Karl Bartos
Encyclopedia
Karl Bartos was, between 1975 and 1990, along with Wolfgang Flür
, an electronic percussionist in the electronic-music
group Kraftwerk
. He was originally recruited to play on its US "Autobahn" tour. In addition to his percussion playing, Bartos was credited with songwriting on the Man-Machine, Computer World, and Electric Café albums and sang one lead vocal on the latter.
He left the group in 1990, reportedly frustrated at the slow progress in the group's activities because of the increasingly perfectionist attitude of founding members Ralf Hütter
and Florian Schneider
.
In 1992 Bartos founded Elektric Music. This new project released the Kraftwerk-style Esperanto
in 1993, and then the more guitar-based Electric Music
in 1998. In between the two albums, Bartos collaborated with Bernard Sumner
and Johnny Marr
on Electronic
's 1996 album Raise the Pressure
, and co-wrote material with Andy McCluskey
which appeared on both Esperanto and Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark
's Universal album. In 1998, he also produced an album by Swedish synthpop band the Mobile Homes, much in the style of his work with Electronic: guitar-pop with very slight synthetic references. It was received as a great disappointment to synthpop fans, but it sold more than any of their previous albums and was used in TV advertisements for an airline to moderate success.
In 1992 Elektric Music were asked to remix Afrika Bambaataa
's song Planet Rock
for release on a remix album. Ironically, Planet Rock was the subject of an out-of-court settlement between Kraftwerk and Tommy Boy Records
head Tom Silverman
, as it uses significant parts from both Kraftwerk's Trans-Europe Express
and Numbers
.
In 2003, using his own name, he released the synthpop
album Communication, featuring such songs as "I'm the Message," "Camera," and "Ultraviolet."
In 2007 his music provided the soundtrack to the documentary Moebius Redux - A Life in Pictures, about the influential graphic artist Jean Giraud
.
Karl Bartos announced in early 2008 that he had opened the first edition of the audio-visual exhibition Crosstalk for public viewing at the white cube section on the official Karl Bartos website. The program holds 21 films, remixes, cover versions, and mash-ups from Sweden, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, United Kingdom, the USA, and Japan.
On March, 2011, Karl Bartos released Mini-Composer, an iPhone
app. It's a simple 16 steps sequencer with 4 basic waves synthesizer. It has been designed with Japanese artist Masayuki Akamatsu and the executive producer is Jean-Marc Lederman
.
With Elektric Music (now Electric Music)
With Electronic
As Karl Bartos
Unreleased
Wolfgang Flür
Wolfgang Flür is a German musician, best known as a member of the electronic group Kraftwerk, from 1973 to 1987, playing electronic percussion...
, an electronic percussionist in the electronic-music
Electronic music
Electronic music is music that employs electronic musical instruments and electronic music technology in its production. In general a distinction can be made between sound produced using electromechanical means and that produced using electronic technology. Examples of electromechanical sound...
group Kraftwerk
Kraftwerk
Kraftwerk is an influential electronic music band from Düsseldorf, Germany. The group was formed by Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider in 1970, and was fronted by them until Schneider's departure in 2008...
. He was originally recruited to play on its US "Autobahn" tour. In addition to his percussion playing, Bartos was credited with songwriting on the Man-Machine, Computer World, and Electric Café albums and sang one lead vocal on the latter.
He left the group in 1990, reportedly frustrated at the slow progress in the group's activities because of the increasingly perfectionist attitude of founding members Ralf Hütter
Ralf Hütter
Ralf Hütter is the lead singer, keyboardist, and reportedly leader of the electronic-music band Kraftwerk. Since the departure of Florian Schneider in 2008, he is also the group's sole remaining founding member....
and Florian Schneider
Florian Schneider
Florian Schneider-Esleben is one of the founding members of electronic music band Kraftwerk. He left the band in November 2008.-Career:...
.
