Trans-Europe Express

Work began in mid-1976 under the title Europe Endless. Paul Alessandrini told Hütter and Schneider that their music was a kind of electronic blues and that railway stations and trains were important in their universe, so they should write a song about the Trans Europ Express. Before recording, Hütter met David Bowie and Iggy Pop. The album was made at Kling Klang Studio in Düsseldorf, with Bartos and Flür on electronic percussion, and mixed in Los Angeles at the Record Plant. A customised 32-step analog sequencer built by Matten & Wiechers of Bonn, the Synthanorma Sequenzer, is prominent in lines such as Franz Schubert and Endless Endless. The band went to railway bridges to hear what trains really sound like, found that the sound was not danceable and changed it a little, Bartos said. Two versions were mixed, one sung in English and one in German, and a French version of Showroom Dummies, Les Mannequins, was also recorded.

It was released in March 1977 and launched in France with a 1930s train hired by EMI from Paris to Rheims, with the album played to critics over the announcement system. In Britain it entered the chart in February 1982 and reached number 49. Robert Christgau reviewed it in the Village Voice in 1977, and critics placed it 30th in the paper's Pazz & Jop poll. Slant placed it first on its 2002 list of the greatest electronic albums of the 20th century, Rolling Stone put it at 253 on its 2003 list of the 500 greatest albums, and Pitchfork ranked it sixth among the albums of the 1970s in 2004. Joy Division's Peter Hook said Ian Curtis insisted that they play Trans Europe Express before they went on stage. Chris Power of Drowned in Sound wrote in 2009 that its status as modern electronic music's birth certificate is well earned, and Andy Gill of The Independent wrote that it was probably the most influential album released in the final quarter of the past century.