Florian Schneider-Esleben (7 April 1947 – 21 April 2020) was a German musician. He is best known as one of the founding members and leaders of the electronic band Kraftwerk, performing his role with the band until his departure in 2008.
Early life
Schneider was born on 7 April 1947[1] in the French occupation zone in southern Germany, near the Bodensee,[a] in what would become the state of Baden-Württemberg in 1952. His parents were Paul Schneider-Esleben, an architect, and his wife Evamaria (née van Diemen-Meyerhof). Schneider was Jewish on his mother's side;[2] Paul married the half-Jewish Evamaria in 1946 against the will of his father, who remained a loyal Nazi.[3] Schneider's family moved to Düsseldorf when he was three years old.[4][5]
Originally, Schneider's main instrument was the flute, which he would treat using electronic effects,[9] including tape echo, ring modulation, pitch-to-voltage converters, fuzz and wah-wah, allowing him to use his flute as a bass instrument. He also played violin (similarly treated), electric guitar (including slide guitar), and made use of synthesizers (both as a melodic instrument and as a sound processor).[6] Later, he also created his own electronic flute instrument. After the release of Kraftwerk's 1974 album, Autobahn, his use of acoustic instruments diminished.[9]
Schneider, speaking in 1991, said: "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".[4] Although he had limited keyboard technique, he apparently preferred to trigger the synth sounds through a keyboard (later, developments in sequencing limited the need for hands-on playing).[10]
Schneider's approach was concentrated on sound design (in an interview in 2005, Hütter called him a "sound fetishist")[11] and vocoding/speech-synthesis. One patented implementation of the latter was christened the Robovox, a distinctive feature of the Kraftwerk sound.[10] Hütter said of Schneider's approach:
"He is a sound perfectionist, so, if the sound isn't up to a certain standard, he doesn't want to do it. With electronic music there's no necessity ever to leave the studio. You could keep making records and sending them out. Why put so much energy into travel, spending time in airports, in waiting halls, in backstage areas, being like an animal, just for two hours of a concert? But now, with the Kling Klang studio on tour with us, we work in the afternoon, we do soundchecks, we compose, we put down new ideas and computer graphics. There's always so much to do, and we do make progress.[11]
Schneider did not perform on any of the dates of the Kraftwerk 2008 world tour, with his last performance with the band being in November 2006 in Spain. His position onstage was subsequently filled by Stefan Pfaffe, an associate working for the band as a video technician.[13] According to a close associate of the group, Schneider left Kraftwerk in November 2008.[14] On 6 January 2009, NME confirmed Schneider's departure.[15]
Reputedly, Schneider's departure followed a dispute with Hütter over a bicycle pump,[16][circular reference] a rumour which some sources describe as unfounded.[17]
Death
Schneider died of cancer on 21 April 2020,[18][19] fourteen days after his 73rd birthday, having suffered from the illness for a short time.[20]
^Weisbeck, Markus (21 August 2015). "The Model". frieze.com (173). Retrieved 7 May 2020.
^ abBussy, Pascal (1993). Man, Machine and Music. SAF. pp. 15–17.
^Bruchhäuser, Wilfried W. (1985). Komponisten der Gegenwart im Deutschen Komponisten-Verband: ein Handbuch [Contemporary composers in the German Composers Association: a handbook] (in German). German Composers Association [de]. p. 650.
