Neu Klang: The Definitive History of Krautrock tells the story of how a loose constellation of German bands reinvented rock music in the 1960s and 70s. Rather than imposing a single authorial voice, Christoph Dallach structures the book as an extended conversation with the movement’s originators and fellow travellers. Members of groups such as Can, Neu!, Kraftwerk, Faust, Cluster and more speak about their formative experiences, their rejection of Anglo‑American pop templates, and their efforts to build a new sound appropriate to a country emerging from the shadow of war and dictatorship.

Through these interwoven testimonies, Neu Klang traces how disparate impulses – avant‑garde classical training, jazz improvisation, student politics, psychedelia, studio experimentation – converged into what later listeners would call krautrock. The musicians recall cheap equipment, communal living, endless rehearsals and a fascination with repetition and process that led to long‑form tracks, motorik grooves and extended improvisations. Dallach lets them discuss their own influences and disagreements, illuminating how bands with very different aesthetics came to be grouped under a single label, and what they think about that term today.

The book also follows krautrock’s afterlives: its early admirers in figures like David Bowie and Iggy Pop, its rediscovery by post‑punk, its deep impact on techno, post‑rock and electronic experimentalism. By moving constantly between biography, studio anecdote and broader cultural context, Neu Klang paints a detailed portrait of a scene that was never truly a “scene” at all, but a series of parallel experiments whose echoes now shape global music. It is both a definitive reference and a vivid, often funny and candid set of stories from those who were there when the machines first started to hum.