After David Van Koevering passed away, our good friend Brian Kehew had an opportunity to rescue a large amount of ephemera from the Vako archives, which included a fair amount of paperwork related to the Orchestron. Brian has passed this material to us for scanning, analysis, and archiving, and we hope to collaborate on a definitive dedicated Vako Orchestron website in the near future. In the meantime, here’s a little teaser. It’s well-known that Kraftwerk were early adopters of the Orchestron, and used it heavily on their mid-late 1970s albums and live shows, starting with Radioactivity. The Vocal Choir disc, in particular, was used to great effect. Here is a brief follow-up correspondence between Ralf & Vako, shortly after the Radioactivity album was released. We’ve blurred out the address, as apparently Ralf still resides there! As to the result of this correspondence, We’ve never seen any photos or other information to indicate that Kraftwerk actually acquired a Double C Orchestron, much less the Model X Phase Four that Bob King was trying to upsell them to.
Comments 2
November 8, 2019 at 11:58 am
It looks like Kraftwerk aquired a Double C orchestron after all:
https://cdn1.imggmi.com/uploads/2019/11/7/87c758914d33bc7a01f09922ef4a47dc-full.jpg
Not sure when this photo was taken but probably in late '76 or thereabouts.
November 13, 2019 at 2:43 am
Wow, thanks! Haven't seen that photo before!