Also some other gear and a bunch of memorabilia.
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Appreciate that they’re doing this but much like the Lynch estate auction, feels a little vulgar.
Like this:
"A spokesperson for Schneider’s estate said the auction fulfilled the musician’s desire for his instruments and personal collection to “continue living beyond him”. “He always believed that they are meant to be played and shared – not left unused or gathering dust in storage,” she said. “He wanted his equipment to find their way to people who would truly value them: musicians, collectors and those inspired by the art of sound.”
Clearly, they do not intend to sell the instruments to musicians who are not also rich collectors, and only the wealthiest of those “inspired by the art of sound” can afford this stuff.
Since there’s no mention of charity, this is a for profit auction and therefore all they’re doing is spouting off some kind of pleasantries to kick off the auction, but this is really just meant for wealthy people to own stuff which some of it should probably be in a museum.
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I’m happy with my Syntrx.
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totally agree.
thing is whether its a museum or a wealthy collector, it won’t be making any sounds, its components will degrade. and everyone loses.
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Any synthi is going to be out of reach of most musicians, let alone a famous one. And auctions and museums aren’t mutually exclusive. Museums are free to buy these things if they want them and rich collectors often end up loaning or donating stuff to museums. I LOVE Kraftwerk but honestly seeing one of their synths in a museum would be interesting for about 10 seconds.
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What it says is do not leave a vague condition in your will like “I want my stuff to continue living after me” or surely this is how they will fulfill it.
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I have read about some musical museums that, for the instruments they have that are in playable condition, try to keep them that way by having them played by qualified musicians. I’m not sure these are quite museum worthy.
It would also be nice if the money were used to further musical ideals, and perhaps it will be; details of what the estate intends to do with the proceeds were not given.
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I would not be pleased if my taxes went to pay for Taylor Swift’s music gear collection. I don’t understand why the general public should pay for archival storage of pop star memorabilia.
Most museums have vastly more objects in their collection than they can ever show. Being “in a museum” doesn’t mean that the general public gets to see it, nor that it will be cared for well.
Also worth mentioning that non-profit (which is what I assume you mean by “charity”) is nothing more than a tax status in the US (specifically, you don’t have to pay any!). If this is a for profit auction then that’s great, it means that a portion of the proceeds will enter the public coffers via taxes. (this may be the case regardless, I am not any kind of tax expert).
I’d much rather see public funds address housing and food insecurity than my favorite pop band.
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Probably use it for this winter’s heating bill.
Got your eye on something at the auction then do you? Good for you.
It would be nice if the profits went towards furthering musical education for children or something that felt meaningful. “Ideals” is probably how most people would laugh that off though.
I don’t buy this for a second - “an EMS Synthi AKS suitcase synthesiser thought to be the one used on Kraftwerk’s 1974 album Autobahn is valued at $15,000 to $20,000.”
Thats about the cost of an average AKS. I bet that doesn’t go for less than 50K (sadly)
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It’s funny, I never really associated Kraftwerk with the Synthi. I always thought of them as Minimoog and Odyssey players. This guy says Florian sold his AKS when he got the Odyssey. KRAFTWERK | Travel back in the time machine to 1974, when I introduced ARP synthesizers to interested musicians | Facebook
Didnt he play the flute on the early stuff?
The AKS was used on the album “Ralf und Florian” (1973), along with a Farfisa organ, and flute and guitar. I picked it up on sale in Sam Goody’s in NYC in the summer of 1976, knowing nothing about the band, but it mentioned synthesizers on the back, and I was into those at the time (but more from a prog/symphonic bent, which I would abandon in a couple of years when punk/New Wave came along). I didn’t quite know what to make of the album, and neither did my musical friends. It would probably be worth a modest amount now if I had hung onto it. It got purged along with most of my vinyl when CDs took firm hold, but I torrented a digital copy a few years ago. I’m still not quite sure what to make of it.
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I have the UK pressing which has a cool back cover shot of them.
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I think my US release had that photo on the back, but also the photo of the two of them on the front, looking very young, which the UK release did not have? [Edit: also, that back does not mention synthesizers, only “electronics”, so I wonder what convinced me to pick it up? Maybe the combination of that and “string & windinstruments”?]
Here’s an odd story. I got my copy of Ralf und Florian for free from a local record shop owner in the late 80s. I told him I was a Kraftwerk fan, and he told me he was a fan too, but that he HATED that album so much that he had stepped on the cover and thrown the album in the trash! I thought it was a sick joke… But we went to his place later that day, and believe it or not, the album was in the trash! I still have it, boot marks and all… My copy includes Ralf and Florian’s huge psychedelic cartoon print.
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Yeah UK one has this circuit board cover. I also have the one on the right which is a double album with Kraftwerk 1 and 2. I think I was lucky enough to find them together probably 25 years ago.
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Thought it was a giveaway contest by the title 
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