Michael Rother

All Music Guide:

Michael Rother was born in Germany in 1950. In the late '60s, he played for a group called Spirits of Sound and also Wolfgang Flür. The latter group would later become Kraftwerk; Rother also played with Kraftwerk in 1971. That same year he went on to the band NEU! He recorded three albums with them during his four-year tenure. He also worked with Harmonia (with whom he released two albums) starting in 1973, running concurrently with several of his years in NEU! In 1976, he recorded with Brian Eno. The recording was released in 1997 under the moniker Harmonia 76. 1977 saw the release of Rother's first solo album, entitled, Flammende Herzen. The following year Rother released his second solo album, Sterntaler. He followed that one up in 1979 with Katzenmusik. His next solo release would not be seen until 1982. This time the title was Fernwärme. The following year saw Rother releasing Lust. Süssherz und Tiefenschärfe, his sixth solo album, would be released in 1985. 1987 saw the follow-up to that one, it was entitled Traumreisen. His next solo album was not released until 1996. That one was called Esparanza.

Wikipedia:

Michael Rother (born 2 September 1950 in Hamburg) is a German experimental krautrock musician and composer.

Early life and education [edit]

Born in 1950, Rother went to school in Munich, Wilmslow (England), Karachi, and Düsseldorf. He also lived in Pakistan in the early 1960s where he was exposed to Pakistani music that would influence his own music in the late 60s and early 70s. From 1965 Rother played in the band Spirits of Sound, from which other members would later go on to join Kraftwerk and Wunderbar.

Music career [edit]

Rother is a multi-instrumentalist (primarily guitar and keyboards) who, along with a catalog of several solo albums starting in 1977, is best known for having co-founded the German group Neu! with drummer Klaus Dinger (five albums between 1971 and 1996), and his collaborative efforts with Hans-Joachim Roedelius and Dieter Moebius (aka Cluster) under the name Harmonia (two albums, one in 1974 and 1975, with later 1976 sessions recorded with Brian Eno; the studio tapes for the latter disappeared but were found by Roedelius two decades later; he remixed the tapes and released the results as Tracks and Traces in 1997; Rother was the main producer for the version re-released in 2009). Rother and Dinger were also in a short-lived version of Kraftwerk in 1971, with Florian Schneider, during a time when founding member Ralf Hütter had temporarily left the band. (This version of the group was filmed during an appearance on the German music show Beat Club, which has been available sporadically on VHS and DVD.)

Beginning in the late 1970s, Rother began issuing LPs under his own name: Flammende Herzen (1977), Sterntaler (1978), and Katzenmusik (1979) all featured drums by Can percussionist Jaki Liebezeit. Further releases included Fernwärme (1982), Lust (1983), Süssherz und Tiefenschärfe (1985) and Traumreisen (1987). Rother regained the rights to these releases in the late 90s, and re-released CD versions of them, all of which contained bonus tracks, usually in the form of then-current remixes of original album tracks. Along with these reissues were a best-of compilation, Radio, and a new release, Esperanza (1996). His most recent album; Remember (The Great Adventure) featured vocals (a first for Rother's solo work) and was released in 2004.

On 1 July 2007 Michael Rother joined the Red Hot Chili Peppers for a live jam at the end of their concert in Hamburg. Together they played for nearly 25 minutes in front of 35,000 people. In November 2007 he toured with Dieter Moebius (another member of Harmonia) as Rother & Moebius. On 27 November 2007, a Harmonia reunion concert was announced for Berlin, where they performed together live for the first time since 1976.

In 2010, Rother played five shows in Europe with Sonic Youth drummer Steve Shelley and Tall Firs guitarist Aaron Mullan (who played bass in the trio). This group, known as Hallogallo, performed the music of Neu! live for the first time in many years. They are confirmed to play the ATP New York 2010 music festival in Monticello, New York and Incubate 2010 in Tilburg, Netherlands in September 2010.