Michael Rother


Michael Rother is a German experimental musician, best known for being a founding member of the influential bands Neu! and Harmonia, and an early member of the band Kraftwerk.

Early life and education

Born in 1950, Rother was educated in Munich, Wilmslow, Karachi, and Düsseldorf. He also resided in Pakistan in the early 1960s where he was exposed to Pakistani music that would influence his own music in the late 1960s and early 1970s. From 1965 Rother played in the band Spirits of Sound, from which other members would later go on to join Kraftwerk and Wunderbar.

Music career

Rother is a multi-instrumentalist who, along with a catalog of several solo albums starting in 1977, is best known for having co-founded the German group Neu! with drummer Klaus Dinger, and his collaborative efforts with Hans-Joachim Roedelius and Dieter Moebius under the name Harmonia.
Rother and Dinger were also in a short-lived version of Kraftwerk in 1971, with Florian Schneider, during a time when founding member Ralf Hütter had temporarily left the band.
Beginning in the late 1970s, Rother began issuing LPs under his own name: Flammende Herzen, Sterntaler, and Katzenmusik all featured drums by Can drummer Jaki Liebezeit. Further releases included Fernwärme, Lust, Süssherz und Tiefenschärfe and Traumreisen. Rother regained the rights to these releases in the late 90s, 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. His most recent album; Remember featured vocals and was released in 2004.
On 1 July 2007, Rother joined the Red Hot Chili Peppers for a live jam at the end of their concert in Hamburg. Together they played for nearly 25 minutes in front of 35,000 people. In November 2007 he toured with Dieter Moebius as Rother & Moebius. On 27 November 2007, a Harmonia reunion concert was announced for Berlin, where they performed together live for the first time since 1976.
In 2010, Rother played five shows in Europe with Sonic Youth drummer Steve Shelley and Tall Firs guitarist Aaron Mullan. This group, known as Hallogallo, performed the music of Neu! live for the first time in many years. They also played the ATP New York 2010 music festival in Monticello, New York and Incubate 2010 in Tilburg, Netherlands in September 2010. In December 2012 Rother performed the music of Neu! and Harmonia at the ATP festival in Camber Sands, England, accompanied by the Berlin-based band Camera. In November 2013, he performed at the final UK holiday camp edition of ATP.
In 2015, Rother recorded scores for the German film Die Räuber by Paul Cruchten and Frank Hoffmann and the German TV film Houston by Bastian Günther.

Discography

The discography of Michael Rother consists of nine studio albums, three compilations, a boxset and nine singles.
As a member of Neu! Rother released three studio albums, two albums of studio outtakes and a rehearsal recording. As a member of Harmonia, Rother released two studio albums, one live album, a studio out-takes album and a remix album. In 2010 Rother released the "Blinkgürtel" single with his live group Hallogallo 2010.
;Studio albums
YearAlbum details
1977Flammende Herzen
1978Sterntaler
  • Labels: Sky Records
    • 1979Katzenmusik
  • Labels: Sky Records
    • 1982Fernwärme
  • Labels: Polydor Records
    • 1983Lust
  • Labels: Polydor Records
    • 1985Süssherz & Tiefenschärfe
  • Labels: Polydor Records
    • 1987Traumreisen
  • Labels: Polydor Records
    • 1996Esperanza
  • Labels: Random Records
    • 2004Remember
  • Labels: Random Records, WEA, Gang Go Music
    • ;Compilation albums
    YearAlbum details
    1985Glanzlichter
    • Labels: Polydor
    1993Radio – Singles, 1977–1993
  • Labels: Random Records
    • 1998Chronicles I
  • Labels: Purple Pyramid
    • 2019Solo
  • Labels: Grönland Records
    • ;Singles
    ;Contributions

    with Harmonia

    with Hallogallo 2010