HAD Matthew Bourne and Franck Vigroux followed their initial idea of recreating Kraftwerk’s classic Radio-Activity album exactly it could have meant an interesting addition to their tour rider.

The 1975 album opens with the instantly recognisable clicking of a Geiger counter, slowly building into a beat.

But using a real Geiger counter could have led to logistical difficulties.

“We did toy with it,” admits Bourne. “But the machine is quite heavy. And generally they need radioactive materials to make it work. We wondered if we were going to have to put nuclear isotopes on the rider!”

Instead Bourne has used his vintage Memorymoog synthesiser to create a sonar-style sound with a long decay to create that same build up.

That approach to one of the most recognisable aspects of the original album underlines the way Bourne and Vigroux have taken on Radio-Activity which is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year.

The project began during a two-day rehearsal when Vigroux pointed out as improvisers it was impossible to rehearse an improvisation.

“He said we should do something more specific,” says Bourne, who first collaborated in 2007. “A French group some years ago had done Pink Floyd’s Dark Side Of The Moon as a live performance – taking cash registers and clocks on stage. He suggested we do something similar with Kraftwerk.”

The pair spent a couple of days searching out the right sounds, before realising they needed some visuals.

“We thought it would be pretty boring watching two people sitting around twiddling knobs,” says Bourne. “We put a call out on Twitter and Facebook to see if anyone was interested.”

Installation artist Antoine Schmitt answered the call – confessing to being a fan of the album ever since it came out.

But a further problem had arisen.

“We realised we needed to put our own stamp on this,” says Bourne, who is signed to the Leaf Label. “Unless we could recreate the sounds exactly as they were on the record we couldn’t advertise that we would be recreating the album.”

Radioland was born – a concert using Radio-Activity as its starting point and using vintage analogue synthesisers and a vocoder to explore the central concepts of the album.

“We are taking the concept of radio waves and communication, the frequency of sound and transmission from the album,” says Bourne. “The main song on the album is Radio-Activity which has connections to radiation and nuclear exploration, but most of the album is about the aspect of sound travelling – it’s the stronger concept of the two. Radio-Activity itself is a play on words. We are not doing the songs in the original order – there is a balance between the original themes and what we are doing. Anyone familiar with the album will be able to tell where the songs are and what we are doing, but we have changed certain things.”

The vocoder will be used to replace some of the lyrical content – although Bourne says the pair are being careful not to overuse it.

“It’s more about giving an impression of the original lyrics rather than singing all the verses,” he says.

The pair created a 55-minute locked down version of the show, which was passed on to Schmitt to help build his visuals. Schmitt has created symbols and shapes for each song, and will be manipulating them in real-time as Bourne and Vigroux play the music.

“Kraftwerk redefined German popular music and reinvented it,” says Bourne. “Everyone was rebuilding things at the time. There is a definite German pride and German identity in their music which I think is really important. Part of our challenge is being faithful to that original music in certain ways, but not trying to recreate the original – getting the balance right between those two things is difficult.”

Support from Radio 9.

Radioland: Kraftwerk’s Radio-Activity Revisited

Komedia, Gardener Street, Brighton, Thursday March 19, Doors 7.30pm, tickets £10. Call 0845 2938480.