Oldish Psych and Prog

Michael Rother (born 2/9/1950, in Hamburg) was raised in Munich, Wilmslow (England) and Karachi (Pakistan), before returning to Germany, settling down in Düsseldorf during his teens.

From 1965-1971 he was with the band Spirit Of Sound, and then spent a short time with Kraftwerk before establishing with fellow Kraftwerk member Klaus Dinger, the dynamic duo Neu! in 1972. Michael also worked in the band Harmonia, with Cluster musicians. As a guitarist and sonic explorer in these earlier days he proved to be an innovator with exceptional talent and unique vision.

As a soloist, Michael's output has never quite lived up to what most people expected. A talented guitarist and explorative musician, yet even his debut FLAMMENDE HERZEN sounded like a diluted Neu! Though notable for Jaki Liebezeit's precision drumming, and exceptional quality production, it was the start of a trend that ended up with later albums becoming very mellow. Amusingly, one could say some ended up sounding like Hank Marvin interpreting Neu!

The recent CD reissues all include remixes and new tracks as bonus material and attempt to promote Michael Rother as the father of techno! This is surprising, really, when his new album ESPERANZA turned out to be a much more sensitively crafted and mellow, mostly synth based album. More recently, Michael Rother played live in concert with Roedelius.