In 1992 Bartos founded Elektric Music. This new project released the Kraftwerk-style Esperanto
Esperanto (album)
-Release history:...
in 1993, and then the more guitar-based Electric Music
Electric Music
Electric Music was the second album by Karl Bartos' "Elektric Music" project, recorded after his collaboration with UK band Electronic on their 1996 album Raise the Pressure and released in 1998...
in 1998. In between the two albums, Bartos collaborated with Bernard Sumner
Bernard Sumner
Bernard Sumner , also known as Bernard Dickin, Bernard Dicken and Bernard Albrecht is an English singer-songwriter, guitarist, keyboard player and producer....
and Johnny Marr
Johnny Marr
Johnny Marr is an English musician and songwriter. Marr rose to fame in the 1980s as the guitarist in The Smiths, with whom he formed a prolific songwriting partnership with Morrissey. Marr has been a member of Electronic, The The, and Modest Mouse...
on Electronic
Electronic (band)
-Albums:-Singles:-Music videos:-External links:* *...
's 1996 album Raise the Pressure
Raise the Pressure
Raise the Pressure is Electronic's second album, released in July 1996.-Recording:Seven of the thirteen tracks were composed by full-time members Johnny Marr and Bernard Sumner, and the other six co-written with former Kraftwerk member Karl Bartos...
, and co-wrote material with Andy McCluskey
Andy McCluskey
George Andrew "Andy" McCluskey is the lead singer, bass guitarist, and primary songwriter for the band Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark ....
which appeared on both Esperanto and Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark are a synthpop group whose founding members are originally from the Wirral Peninsula, England...
's Universal album. In 1998, he also produced an album by Swedish synthpop band the Mobile Homes, much in the style of his work with Electronic: guitar-pop with very slight synthetic references. It was received as a great disappointment to synthpop fans, but it sold more than any of their previous albums and was used in TV advertisements for an airline to moderate success.
In 1992 Elektric Music were asked to remix Afrika Bambaataa
Afrika Bambaataa
Afrika Bambaataa is an American DJ from the South Bronx, New York who was instrumental in the early development of hip hop throughout the 1980s. Afrika Bambaataa is one of the three originators of break-beat deejaying, and is respectfully known as the "Grandfather" and the Amen Ra of Universal...
's song Planet Rock
Planet Rock (song)
"Planet Rock" is a 1982 song by Afrika Bambaataa & the Soulsonic Force. In the background and hooks featured Marvella Murray, Yvette Murray, Melissa Johnson and Sandra Wheeler. Although it was only a minor hit in the US, Canada, and UK, it helped change the foundations of hip-hop and dance music...
for release on a remix album. Ironically, Planet Rock was the subject of an out-of-court settlement between Kraftwerk and Tommy Boy Records
Tommy Boy Records
Tommy Boy Entertainment is an independent record label started in 1981 by Tom Silverman.-History:...
head Tom Silverman
Tom Silverman
Tom Silverman is the founder, chairman and CEO of the record label Tommy Boy Records , and he is co-founder of the independent film and television company Tommy Boy Films. Silverman co-founded Dance Music Report magazine, which ran from 1978 to 1992, and he co-founded the Dance Music Hall of Fame,...
, as it uses significant parts from both Kraftwerk's Trans-Europe Express
Trans-Europe Express (album)
Trans-Europe Express is the sixth studio album by German electronic music band Kraftwerk. Recorded in mid-1976 in Düsseldorf, Germany, the album was released in March 1977 on Kling Klang Records. The album's themes were influenced by friends who suggested writing songs about the Trans-Europ...
and Numbers
Computer World
Computer World is the eighth studio album by the German electronic music band Kraftwerk, released in May 1981. The album deals with the themes of the rise of computers within society. Critics see this album as a peak in the career of Kraftwerk, along with Autobahn and Trans-Europe Express...
.
In 2003, using his own name, he released the synthpop
Synthpop
Synthpop is a genre of popular music that first became prominent in the 1980s, in which the synthesizer is the dominant musical instrument. It was prefigured in the 1960s and early 1970s by the use of synthesizers in progressive rock, electronic art rock, disco and particularly the "Kraut rock" of...
album Communication, featuring such songs as "I'm the Message," "Camera," and "Ultraviolet."
In 2007 his music provided the soundtrack to the documentary Moebius Redux - A Life in Pictures, about the influential graphic artist Jean Giraud
Jean Giraud
Jean Henri Gaston Giraud is a French comics artist. Giraud has earned worldwide fame, not only under his own name but also under the pseudonym Moebius, and to a lesser extent Gir, the latter appearing mostly in the form of a boxed signature at the bottom of the artist's paintings, for instance the...
