Florian Schneider, co-founder of the electro group Kraftwerk, is dead

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German Florian Schneider-Esleben, co-founder of pioneer electronic music group Kraftwerk, died at the age of 73 from cancer, one of the group's managers announced on Wednesday .

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Florian Schneider-Esleben died "  of dazzling cancer, just a few days after his 73rd birthday, " Alexandra Greenberg told AFP, quoting comments from other Kraftwerk founder Ralf Hütter.

It was in early 1968 that Florian Schneider-Esleben and Ralf Hütter started their collaboration. Two years later, they founded Kraftwerk, in Düsseldorf, a city in western Germany.

Born in the industrial Ruhr area, this group intended to develop a typically German music, marrying their mother tongue with the sounds of big cities, against the Anglo-Saxon pop brought by the occupying troops. His music, combining haunting bass, synthesizer pads and drum machine, has won over audiences and many artists, from David Bowie to Daft Punk. The distortion of voices to the “vocoder”, the group's trademark, has become a classic.

Avant-garde group and influential actor of contemporary art, Kraftwerk will chain world successes with its titles Autobahn (1974), Radio-Aktivität (1975), Trans Europa Express (1977), Die Mensch-Maschine (1978) or even Tour From France (2003).

Florian Schneider left the group at the end of 2008. In 2014, he received a Grammy Award, an award given each year in the United States to honor the best artists in the field of music, for the work of their lives.

Artists from around the world have paid tribute to him, like the French singer-songwriter Jean-Michel Jarre on his Twitter account.

My dear Florian
Your Autobahn will never end ..
The Tour de France will never be the same again. # FlorianSchneider #kraftwerk #Autobahn pic.twitter.com/07Oks7PV2j

With AFP

Also read: Exhibition "Electro from Kraftwerk to Daft Punk", journey to the heart of a culture

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