Michael Rother

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Michael Rother
Background information
Born	September 2, 1950 Hamburg, Germany
Genre(s)	Krautrock, Proto-punk, Art-rock
Occupation(s)	Guitarist
Instrument(s)	Guitar
Years active	1971-1975 (With Neu!) 1975- (Solo)
Label(s)	Brain
Associated acts	Neu!, Harmonia, Kraftwerk
Website	Offical Website

Michael Rother (born September 2, 1950 in Hamburg) is a German rock musician and composer. Rother is a multi-instrumentalist (primarily guitar and keyboards) who, along with a catalog of several solo albums starting in 1977, is most known for having co-founded the German group Neu! with drummer Klaus Dinger (three albums between 1971-1975), and his collabortive efforts with Hans-Joachim Roedelius and Dieter Mobieus (aka Cluster) under the name Harmonia (two albums, one in 1973 and 1975, with later 1976 sessions recorded with Brian Eno released two decades later.) Rother and Dinger were also in a short-lived version of Kraftwerk in 1971, with Florian Schneider, during a time when founding member Ralf Hutter had temporarily left the band. (This version of the group was filmed during an appearance on the German music show Beat Club, which has been available sporadically on VHS and DVD.)

Born in 1950, Rother went to school in Munich, Wilmslow (England), Karachi, and Düsseldorf. From 1965 he played in the band Spirits of Sound, from which other members would later go on to join Kraftwerk and Wunderbar.

From 1971 to 1975, Rother played guitar, bass, and keyboards in Neu! with drummer Klaus Dinger. Neu! contributed to the creation of the musical genre Motorik. "Hallogallo," a track from the band's debut album, is considered a classic and has since been reworked by other artists including System 7.

Beginning in the late 1970s, Rother began issuing LPs under his own name: Flammende Herzen (1977), Sterntaler (1978), and Katzenmusik (1979) all featured drums by Can percussionist Jaki Liebezeit. Further releases into the 80's included Fernwarme (1982), Lust (1983), Süssherz und Tiefenschaerfe (1985) and Traumreisen (1987). Rother regained the rights to these releases in the late 90's, and re-released CD versions of them, all of which contained bonus tracks, usually in the form of then-current remixes of original album tracks. Along with these reissues were a best-of compilation, Radio, and a new release, Esperanza (1996)