Tour de France Soundtracks

Tour de France Soundtracks
Studio album by Kraftwerk
Released	4 August 2003
Recorded	1983–2003
Studio	Kling Klang Studio (Düsseldorf, Germany)
Genre	Electronic
Length	55:57
Label	Kling Klang EMI Astralwerks
Producer	Ralf Hütter Florian Schneider
Kraftwerk chronology
Electric Café (1986) Tour de France Soundtracks (2003) Minimum-Maximum (2005)

Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	73/100 [1]
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	[2]
Stylus Magazine	B+ [3]
Pitchfork Media	7.0/10 [4]
Rolling Stone	[5]
Mojo	[6]
Uncut	[7]
The Guardian	[8]
BBC	favourable [9]
Drowned in Sound	[10]

Tour de France Soundtracks is the tenth studio album by the German electronic group Kraftwerk, released in August 2003. It was re-released in October 2009 under the title Tour de France. The album was recorded for the 100th anniversary of the first Tour de France bicycle race, although it missed its intended release date for the actual tour. It includes their 1983 single of the same name, the cover artwork of both releases being nearly identical. The announcement of the release caused much anticipation, as it had been 17 years since the group had put out a full album of new studio material (1986's Electric Café, also known as Techno Pop).

Unusually for a Kraftwerk album it did not have separate German and international vocal mixes, but was released only in one version, with a mix of French, German and English. 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, Germany; 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.

A newly remastered edition of the album was released by EMI Records, Mute Records and Astralwerks Records on CD and digital download in October/November 2009, with heavyweight vinyl editions released in November/December 2009.

Track listing

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

Promotional version

The promotional version of Tour de France Soundtracks contained a few differences from the album as it was finally released. "Régéneration" is extended to a length of 2:05, and there are slight changes in timbre and modulation during "Tour de France Étape 3".

Singles

Four singles released the album, *Tour de France '03, *Elektro Kardiogramm (Promo only) , *Aerodynamik , *Aerodynamik + La Forme . However, "Aero Dynamik" (based for the later version of "Minimum-Maximum"), is Kraftwerk's concert almost there song since 2004.