Nearly 40 years after founding the legendary German electronica band Kraftwerk, Florian Schneider has left the band.

No reason has been given for his departure but the decision seems to have been a long time in the making as he did not join the group on their 2008 tour.

Kraftwerk are still scheduled to open for Radiohead on their Latin American tour, which begins March 15 in Mexico City.

http://www.mixmag.ne...ider-quits-band

Yeah, I read this, some days ago...but Florian's departure doesn't mean the end of the band ! as long as Ralf is there, the band will stay alive !

I hope we'll have news of florian, about his new projects...an ancient Krftwrk member can only be a good solo-musician !

Never was fully into Kraftwerk, much to the dismay of my fellow electronica enthusiasts, indeed.

They'll still continue going strong I think.

Thats very sad news. I suppose being in a band for nearly 40 years is remarkable in itself, also considering Kraftwerk have had many member changes over the years, but Ralf and Florian still there, the brains behind it all.

Florian left because he found out that they were opening for Radiohead

sad news as the original members keep falling...

Saw them twice last year and each one was pretty fun. It was cool to see such a wide range in age attending the shows.

I think it would be a brilliant idea if Disney stepped up and offered a big wad of cash to Kraftwerk to steal their show and use their music for exhibit/ride (whatever) at their Disney parks. That way Kraftwerk will get the attention they always deserved and it will expose families to very good family style modern artistic music.

I was trying to say something like that in my previous post but wasn't sure how to put it - I think there's a lot of ignorance towards Kraftwerk's contribution to music today, they are one of the founders of electronic music and many people haven't even heard of them! I think now is a good time to make people aware of this pioneering band especially now R&B/hip-hop music is well down the electronic path (not for the best imo but thats another story).

I think about famous bands, like Daft Punk who said, in an interview, that they did not really listen to electronic music where they were young, whereas they are considerating Kraftwerk as something they couldn't touch.

I'm having, personaly, some kind or pride to have discovered electronic music thanks to Kraftwerk whereas I'm not at all from the first generation who listened to them (I was born in 1992).

But when we see, nowadays, that they lose courts against a fucking rap producer who sampled "Metall auf Metall"...it means that not many producers do respects the pioneers of electronic music...