Tour de France Soundtracks

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Tour de France Soundtracks
Studio album by Kraftwerk
Released	4 August 2003 (Europe) August 19, 2003 (US)
Recorded	2003
Genre	Electronic music Synthpop
Length	55:57
Label	Kling Klang EMI Astralwerks (US)
Producer	Ralf Hütter, Florian Schneider
Professional reviews
All Music Guide link BBC (Favourable) link Pitchfork (7.0/10) 11 Aug 03 Rolling Stone 4 Sep 03 The Star (Favourable) link
Kraftwerk chronology
The Mix (1991) Tour de France Soundtracks (2003) Minimum-Maximum (2005)

Tour de France Soundtracks is a 2003 album by Kraftwerk. The album was recorded for the one hundreth anniversary of the first Tour de France bicycle race, although it missed its original release date during the actual Tour. The cover art is similar to that of their 1983 single Tour de France. The record was met with much anticipation, as it had been seventeen years since the group had put out a full album of new studio material since 1986's Electric Café.

Unusually for a Kraftwerk album it did not have separate German and international vocal mixes, but was released only in one version, sung predominantly in French — appropriate, considering the subject matter. The lyrics were co-written by Ralf Hütter and Maxime Schmitt — who had previously been manager of the Capitol label at Pathé-Marconi (part of the EMI group, the company that distributed Kraftwerk's music in France) and had been involved with the band since the mid-1970s.

It was recorded by the band in their Kling Klang studio, located in Düsseldorf; Hütter and Schneider working with Fritz Hilpert and Henning Schmitz. This four piece line-up then took the album on an extensive world tour in 2004. On the tour, they performed the music from four laptop computers running sequencing, sampling and synthesizer software, also controlling and synchronised with large video displays. In 2005, Kraftwerk released Minimum-Maximum, with separate audio and video releases featuring songs performed at various venues during the 2004 tour.

A short jingle was supplied to the television broadcaster Eurosport for use in their coverage of the 2003 Tour de France.

[edit] Track listing

1. "Prologue" – 0:31 (Ralf Hütter, Florian Schneider, Fritz Hilpert)
2. "Tour de France Étape 1" – 4:27 (Ralf Hütter, Florian Schneider, Fritz Hilpert, Maxime Schmitt)
3. "Tour de France Étape 2" – 6:41 (Ralf Hütter, Florian Schneider, Fritz Hilpert, Maxime Schmitt)
4. "Tour de France Étape 3" – 3:56 (Ralf Hütter, Florian Schneider, Fritz Hilpert, Maxime Schmitt)
5. "Chrono" – 3:19 (Ralf Hütter, Florian Schneider, Fritz Hilpert, Maxime Schmitt)
6. "Vitamin" – 8:09 (Ralf Hütter, Fritz Hilpert)
7. "Aéro Dynamik" – 5:04 (Ralf Hütter, Florian Schneider, Fritz Hilpert, Maxime Schmitt)
8. "Titanium" – 3:21 (Ralf Hütter, Florian Schneider, Fritz Hilpert, Maxime Schmitt)
9. "Elektro Kardiogramm" – 5:16 (Ralf Hütter, Fritz Hilpert)
10. "La Forme" – 8:41 (Ralf Hütter, Maxime Schmitt)
11. "Régéneration" – 1:16 (Ralf Hütter, Maxime Schmitt)
12. "Tour de France" – 5:12 (Ralf Hütter, Florian Schneider, Maxime Schmitt, Karl Bartos)

Note: The Japanese CD release of this album also contains the video of the single "Tour de France 2003" as a bonus track.

[edit] Singles

Note: all track versions on these singles were different from the album versions of the songs

• Tour de France '03 July 2003

1. "Tour de France '03 (Version 1)"
2. "Tour de France '03 (Version 2)"
3. "Tour de France '03 (Version 3)"
4. "Tour de France '03 (Long Version)"

• Elektro-Kardiogramm (Promo only) October 2003

1. "Elektro-Kardiogramm (Radio-Mix)" — 3:25

• Aerodynamik March 2004

1. "Aerodynamik (Kling Klang Radio Mix)"
2. "Aerodynamik (Kling Klang Dynamix)"
3. "Aerodynamik (Alex Gopher / Etienne de Crecy Dynamik Mix)"
4. "Aerodynamik (François K. Aero Mix)"

• Aerodynamik + La Forme September 2007

1. "Aerodynamik (Hot Chip Intelligent Design Mix)"
2. "La Forme (Hot Chip King of the Mountains Mix)"

[edit] External links

• Tour de France Soundtracks promotional advert

[edit] Sample

Front cover of the promo version of Tour de France Soundtracks.

"Regénération" promo mix excerpt

Pre-release promotional CDs of the album feature slightly different percussion sounds towards the end of "Tour de France Étape 3", in addition to a different and extended version of "La Forme"/"Regénération", where the first track gradually faded into the second; the excerpt is of the part of "Regénération" cut from the worldwide released version.

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[edit] References