* En anglais uniquement
Wolfgang Flür played electronic percussion in
Kraftwerk during their most productive era, then departed for a solo career, first as
Yamo and then under his own name, with more playful material than his former band. He joined
Kraftwerk in 1973 and contributed to some of their most popular and influential albums, including
Autobahn and
The Man-Machine. Less active within the group during the 1980s, he left in 1987 and resurfaced a decade later with the
Mouse on Mars-produced
Time Pie, as
Yamo. He occasionally performed or recorded with other acts, and he released
Eloquence: Complete Works, his first album under his own name, in 2015. The collaboration-heavy
Magazine 1 appeared in 2022.
Born in Frankfurt, Germany,
Flür played acoustic drums in a band called the Beathovens in 1966. Then he was in the Spirits of Sound along with Wolfgang Riechmann and
Michael Rother, who briefly played guitar in
Kraftwerk before he and drummer
Klaus Dinger quit the band and formed
Neu! Flür began rehearsing with
Kraftwerk in 1973, performing on custom electronic percussion instruments. He played electronic drums on 1974's
Autobahn, the group's international breakthrough album, and with the additional of
Karl Bartos, the band's classic lineup solidified. Subsequent albums
Radio-Activity (1975), Trans-Europe Express (1977), and
The Man-Machine (1978) were less commercially successful, but all were immensely influential, forming the blueprint for techno, electro, new wave, and early hip-hop.
Flür toured with
Kraftwerk in 1981, and appeared on the cover art for
Computer World (1981) and Electric Cafe (1986), but wasn't present on the albums themselves, his role in the band diminished due to their more frequent usage of sequencers. Frustrated with the half-decade it took to produce Electric Cafe, he left the group after the LP's release -- it wouldn't be until a 2009 reissue that
Flür received an artist credit on the album. He took a decade off, but returned with two short-lived projects in the 1990s. He co-wrote and contributed spoken vocals to "Waiting," the only single by trance group Exxcelsior, in 1996.
Flür also released two singles as
Yamo, produced by
Andi Toma and
Jan St. Werner of
Mouse on Mars, and the album
Time Pie appeared in 1997.
Flür declined several offers to rejoin
Kraftwerk. In 1999, he published his memoir, Kraftwerk: Ich war ein Roboter, but the book was pulled momentarily and re-released with revisions (as the English edition, I Was a Robot) after a lawsuit from the remaining members of
Kraftwerk. A 12" single named after the book appeared in 2004, and it was included on the 2015 release
Eloquence: Complete Works, a collection of unreleased
Flür tracks dating back to 2002. The album also included collaborations with
Jack Dangers (
Meat Beat Manifesto),
Maki Nomiya (
Pizzicato Five), and Bostich (
Nortec Collective).
Flür remained active as a DJ, and worked with artists such as
Tiny Magnetic Pets,
Scanner, and
Anni Hogan. He appeared on
U96's 2018 album Reboot, and collaborated with the group for 2020's Transhuman.
Kraftwerk was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, in the early influence category, in 2021.
Flür appeared on
Newmen's album Futur II, and he released the electro single "Cinema" with
Fabrice Lig. The full-length
Magazine 1 appeared in 2022, featuring contributions from
Juan Atkins,
Midge Ure (
Ultravox),
Carl Cox,
Peter Hook (
Joy Division/
New Order), and others. ~ David Jeffries & Paul Simpson