Wolfgang Flür
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| Wolfgang Flür | |
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| Background information | |
| Born | 17 July 1947 Germany |
| Genre(s) | Electronic music Synthpop Krautrock |
| Occupation(s) | Musician |
| Instrument(s) | Percussion, keyboards |
| Years active | Late 1960s–present |
| Associated acts | Spirits Of Sound Fruit The Beathovens Kraftwerk (1973–1987) Yamo Dyko |
| Website | www.yamomusic.de |
Wolfgang Flür (born 17 July 1947) is a German musician, best known as a member of Kraftwerk, the electro-pop group, from 1973 to 1987, playing electronic percussion. Flür also built much of the group's studio and stage equipment in his workshop below the band's Kling Klang studio.
Previously he had played a conventional acoustic drum kit in the Düsseldorf band The Spirits of Sound. (Another member of this band was guitarist Michael Rother, who also spent a few months as a member of Kraftwerk in 1971, before forming Neu! with then Kraftwerk drummer Klaus Dinger.)
Flür is now the founding member of Yamo, who released an album Time Pie in 1997, produced in collaboration with Mouse on Mars. Flür's next release, the 12" and remixes of I Was A Robot climbed to number 6 in the German club charts. Collaborations with Pizzicato 5 and Der Plan founding member Pyrolator have been announced, and the lyrics to the song "Greed" are in Flür's autobiography, but this material remains unreleased.
Flür also wrote an autobiography, published in the year 2000, called Ich war ein Roboter (English version: I Was a Robot),[1] showing the inner workings of Kraftwerk from the beginning. This book met with hostility and litigation from his former Kraftwerk colleagues Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider. The original Hannibal Verlag edition was soon withdrawn, following an injunction, but the book was republished in English and Japanese, with removal of a couple of embarrassingly homoerotic photos of Schneider and Emil Schult and re-wording of certain sections. For instance, Flür no longer claims that the composition "Metal on Metal" was his idea; the idea was "probably" Hütter's, and he must have got the idea when he heard Flür banging away building stuff. However, most of the court attention centered around the recording of the song "Autobahn", and this point was decided in Flür's favor: The German court found that Flür did play drums on the Autobahn album. For many fans and critics, it seemed odd that Hütter and Schneider would take offence at this claim, since they credited him for doing so on the original edition of the album, and even later, credit-less, editions carry a band photo with Flür and his drum kit center stage.
Recently, Flür has been seen DJ'ing in clubs, playing tech house and electro. He has also accompanied the German synthpop duo, Dyko, in live shows as an electronic percussionist.
Japanese singer Maki Nomiya's album Party People included the song "Yamate Line" with songwriting and co-production credited to Flür/Yamo (both being cited).
The Agency recently released an exclusive Wolfgang Flur interview. Questions focused on Flur's background, musical inspirations, and customized drum machines that he created for Kraftwerk.
[edit] External links
[edit] References
- ^ Flür, Wolfgang (2000-11-29). Kraftwerk: I Was a Robot. Sanctuary Publishing. ISBN 186074320X.
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