
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7"
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BB 080EP
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"Atomium" -- the first single from the new album by ex-Kraftwerk member Karl Bartos. "Welcome to one of the most emblematic buildings in the world -- the Atomium." No other edifice in Europe symbolizes the rise and fall of atomic power quite as dramatically as the Atomium. This gigantic model of an iron crystal, erected for the 1958 World's Fair in Brussels, finds its musical voice on the first single lifted from the new Karl Bartos album Off the Record. But what does iron crystal music sound like? The ex-Kraftwerk member combines variable metrics and intelligent rhythmicity with calculated noise and the elegant weightlessness of his melodies -- neoclassicism meets avant-garde electronica. To achieve this, he delves deep into his music archives. And this is what makes the new Bartos album, due for release in early 2013, so sensational. Lost for many years, some of his early music has been reconceived and re-contextualised in a thrilling modern setting. Here's the story: during Kraftwerk's heyday Karl Bartos wrote -- off the record -- a secret acoustic diary. Based on his musical jottings -- rhythms, riffs, hooks, sounds, chords and melodies. Bartos rediscovered and analysed hundreds of tapes, piles of sheet music, and years of digital media. Inspired by his acoustic diary and adding his experience as a composer and producer, he has created twelve brand new songs -- written and performed with masterly skill.
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viewing 1 To 14 of 14 items
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