Wolfgang Flür at YES

What do you do when the future you demanded finally arrives? Documenting the sheer scope of Kraftwerk’s influence is a fool’s errand, but suffice to say that this is the group that not only established electronica worldwide, but helped lay the foundations for hip-hop whilst utterly transforming pop and rock. They predicted a sci-fi future where computers were all-encompassing, even extending into dating and relationships. Not bad. 

Unfortunately, whilst changing the world, the mercurial personalities that made up the band would splinter and disintegrate into various line-up changes – of the current touring Kraftwerk, the only original member is Ralf Hütter. Wolfgang Flur was the percussionist in what’s generally agreed to be the definitive line-up of the group – the Hütter-Schneider-Bartos-Flür network which ran from Autobahn to Electric Café. Before this, Flur had already been instrumental in the burgeoning German kosmische (or Krautrock) movement, playing in groups with Michael Rother who would go onto form Neu!. 

Flur has maintained his good humour and irreverence, cheekily reviewing the current Kraftwerk show for a music publication, and releasing the track ‘I Was a Robot’ in 2014. Not a prolific performer, it’s difficult to guess what Flur’s forthcoming tour will involve, but Flur is adamant about his right to perform Kraftwerk tracks that he worked on, interspersed with tracks from his critically-acclaimed solo record Eloquence as part of a unique audio and visual experience. We won’t see Kraftwerk’s like again – enjoy Flur whilst we have him.