Organisation (band)

Organisation
Organisation
Origin	Germany
Genres	Krautrock
Years active	1969–1970
Labels	RCA Victor
Past members	Basil Hammoudi; Butch Hauf; Ralf Hütter; Alfred "Fred" Mönicks; Florian Schneider-Esleben

Organisation zur Verwirklichung gemeinsamer Musikkonzepte (German: "Organisation for the Realization of Shared Music Concepts"^[1]) was an experimental krautrock band, that was the immediate predecessor of the band Kraftwerk. In addition to the founding members of Kraftwerk, Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider-Esleben, Organisation included Basil Hammoudi, Butch Hauf, and Fred Monicks. The band was assisted by Paul Lorenz, Peter Martini, and Charly Weiss during their career.^[2]^[3]

History

A video recording by German TV broadcaster WDR exists of the band performing "Ruckzuck", a piece that appeared on the first Kraftwerk album in 1970. The performance took place at the Grugahalle in Essen on 25 April 1970 as part of the Internationales Essener Pop & Blues Festival. This was their last performance as Organisation, Hütter and Schneider-Esleben (later just Schneider) went on to form Kraftwerk, leaving Hammoudi, Hauf and Monicks to go to university.

Their only album, Tone Float, produced and engineered by Konrad "Conny" Plank along with the band themselves, was released on the RCA Victor label in the United Kingdom in 1970. As it was available in Germany only as an import, sales were poor and RCA opted to drop the band shortly afterwards, at which point Hütter and Schneider-Esleben left the band to form Kraftwerk, with Organisation dissolving as a result. Hammoudi, Hauf and Mönicks all returned to university to complete their studies.

According to Mönicks (interviewed in the mid-1990s^{[citation needed]} and June 2002 - January 2003.^[4]) the quintet had already begun to perform under the name Kraftwerk some time after Tone Float had been recorded, but RCA had been keen for them to have a band name more appropriate to the English market, since the album was to be issued only in the UK, so the name Organisation was used.

Hammoudi was later a member of jazz-rock band Ibliss, along with early Kraftwerk drummer Andreas Hohmann.^[5]

Members

Basil Hammoudi – glockenspiel, conga gong, musical box, bongos, percussion, vocals
Butch Hauf – bass, shaky tube, small bells, plastic hammer, percussion
Ralf Hütter – Hammond organ
Alfred "Fred" Mönicks – drums, bongos, maracas, cowbell, tambourine, percussion
Florian Schneider-Esleben – electric flute, alto flute, bell, triangle, tambourine, electro-violin, percussion

Discography

Tone Float (1970)

References

^ Boing, Boom, Tschak: Die ARTE-Doku über Kraftwerk Archived 2013-09-11 at the Wayback Machine in Arte-Magazin 9/2013 (German)
^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2011-08-09. Retrieved 2017-01-22.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
^ Pascal Bussy: "Kraftwerk: Man, Machine and Music", SAF Publishing Ltd., Reprinted 1993, 1997, 1999
^ "Germankraft.de News-Archiv 2003 Kraftwerk Chronik Hier nun ein Rückblick auf die Zeit bei Organisation von Alfred Mönicks, geboren am 01.10.1950 in Aachen" (in German). Marko Schmidt. 2003. Archived from the original on 2 July 2004. Retrieved 11 May 2017., "An interview with the website Germankraft.de, Alfred Mönicks (Rough translation)". The KRAFTWERK Archives. 15 May 2007. Retrieved 2 April 2017.^{[permanent dead link‍]}
^ "Germankraft.de News-Archiv 2002 Kraftwerk Chronik Interview mit Basil Hammoudi am 12. 01. 2003 über seine Zeit bei Organisation" (in German). Marko Schmidt. 12 January 2003. Archived from the original on 29 April 2004. Retrieved 11 May 2017., "Germankraft.de News-Archiv 2002 Kraftwerk Chronik Interview mit Andreas Hohmann am 05. 09. 2002 über seine Zeit bei Kraftwerk" (in German). Marko Schmidt. 5 September 2002. Archived from the original on 17 September 2004. Retrieved 11 May 2017.

External links

Kraftwerk.com—official Kraftwerk site.
Organisation discography at Discogs

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[1] Boing, Boom, Tschak: Die ARTE-Doku über Kraftwerk Archived 2013-09-11 at the Wayback Machine in Arte-Magazin 9/2013 (German)

[2] "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2011-08-09. Retrieved 2017-01-22.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)

[3] Pascal Bussy: "Kraftwerk: Man, Machine and Music", SAF Publishing Ltd., Reprinted 1993, 1997, 1999

[4] "Germankraft.de News-Archiv 2003 Kraftwerk Chronik Hier nun ein Rückblick auf die Zeit bei Organisation von Alfred Mönicks, geboren am 01.10.1950 in Aachen" (in German). Marko Schmidt. 2003. Archived from the original on 2 July 2004. Retrieved 11 May 2017., "An interview with the website Germankraft.de, Alfred Mönicks (Rough translation)". The KRAFTWERK Archives. 15 May 2007. Retrieved 2 April 2017.^{[permanent dead link‍]}

[5] "Germankraft.de News-Archiv 2002 Kraftwerk Chronik Interview mit Basil Hammoudi am 12. 01. 2003 über seine Zeit bei Organisation" (in German). Marko Schmidt. 12 January 2003. Archived from the original on 29 April 2004. Retrieved 11 May 2017., "Germankraft.de News-Archiv 2002 Kraftwerk Chronik Interview mit Andreas Hohmann am 05. 09. 2002 über seine Zeit bei Kraftwerk" (in German). Marko Schmidt. 5 September 2002. Archived from the original on 17 September 2004. Retrieved 11 May 2017.

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