Kraftwerk remasters 'had to be done'

Ralf Hütter has said that the upcoming release of eight Kraftwerk remasters is something that had to be done.

The band's sole remaining founding member told Billboard that the albums had not been best served by past CD mixes and packaging.

Hütter said: "It's a piece of work that just had to be done. The quality wasn't always as it should have been, especially the artwork, [which] was just cut down from the LP format or scanned down, especially in America.

"Now we found the time to finish it, and we're very happy. You have everything from Kraftwerk in high formats."

Regarding the remastering of the band's three earliest albums, he added: "When I find the time and go through the archives again, we'll do those also in a new format. But my perspective now is forward for the next album.

"There's still time to go but in the winter it's pretty grey here, so it's a good situation to go into the studio. It's still very early. It's still in its embryonic stage."

Eight-disc box set The Catalogue will be released on November 16 and includes all the band's albums from 1974's Autobahn to 2003's Tour De France.