What are the chances there will be a new Kraftwerk album in 2025?
What are the chances there will be a new Kraftwerk album?
The last Kraftwerk studio album already dates from 2003 (“Tour de France Soundtracks”). Speculation about a follow-up pops up every now and then, but the odds of it ever happening are close to zero. Let’s see why that is.
Kraftwerk’s album output has slowed dramatically since their 1970s heyday. In the 1970s and early 1980s, they released a string of influential albums roughly every 1-3 years (“Autobahn” in 1974, “Radio-Activity” in 1975, “Trans-Europe Express” in 1977, “The Man-Machine” in 1978, “Computer World” in 1981). After 1986’s “Electric Café”, however, the band’s studio output nearly halted – aside from 1991’s remix collection “The Mix”, no new original album appeared for 17 years.
They finally broke the drought with “Tour de France Soundtracks” in 2003, an album that itself arrived over two decades after their early ’80s peak. Importantly, “Tour de France Soundtracks” remains their most recent album of new material. It has now been over 20 years without a follow-up, which is the longest gap between new Kraftwerk albums in their history.
Since 2003, the group has focused on remastering and re-presenting past work (for example, the comprehensive “Catalogue” box set and the 2017 “3-D The Catalogue” live recordings) rather than composing brand-new tracks. Kraftwerk’s creative energy has nowadays been channeled into refining their legacy and live experience instead of traditional album releases.
Not surprisingly, a major North American tour is scheduled for March-April 2025 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of “Autobahn”.
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Kraftwerk and its lineup changes
Major lineup changes have influenced Kraftwerk’s studio activity. Co-founder Florian Schneider’s gradual exit (he stopped performing live in 2006 and officially left the band in 2008) left Ralf Hütter as the sole remaining original member. Some observers believed Florian’s departure might free Hütter to pursue new directions – indeed, Hütter hinted in 2013 that with the classic catalog performances complete, they could focus on “album number nine” and Hütter himself stated that Schneider hadn’t been actively contributing for a long time before he left.
However, others feel the band went into “autopilot” after Florian left, doubting that truly new material would emerge without his presence.
Florian Schneider passed away in 2020, closing the door on any reunion of the classic line-up. At this point Kraftwerk is essentially led by Ralf Hütter with a supporting lineup of longtime members (Fritz Hilpert, Henning Schmitz) and newer additions (Falk Grieffenhagen, etc.). There is no evidence they are involved in composing new studio material – historically, Kraftwerk’s writing was driven by Hütter (and Schneider, in earlier decades, plus Karl Bartos during the late 70s/80s). The current lineup’s role appears focused on live performance and technical production rather than songwriting. This means the burden of creating an entire new album would fall primarily on 78-year-old Ralf Hütter.
Given his age and the fact that he has already spent much of the last two decades revisiting existing works, one could question how eager or energized he is to undertake a start-to-finish album project at this stage. It’s not impossible, but it’s a significant factor to consider.
‘Recent’ interviews and statements
Ralf Hütter has periodically teased the prospect of new Kraftwerk music in interviews – though these hints now date back several years. In April 2012, during Kraftwerk’s multi-night retrospective at MoMA in New York, Hütter told the New York Times that the group was working on new material. When pressed on a release date, he answered simply, “Soon.” At the time, media noted that any new album would be their first since 2003, marking a very long wait
The following year, in June 2013, Hütter gave a rare interview to The Guardian in which he said that a new Kraftwerk album was indeed in progress adding: “Now this is done, one to eight. Now we can concentrate on number nine.” – referring to the completion of performing their eight-album catalogue, and confirming the intent to make a ninth studio album.
The remarks gave fans genuine hope that Kraftwerk’s long-promised next album was actively being developed.
However, as years passed, no album materialized. Hütter continued to be coy about it in subsequent interviews, but the frequency of such comments decreased. According to one account, in 2015 Hütter was still giving the familiar answer – when asked in an interview about new music, he said the question was “difficult” and that the answer is mostly “soon”, i.e. the album will be released as soon as it is finished, “it’s always been that way”.
After 2015, there have been no known public statements from Hütter or other Kraftwerk members explicitly discussing a forthcoming album. In a 2017 interview (largely about their 3-D tour), Hütter spoke about many topics but did not announce any new studio work – by that point, the focus was on the live presentations and the legacy of their catalogue.
It appears that after repeatedly saying “soon” for a few years, Hütter (or the band’s management) chose to stop addressing the new album question, perhaps to manage expectations. The lack of any update in recent years is telling – if a release were imminent or actively in the works, one might expect at least a hint or teaser in the media. Instead, the topic has essentially gone silent. This could indicate that whatever material Kraftwerk started developing in the early 2010s either failed to coalesce into a releasable album, or it was indefinitely put on the back burner.
Some fans speculate that Hütter’s talk of “album number 9” may have morphed into the “3-D Catalogue” release (since it was a major output, albeit of old songs). In any case, since around 2017, Kraftwerk interviews have avoided promising new original music. The absence of denial (they never said “we will not make another album”) means it hasn’t been ruled out, but the earlier optimism has certainly faded.
One revealing comment from Ralf Hütter sheds light on why a new album might be a low priority. He described Kraftwerk’s creative philosophy as an ongoing process rather than something captured on a traditional album. “Kraftwerk is a living organism… Music is never finished. It starts again tomorrow. The record is just a record, but for us it’s nearly boring. We like better the programs that we can operate with… we are updating continuously. There’s continuous reprogramming going on…”
This was Hütter’s explanation in 2012 of how Kraftwerk constantly tweaks and evolves their music using new technology. The implication is that the band doesn’t see a studio album as the definitive goal; instead, they enjoy iterating on their material in live shows and through minor updates. If making a “record” feels like a static or even “boring” exercise to them, it’s understandable that Hütter might not be highly motivated to lock themselves in the studio to craft a fixed set of songs for release. It’s the same mindset which we actually find back with The Sisters of Mercy.
From an industry standpoint, bands often slow down studio output when touring becomes a primary revenue and engagement driver, especially legacy acts. Kraftwerk’s situation fits this pattern: they can successfully tour on the strength of their classic catalog (enhanced with new technology), meaning there’s less pressure to produce new songs to attract concertgoers.
If we observe their public calendar, it’s evident that touring (and related preparations) has consumed most of their time in the past 10-15 years. Unless they deliberately take a hiatus from live performance to concentrate on writing, the chances of a new album – again – remain slim.
On a side-note, the band’s last tweet on X already dates from 2022.
No, there won’t be a new Kraftwerk album
Taking all the above into account, the likelihood of Kraftwerk releasing a new album in the foreseeable future appears low to indeed non-existent. The ‘evidence’ we have (longstanding delays, focus on touring, aging leadership, and the cessation of “album coming” talk) points toward the idea that a new album is not a priority at all and may never come to fruition. And Hütter’s own words about the creative process being continuous, and records being “nearly boring,” hint that the concept of a traditional album doesn’t excite the group anymore.
Nevertheless, the Kling Klang studio remains active.
A more realistic outcome might be the release of single tracks or special collaborations rather than a full album. For example, Kraftwerk contributed a short jingle “Expo 2000” in the late ’90s and have done one-off pieces for multimedia projects – similarly, they might in the future put out an isolated new piece (perhaps as part of a compilation or soundtrack). But the classic format of a start-to-finish Kraftwerk concept album (like “Autobahn” or “Computer World”) seems increasingly unlikely as time goes on.
Hütter’s answer was always “soon” – but “soon,” in Kraftwerk’s world, has become indefinitely long.
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