One of the faces on Kraftwerk's famous Autobahn cover, and a founding member of that seminal krautrock/techno band, Karl Bartos shares authoring credits for some of their greatest songs, including The Robots, Pocket Calculator, and The Model.
His music is precise, robotic, rhythmic, yet at the same time, wistfully harmonic and intensely, tug-at-the-heartstrings soulful. The combination has been known to produce compulsive listening reactions and mooney gazes in many test subjects.
Along with the rest of that band, Karl has been largely responsible for the rise of the electro sound in the hip-hop, house and synth-pop genres, which basically did not exist (in their current forms) before Kraftwerk's late 70's and early 80's releases.
Since leaving Kraftwerk, the classically trained drummer and keyboardist has worked with many groups, including OMD, Electronic and The Mobile Homes.
Short Curriculum Vitae:
1970 - 1976: Bartos studied at the Rhineland State Conservatory of Music, Robert Schumann Institute, Düsseldorf, Germany, where he received an Advanced Performer's Degree in Percussion
1975 - 1991: Member and songwriter of Kraftwerk, based out of Düsseldorf.
1991 - present: Doing his own thing with his solo project, Electric Music.
Partial discography:
The Kraftwerk era (with the rest of the band):
The Electric Music era (solo):
Almost everything you could ever want to know about the artist is available on his official site, at
karl-bartos.de
.