What
Kraan is not - check here !
3 important contributions to the philosphical question: What does
Kraan mean, what is it really...
Thanks to Zey for thorough research and sparring -
further suggestions and contributions to this important subject are welcome :-)
The Kraan history - written for theHerzberg
festival program (2000) - Same
in German
Pressrelease from 1975 -
provides a good overview (as a graphic - size: 90 kb)
Kraan information lifted directly from The Gibraltar Encyclopedia
of Progressive Rock :
Kraan
[Germany]
An excellent seventies jazz/rock/spacemusic band. Two of their mid seventies
works, Andy Nogger and one other were released through Jem in
the USA. I think. Hellmut Hattler's
bass playing is excellent, the guitarist is superb, and they have a
sax player who I think at times uses effects pedals and wah wah and
can even sound like a keyboard player sometimes. They added keys later
on. First couple LPs were classic space rock, and then they got a very
refined sound, very fun, funky rock with a really spacey feel. Later
LPs added keyboards to the original guitar, bass, drums, sax lineup.
I think the Live double LP really stands out as a high point
in their releases. The two LPs that made it out in the US are good,
but I think are weakened a little by the vocals. I'm inclined to almost
compare them to Steely Dan because of their excellant musicianship and
pristine production on the later works, but they don't really sound
at all like Steely Dan. The later LPs tend to get more slick and faster
and faster to a point of near technical over-indulgence.
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Hellmut Hattler - live in Denmark |
Kraan is a primarily-instrumental outfit that blends the very best elements
of fusion, funk, space and progressive - led by bassist extrordinaire Hellmut Hattler
- into a unique style of their own. The early albums (through Let It
Out) featured Johannes Pappert
on sax, who did some pretty inventive stuff using special effects. With
Let it Out they added a keyboardist and subsequently Pappert left,
so the later albums have a slightly different feel. Most of their tracks
are instrumentals, the few vocal tracks tend to be fairly eccentric. A
good place to start is the Live album (a double LP on single CD)
which contains the best material from the first three, or Let It Out.
Photo from the album "Kraan live"
1974 (english version) |
Talk about "get the funk out!":
I have Kraan's Live and have heard a little of Tournee.
Live is a fantastic album that owes as much to jazz/funk as it
does rock. There are two players that stand out immediately: Peter Wolfbrandt
on guitar and Hellmut Hattler
on bass. Wolfbrandt's guitar is clean, refined, and very tasteful, whether
he's in a funk or rock groove. Hattler's bass is all OVER the place.
He must have six fingers on each hand! Johannes Pappert
is the sax player and he usually sounds like anything but a sax. At
times I thought it was a violin and other times sounded more like a
synth, just like Miles Davis during his mid-70's funk/fusion era. Jan
Fride, the drummer, sets up a rock solid groove. It's really hard to
imagine this is four piece music. On Tournee, the sax is replaced
by a real set of keyboards and the drummer changed. The funk groove
is still there but no so pronounced, while the fusion groove is enhanced,
reminding me somewhat of Jeff Beck with the Jan Hammer Group. I don't
know about the rest of their work, but these two are excellent. |
Great space-rock/jazz-fusion mix. Led by
the restless guitar and raucous rock vocals of Peter Wolbrandt, and
featuring the monster bass playing of the bespectacled Helmut Hattler
(he may be one of the top five bassists of all-time!), Kraan made a
spacy jazz/prog type of music with some Middle-Eastern themes, yet retained
true rock power. No keyboardist at this early stage, but alto-sax player
Johannes
Pappert often makes his instrument sound like a synth, violin, flute
or oboe. This lineup reaches its peak on Andy Nogger, which is
virtually swimming in crazy sound-effects. "Stars," "Holiday
am Marterhorn," "Nam Nam" and "Yellow Bamboo"
are all among the band's best song. The double Live album is
a great introduction to the band if you can find it, including tracks
not available anywhere else, and extended versions of "Nam Nam"
and "Andy Nogger." Let It Out adds ex-Karthago keyboardist
Ingo Bischof to the lineup, and starts to carry on toward more conventional
fusion territory, but not too far. The American (Passport label) issue
of this features several remixed tracks. Wiederhoeren treads
further into straight fusion, but the amazing "Vollgas Ahoi"
and the Caravan-like title track proves they can still jam with the
best of them. Tournee is another live album. I heard some of
a much later album, very conventional indeed, and not too interesting.
-- Mike Ohman [See Hattler,
Hellmut | Karthago
| Liliental
| Pappert,
Johannes]
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Photo from the album "Kraan live"
1974 (english version) |
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Are you a Kraan expert ?
