Florian Schneider (pictured right), founding member of German music giants and electronic music innovators Kraftwerk, has died at the age of 73.
The news was confirmed in an official statement by Schneider’s colleague and fellow Kraftwerk co-founder Ralf Hütter, who wrote that his friend and musical partner, with whom he spent several decades in the music business, died after a short battle with cancer, just a few days after his 73rd birthday (Schneider celebrated his last birthday on April 7, 2020, ed. note).
Schneider founded the influential, pioneering outfit, or multimedia project if you like, together with Ralf Hütter (pictured left) in 1970. Kraftwerk, who used hand-built electronic instruments and devices, hold the status of electronic music pioneers thanks to their radical musical stance and innovations, which brought a real revolution in the early seventies, both in the development of music technology and instruments and in the development of music itself. With their outlook, so modern and provocative for the time, Kraftwerk had a major influence on the future of all kinds of genres across the entire musical spectrum, including hip-hop and synth-pop, as well as rock music.
Among all the musicians Kraftwerk left a special mark on when they arrived on the scene was the late David Bowie himself, who admitted Schneider’s influence on his artistry. On his 1977 album Heroes, Bowie even named one of his instrumental tracks after Schneider (“V-2 Schneider”).
Schneider, who played synthesizers, flute and saxophones, used a vocoder and also sang, among other things, left Kraftwerk in 2008 after 40 years with the band. During his time in the group, Kraftwerk recorded and released ten studio albums, including the breakthrough “Autobahn”, which came out in 1974 and a year later hit number 5 on the Billboard 200 albums chart. In Germany, Kraftwerk won the award for best dance/electronic album with “3-D the Catalogue” in 2017, and in 2014 they were given an honorable lifetime achievement award there.
Even though Kraftwerk have been nominated a whopping six times, they still haven’t been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Before Schneider’s death, Kraftwerk had confirmed they’d be heading out on a summer North American tour to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the band. The whole tour was later cancelled after the global coronavirus pandemic was declared.
Want to know what the Kraftwerk gig on February 22, 2018, at Hala Tivoli in Ljubljana was like? You can read about it (again and again and again) HERE.