.
Karl Bartos announced in early 2008 that he had opened the first edition of the audio-visual exhibition Crosstalk for public viewing at the white cube section on the official Karl Bartos website. The program holds 21 films, remixes, cover versions, and mash-ups from Sweden, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, United Kingdom, the USA, and Japan.
On March, 2011, Karl Bartos released Mini-Composer, an iPhone
IPhone
The iPhone is a line of Internet and multimedia-enabled smartphones marketed by Apple Inc. The first iPhone was unveiled by Steve Jobs, then CEO of Apple, on January 9, 2007, and released on June 29, 2007...
app. It's a simple 16 steps sequencer with 4 basic waves synthesizer. It has been designed with Japanese artist Masayuki Akamatsu and the executive producer is Jean-Marc Lederman
Jean-Marc Lederman
Jean-Marc Lederman is a Belgian keyboard player and producer. He has worked with numerous bands including Fad Gadget, The The, Gene Loves Jezebel, The Weathermen, Belgian rock band Streets, and Front 242, and with other artists including Julianne Regan and Alain Bashung.His main projects are The...
.
Discography
With Kraftwerk- 1975: Radio-ActivityRadio-ActivityRadio-Activity is the fifth studio album by German electronic band Kraftwerk, released in October 1975. Unlike Kraftwerk's later albums, which featured language-specific lyrics, only the titles differ between the English and German editions...
- 1977: Trans-Europe ExpressTrans-Europe Express (album)Trans-Europe Express is the sixth studio album by German electronic music band Kraftwerk. Recorded in mid-1976 in Düsseldorf, Germany, the album was released in March 1977 on Kling Klang Records. The album's themes were influenced by friends who suggested writing songs about the Trans-Europ...
- 1978: The Man-MachineThe Man-MachineThe Man-Machine is the seventh studio album by German electronic band Kraftwerk, released in May 1978. It contains the song "The Model" which was a chart-topping single in the UK in 1982....
- 1981: Computer WorldComputer WorldComputer World is the eighth studio album by the German electronic music band Kraftwerk, released in May 1981. The album deals with the themes of the rise of computers within society. Critics see this album as a peak in the career of Kraftwerk, along with Autobahn and Trans-Europe Express...
- 1983: Tour de FranceTour de France (song)"Tour de France" is a song by Kraftwerk. It was first issued in June 1983, peaking at #22 in the UK singles chart. It is notable for the use of sampled voices and mechanical sounds associated with cycling that were used to supplement a simple electro-percussion pattern – an approach Kraftwerk have...
(Single) - 1986: Electric CaféElectric CaféElectric Café is the ninth studio album by the electronic group Kraftwerk, originally released in 1986. In October 2009 it was re-released under its original working title, Techno Pop.-Background:...
- 1991: The MixThe MixThe Mix is a 1991 remix album by Kraftwerk. It featured re-recorded versions of a selection of songs which had originally appeared on the albums Autobahn through Electric Café. Hütter stated in interviews that he regarded The Mix as a type of live album, as it captured the results of the band's...
(sound-data programming) (uncredited)
With Elektric Music (now Electric Music)
- 1992: Afrika Bambaataa and The Soulsonic Force - Planet Rock (Classic Mix)
- 1993: EsperantoEsperanto (album)-Release history:...
- 1998: Electric MusicElectric MusicElectric Music was the second album by Karl Bartos' "Elektric Music" project, recorded after his collaboration with UK band Electronic on their 1996 album Raise the Pressure and released in 1998...
With Electronic
- 1996: Raise the PressureRaise the PressureRaise the Pressure is Electronic's second album, released in July 1996.-Recording:Seven of the thirteen tracks were composed by full-time members Johnny Marr and Bernard Sumner, and the other six co-written with former Kraftwerk member Karl Bartos...
As Karl Bartos
- 2000: "15 Minutes of Fame" (single)
- 2003: Communication (album)
- 2004: "Camera Obscura" (single)
- 2011: Currently working on a new album.
Unreleased
- 1994: 2nd proposed Elektric Music album (Most of the songs were performed at Elektric Music's Virtua Summer Tour in 1994).
- 2007: Moebius Redux – Ein Leben in Bildern / Une vie en images / A Life in Pictures (original soundtrack)