| Florian Schneider |
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Florian Schneider-Esleben (born April 7 th, 1947 , in Düsseldorf , Germany ) is one of the founding members of influential and pioneering Electronic Music band Kraftwerk . He founded Kraftwerk with Ralf Hütter in 1970 , the two having met in 1968, studying firstly at the Academy of Arts in Reimschied, then at the Düsseldorf Conservatory, and played together in the improvising ensemble Organisation . Originally his main instrument was the Flute , which he would treat using a diverse manner of electronic effects, including tape echo, Ring Modulation , use of pitch-to-voltage converter, Fuzz and Wah-wah . He also played Violin (similarly treated) and made use of Synthesizers (both as a melodic instrument and as a sound processor). Later he also created his own electronic flute instrument. After the release of their 1974 album, '' Autobahn '' his use of acoustic instruments diminished. Schneider: "I had studied seriously up to a certain level, then I found it boring; I looked for other things, I found that the flute was too limiting... Soon I bought a microphone, then loudspeakers, then an echo, then a synthesizer. Much later I threw the flute away; it was a sort of process."¹ Schneider's approach appears to be concentrated on sound design (in an interview in 2005, Hütter called him a "sound fetishist") and Vocoding /speech-synthesis. One patented implementation of the latter was christened the Robovox , a distinctive feature of the Kraftwerk sound. He is known as the static, more secretive of the elusive duo, apparently disliking touring. David Bowie titled his Heroes instrumental track "V-2 Schneider" after Schneider. Bowie was heavily influenced by Kraftwerk's sound during his "Berlin" period in the late 70s. Schneider currently lives in Düsseldorf, and has a daughter. He is the son of architect Paul Schneider-Esleben. ¹Quoted 1991 in P. Bussy, ''Man, Machine and Music'', SAF Publishing, 1993 |
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