Kraftwerk
Ralf & Florian

The LP was first released in Germany in November 1973. The original vinyl LP copies appear to have been deleted round about 1981/82 or so. Since then there has been no re-issues at all; neither on vinyl nor, surprisingly to outside observers, on CD - at least not officialy anyway...

With the gift of hindsight, 'Ralf and Florian' can be seen to be the LP that gave the first indications of the direction in which Kraftwerk's future sound lay. Really, there is very little that can connect the contents of 'Kraftwerk 1' or 'Kraftwerk 2' to later recordings. 'Ralf and Florian' however, is the first LP on which the band were able to utilise a proper keyboard-synthesizer, in preference to the organs and electric pianos previously employed, and this fact is what undoubtedly shaped this LP's contents.

The rear of the cover for 'Ralf and Florian' gives us a good look at their equipment at that point in time. The picture shows that Ralf had by this time added a Mini Moog synthesizer to his set-up. Back in 1973 a Mini Moog would be a rather desirable item for a band of Kraftwerk's ideals. Unlike some other synthesizers/electronic gear, which could produce electronic sound but were not equipped with a keyboard, the Mini Moog could not only produce a wide array of unique sounds but, with its keyboard, would allow the player to harness these sounds in a melodic fashion; tunes! While earlier records contain electronic sounds, most of the keyboard sounds appear to be from either an electric piano or an organ, neither of which would give the player such a wide scope as a proper synthesizer.