Kraftwerk co-founder flies the coop

According to the official Kraftwerk fan page kraftwerk.technopop.com.br, one of the original founders of the group Florian Schneider has left to pursue a solo project after 40 years with the outfit. “This partnership has generated… incredible music and huge advances in music technology,” the statement says, going on to say that Florian “refined and perfected sounds and vocoders to impossible levels.”

Schneider founded Kraftwerk with Ralf Hütter in 1970. Originally a flautist, he experimented with new technology to filter this instrument and subsequently others through electronic processors to create new sounds in the early days of the band. Once described by Hutter as a “sound fetishist” due to his craving for studio perfection, Schneider did not perform on any of the dates during last year’s world tour. The Melbourne leg made headlines when the German electronica godfathers missed their headline set due to a sudden and very serious illness to another member, Fritz Hilpert. Fritz was given the all-clear to perform the following day and throughout the remainder of the inaugural Global Gathering tour.

Perhaps The Independent sums the news up best with the following observational quip. “There is something brilliantly ‘Kraftwerkian’ about the news that Florian Schneider, a founder member of the German electronic pioneers, is leaving the band to pursue a solo career. Many successful bands break up after just a few years. It has apparently taken Schneider and his musical partner, Ralf Hutter, four decades to discover musical differences.”

Schneider’s departure will not affect Kraftwerk’s plans to support Radiohead on their South American tour starting in Mexico City in mid-March.