Prove your skills on a small game Peter Wolbrandt has programmed.
It is a small java applet.
You have to connect the written info to the appropriate picture.
If you want to try click here
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What is Wintrup ?
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Wintrup is a small
town in the Teutoburger forrest were the members of the music collective
and band Kraan lived for allmost 5 years 1972 - 1977.
Peter and Jan Wolbrandt played
guitar and drums in schoolbands in their hometown
Ulm before they met Hellmut Hattler (guitar/bass) and Johannes
Pappert (sax).
In the beginning they played rock with jazz-freestyle elements. The Kraan
sound started to find it's form and they moved one year to Berlin. After
that they moved to Wintrup.
Later on Ingo Bishoff also moved in.
Ingo had his Kraan live debut in Holzminden on May 30, 1975.
In 1976 the collective started breaking up and the musical style changed
somewhat - it became more smooth but also more melodic.
August 1976 Alto Pappert left the band. Oktober 1976 Kraan was on tour
in Germany - line-up was Peter, Jan, Hellmuth and Ingo Bischof who had
rejoined.
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Believe it
or not -
CIA has just provided this sattelite photo of Wintrup. It
was a part of a surveilance of activities that could undermine and destabilize
the BRD (German republic)...
My nose is growing as I write this...
webmaster
Actually the truth is not much more likely,
but never the less it's the truth.
It was taken by KGB who sattelite photographed every inch of west-germay.
After the Berlin-wall came down etc., the photos were sold to a german
company for 1 million DM. The CD became a hit in germany in 1995. Peter
W. used quite some time to locate Wintrup !
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Some european countries... |
For
those who have not got a clue about where Germany is, here is a chance
to put it on the globe.
The choice of the adjacent european countries is totally arbitrary - except
Denmark of course... (webmaster is danish) :-).
Kraan sticker - probably from early seventies. |
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Below: The Kraan Company
An early statement from Kraan (1971-72 ? ) - found at
http://www.germanrock.de/
Translated with help from Chrille:
We live together for one
year, partly in Ulm, partly in Berlin.
We make films, photos, we draw, paint and compose.
We have no regular jobs in this society.
We can live and absolutely concentrate on the music.
From this situation we try as far as possible,
to make a kind of music wich seperates us from the usual pop-clichee.
We strive for this closed musicians-life which touches all sphaeres of our
life.
We dont have any "heroes" - we make our own music.
The Kraan Company (left to right)
Alto Pappert, Hellmut Hattler, Peter Brett, Jan Fride.
The Kraan-o-phone:
Your mobilephone, cellphone, handy, or whatever you call it, can play
Kraan tunes. Other Kraan fans will detect you if it rings in public places,
and you will know who belongs to the secret community of Kraan enthusiast.
So spice up your life with a personal touch - show the world that you have
taste :-)
One of Kraan's many enthusiast, Chrille, sent this:
" You have to give in every single note by using the buttons.
While giving in a note, the display shows the length of the notes.
The longer the note has to be, the longer time you have to push the button.
First number is the note (the second is the time).
# is for changing the octave
0 is pause
* is a half tone
This are the codes I found out so far:
Almrausch
### 6(4) 8(8) 4(8) 4(8) 5(4) 0(8) 3(8) 5(8) 5(8) 8(8) 6(4) 8(8) 4(8) 4(8)
5(4) 0(2) 0(8)
- Listen here (180 kb
mp3)
Nam Nam
### 4(16) 5(16) *6(4) *5(8) 6(4) 8(8) 0(8) ## 4(16) 5(16) *6(4) *5(8) 4(4)
0(4)
- Listen here (130 kb mp3)
Far West
### 8(4) # 2(2) ### 8(4) 6(4) 5(4) 4(4) 2(4) ### 8(4) # 2(4) 4(2) 0(1)
- Listen here (240 kb
mp3)
Yaqui Yagua
### 2/8 5/8 *6/8 8/8 *6/16 8/8 5/16 *6/4 2/8 5/8 *6/8 4/8 5/16 4/8 2/16 5/4
0/1
- Listen here (180 kb
mp3)
Hallo ja ja
Timing is 8 when not shown different
### 45 688 688 688 688 #2 ### 86506 5/2 0/1
*24 5*6*6 5*6*6 5*6*6 5*6*6 8*65405 4/4 0/4 0/8 405 4/2
- Listen here (350
kb mp3)
These codes are working with Siemens and Ericsson.
