Kraftwerk Founder Says “Tschüß”

By Dan Berkman - January 7, 2009 | Email the author

After forty years Florian Schneider has ceased his collaboration with legendary kraut-rock group Kraftwerk. Kraftwerk was founded by Schneider and Ralf Hutter in 1970 and the two had been friends since their college days, where they played in an improv music group called Organization. In that band, Hutter was intrigued by Schneider’s unique take on flute and violin playing, which saw him running the instruments through Wah-Wah and fuzz pedals, and tape echoes.

The band was famous for their innovative use of effects, keyboards, synthesizers, vocoders, and drum machines. Their music has helped push the line between artistic achievement, technological advancement and pop success. Kraftwerk served as a key influence on a wide variety of music including: punk, hip hop (artists like Afrika Bambaataa would sample their work), dance and glam rock.

Kraftwerk has released several legendary albums and hugely successful singles. Some of their career highlights are: the 22-minute track “Autobahn”, “The Robots”, “The Model” and Trans-Europe Express, and The Man Machine.

Kraftwerk – “The Model”

By all reports Schneider was not active in Kraftwerk for a large part of last year; he missed their whole world tour including a co-headlining slot at Coachella. Schneider has apparently left the group to work on additional music projects. Despite his departure the band will still go along with their tour schedule which includes a tour of South America and Mexico opening for Radiohead.