Florian Schneider, the co-founder of Kraftwerk, died today. He was 73. The cause of his death is not yet known.
Schneider was a towering figure in electronic music. He was intimately involved in the genre from its nascent days in the 1960s through his departure from the iconic German group in November 2008. During his tenure in Kraftwerk, he was involved in the recording of ten albums that influenced hip-hop, electro, techno and countless other musical genres.
Before the pandemic, Kraftwerk was scheduled to embark on a summer tour of North America to commemorate the group’s 50th anniversary with a show including 3-D visuals. The tour was subsequently canceled.
Talking to legendary rock journalist Lester Bangs in a 1975 interview in Creem magazine, he explained to the scribe how they used technology to make music: “We don’t need a choir. We just turn this key, and there’s the choir.”