Others I haven't tested yet. "
Let it Out - (Received from Lutz Wernicke)
### 2(4) 5(4) 6(2) 0(8) 5(8) 7(2) 0(8) 2(8) 3(4) 3(4) *4(4) 2(4) 0(8) 2(4)
0(8) 3(4) 0(8) 2(4) 0(8)
*4(2) 0(8) 2(8) 3(4) 3(4) 2(4) ##7(4)
- Listen here (230 kb
mp3)
FOR NOKIA's:
Nam Nam for "Nokia": 16f2 16g2 4#a2 8g2 4a2 8c3 4- 16f1
16g1
4#a1 8g1 4f1 4 - (sent by Charles Snider, www.progressiverock.com/
)
If you have other Kraansongs for the mobilephone, send them to this
and they will be listed here.
The Kraan-o-phone - Artist: Hellmut Hattler
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| What are the Kraan members doing today:
 Hellmutt
Hattler worked with Tab
Two from 1991 to 2000. Tab Two is having a break now. Possibly
a permanent break.
Hattler has just (feb. 2003) released his third album Malberry
Moon' . He lives in a house nearby Ulm. He has also made a teaching
book about Bass
playing (AMA-Puplications).
 AMA-Puplications
also offer a book named "Masters of Bass Guitar" incl.
CD from 1997 (www.ama-verlag.de
order-no. 610117 EUR 23.80) wherein a bass teacher exlains and
plays concepts and techniques of 40 years bass guitar? Hellmut
is shown with history, background and 4 pages typical HH samples
with notes/tablatures. The ascending agenda lists him as No.
10 out of 15 of the most unique and innovative bassmen among
others like Jack Bruce, Chris Squire, Jonas Hellborg, John Pattitucci
, John Entwhistle, Jaco Pastorius, etc.
Book Hattlers band 'Hattler' through the agency A.S.S. in Hamburg.
Email 'Mick'
for contact.
Hellmut
Hattlers website
- Peter Wolbrandt lives in Sontheim, works with multimedia
production and programming, and has, among other things, made
a CD-ROM about the town Ulm together with his brother Jan Fride.
On his website
http://www.wolbrandt.de/ you can hear some new samples of
Peters recent musical work 1997 - 1999. He released a cd in
may 1999 'Under An1x'
, a kind of technomusic - can be purchased through his website,
where also other rock albums are available. In july 1999 a mpeg/video
cd-rom with a Kraan koncert from Tuttlingen 1987 was made.
- Jan Fride (Wolbrandt) - Is running a headshop called
OKAY together with his girlfriend through 21 years Willa (they
have a daughter with the same age), selling all sorts of things.
He made a website
for the shop. Here is also soundsamples of music he has
made during the last years. Some of it is a collaboration with
Peter Wolbrandt - mostly in the techno vein. Large
interview in German here.
- Johannes Pappert (Alto). Alto lives in Berlin,
ownes a sound/light hiring Company (that has a website - http://www.mixed-media.de/
choose the German version ). He still plays the sax !
- Joo Kraus worked with Tab
Two together with Hellmut for some years. Now he makes jazzmusic
with a larger band. A search at Klaus
Kuhnke's archiv will show several other cooperations.
Joo Kraus's
website
- Ingo Bishof - Has worked with many bands/musicians
and styles (try the Klaus
Kuhnke's archiv). Played a long time with " Heiner Pudelko"
and after his death with "Carsten Schmelzer & Band". He is currently
playing in a Band called TAVIL
(with Butze Fischer & Günter Reger).
He is also playing on one tune on the newest Tab Two CD - Between
Us 1999.
Released an album 2001: Reger/Bischof/Fischer: Images of Trance
and Rythm (DA Music- 5284 Selected Sound). Have also made meditation
music. He is (2003) currently working on a new soloalbum. Large
interview here.
Udo Dahmen is currently active musician (jazz a.o.) and
professor in percussion at "Hochschule für Musik und Theater
in Hamburg". He has also written a drumbook.
He has drummed for such as Charly Mariano, Lake, Dozenten, Herb
Geller, Inga Rumpf, Joachim Kuhn, Achim Reichel, Eberhard Schoener,
John Lawton, (feat. Sting, Nina Hagen, Jack Bruce, Gary Brooker)
and others. Website.
(try the Klaus
Kuhnke's archiv) Personal website here: http://www.udodahmen.de/
- Gerry Brown - (webpage
at http://www.drummerworld.com/ ) - a search at Klaus
Kuhnke's archiv reveals more than is relevant for this website.
He is (among other things) known for playing drums on Stanley
Clarke's Schooldays album.
Latest news (jan. 2002) he is working with bassplayer Kam Falk
www.nativetongue.com
- Eef Albers - (website
- has been updated in 2001 - requires flash plugin)
- Mark McMillen - www.geocities.co.jp/MusicStar-Live/1959/.
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