Wolfgang Flür played electronic percussion in Kraftwerk during their most productive era, then departed for a solo career, first as Yamo and then under his own name, with more playful material than his former band. He joined Kraftwerk in 1973 and contributed to some of their most popular and influential albums, including Autobahn and The Man-Machine. Less active within the group during the 1980s, he left in 1987 and resurfaced a decade later with the Mouse on Mars-produced Time Pie, as Yamo. He occasionally performed or recorded with other acts, and he released Eloquence: Complete Works, his first album under his own name, in 2015. The collaboration-heavy Magazine 1 appeared in 2022. Born in Frankfurt, Germany, Flür played acoustic drums in a band called the Beathovens in 1966. Then he was in the Spirits of Sound along with Wolfgang Riechmann and Michael Rother, who briefly played guitar in Kraftwerk before he and drummer Klaus Dinger quit the band and formed Neu! Flür began rehearsing with Kraftwerk in 1973, performing on custom electronic percussion instruments. He played electronic drums on 1974's Autobahn, the group's international breakthrough album, and with the additional of Karl Bartos, the band's classic lineup solidified. Subsequent albums Radio-Activity (1975), Trans-Europe Express (1977), and The Man-Machine (1978) were less commercially successful, but all were immensely influential, forming the blueprint for techno, electro, new wave, and early hip-hop. Flür toured with Kraftwerk in 1981, and appeared on the cover art for Computer World (1981) and Electric Cafe (1986), but wasn't present on the albums themselves, his role in the band diminished due to their more frequent usage of sequencers. Frustrated with the half-decade it took to produce Electric Cafe, he left the group after the LP's release -- it wouldn't be until a 2009 reissue that Flür received an artist credit on the album. He took a decade off, but returned with two short-lived projects in the 1990s. He co-wrote and contributed spoken vocals to "Waiting," the only single by trance group Exxcelsior, in 1996. Flür also released two singles as Yamo, produced by Andi Toma and Jan St. Werner of Mouse on Mars, and the album Time Pie appeared in 1997. Flür declined several offers to rejoin Kraftwerk. In 1999, he published his memoir, Kraftwerk: Ich war ein Roboter, but the book was pulled momentarily and re-released with revisions (as the English edition, I Was a Robot) after a lawsuit from the remaining members of Kraftwerk. A 12" single named after the book appeared in 2004, and it was included on the 2015 release Eloquence: Complete Works, a collection of unreleased Flür tracks dating back to 2002. The album also included collaborations with Jack Dangers (Meat Beat Manifesto), Maki Nomiya (Pizzicato Five), and Bostich (Nortec Collective). Flür remained active as a DJ, and worked with artists such as Tiny Magnetic Pets, Scanner, and Anni Hogan. He appeared on U96's 2018 album Reboot, and collaborated with the group for 2020's Transhuman. Kraftwerk was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, in the early influence category, in 2021. Flür appeared on Newmen's album Futur II, and he released the electro single "Cinema" with Fabrice Lig. The full-length Magazine 1 appeared in 2022, featuring contributions from Juan Atkins, Midge Ure (Ultravox), Carl Cox, Peter Hook (Joy Division/New Order), and others. ~ David Jeffries & Paul Simpson, Rovi