ELEKTRIC MUSIC: ESPERANTO (1994, Poland)
Maraton, 92834 (Unofficial release)


I just realised, I haven't had any related or "solo" projects on the blog so far! Kraftwerk's core members Ralf & Florian didn't really participate much in other projects besides Kraftwerk, but several band members came and went, especially in the early years. A surprising amount of releases feature musicians who at some point were members of Kraftwerk, the most famous being Neu! I suppose, but Elektric Music must be a close second!

Karl Bartos left Kraftwerk in 1990 or 1991, and commenced work on his next project right away. He was joined by his old friend Lothar Manteuffel of NDW group Rheingold, and also Emil Schult for artwork and lyrics. Initial press photos also showed Wolfgang Flur, but according to Flur (in a 2021 Facebook comment - welcome to the future!), they hadn't actually asked him to be a member of the group, nor was he at that point interested in joining. 

Elektric Music's first album came out in 1993. Esperanto is clearly the product of a songwriter and keyboard player who learned how to make music in Kraftwerk. Some songs have a distinctly Kraftwerkian tone, and many sounds seem to come from equipment used in Kraftwerk before. There is also a move towards some of the music of the time, a collaboration with LFO was reported in the press, but they are not credited on the album; Andy McCluskey of OMD (who were high in the charts and on heavy rotation on MTV at the time) sings one song and co-writes two.

Esperanto came out in several territories on cassette; Germany and the UK, Canada, Peru, a Scandinavian promo, and Poland. In the latter case, there's also a pirate version, which I present here. The cover is almost exactly like the SPV official issue, but with a small Maraton logo inside the back flap of the J-card, indicating that this (pirate) label are responsible for the release. The cassette shell also replicates as closely as possible the design from the official edition, but the clear shell and yellow spools set the two apart. I suppose there may be variants, as it seems Polish pirate labels believe in keeping their product available; but otoh, I've only ever seen this one copy of it so who knows!













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