Overview
It seems like only yesterday that there was a giant yellow duck bobbing around in Sydney Harbour, but already Sydney's other major festival has announced its central act. Vivid Live 2013 will be headlined by German krautrock trailblazers Kraftwerk, who will perform their eight groundbreaking albums across four nights in 3D Kraftwerk – The Catalogue 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8.
The retrospective comes to Sydney following only three other performances in New York, Düsseldorf and London. Each concert night will be dedicated to a different studio album, with plenty of audiovisual treats hidden pulled from the band's back catalogue for the more serious of Kraftwerk connoisseurs. The trip starts in 1974 with Autobahn before moving through Radio-Activity (1975), Trans Europe Express (1977), The Man Machine (1978), Computer World (1981), Techno Pop (1986), The Mix (1991) and Tour de France (2003).
Kraftwerk are as much an art collective as they are sonic revolutionaries, and they've taken care to ensure their music comes across just as mindbogglingly avant-garde as when those first songs were released almost 40 years ago, light years ahead of time.
The music will be performed with band member/man-machine standing in line behind their individual control desks — the set-up you’ll be familiar with even if you’ve never so much as watched one of their music videos — and artwork by long-time collaborator Emil Schult take things from concert to multimedia spectacle. With everyone in the Opera House’s Joan Sutherland Theatre wearing 3D glasses and trippy GeoCities-era CGI spilling out from a giant screen, it will be most excellently weird.
Because of high demand for tickets, Sydney Opera House have put in place an online application process to ensure everyone has an equal chance. To apply for tickets got to sydneyoperahouse.com/kraftwerk any time between Monday 25 February and Friday 1 March.
The full program for Vivid Sydney and Vivid LIVE will be announced in March.
KRAFTWERK – THE CATALOGUE 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Joan Sutherland Theatre, Sydney Opera House
Friday, May 24, 7pm – Autobahn (1974)
Friday, May 24, 9.30pm – Radio-Activity (1975)
Saturday, May 25, 7pm – Trans Europe Express (1977)
Saturday, May 25, 9.30pm – The Man Machine (1978)
Sunday, May 26, 7pm – Computer World (1981)
Sunday, May 26, 9.30pm – Techno Pop (1986)
Monday, May 27, 7pm – The Mix (1991)
Monday, May 27, 9.30pm – Tour De France (2003)