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Karl Bartos
Karl Bartos live, 2005
Background information
Born	31 May 1952 (1952-05-31) (age 55) in Berchtesgaden, Germany
Genre(s)	Electronic music Krautrock
Occupation(s)	Musician
Instrument(s)	Keyboards Percussion
Years active	1974 to Present
Label(s)	AudioVision
Associated acts	Elektric Music Kraftwerk Electronic
Website	Karl Bartos official site

Karl Bartos was born on 31 May 1952 in Berchtesgaden, Germany. Between 1975 and 1991 Bartos, along with Wolfgang Flür, was an electronic percussionist in the Electronic music group Kraftwerk. He was originally recruited to play on their US "Autobahn" tour. In addition to his percussion playing, Bartos was credited with songwriting on the Man-Machine, Computerworld and Electric Café albums, and sang one lead vocal on the latter. He left the group in 1991, reportedly frustrated at the slow progress in the group's activities due to the increasingly perfectionist attitude of founding members Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider.

In 1992 Bartos founded Elektric Music, performing a style somewhat similar to Kraftwerk. This new project would release Esperanto in 1993 and then 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 former synthpop Swedish 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 sold more than any of their previous albums, and was used in TV advertisements for an airline to moderate success.

In 2003 he released the synthpop album Communication, featuring such songs as "I'm the Message", "Camera" and "Ultraviolet".

With Kraftwerk

• 1975: Radio-Activity
• 1977: Trans-Europe Express
• 1978: The Man-Machine
• 1981: Computer World
• 1983: Tour de France (Single)
• 1986: Electric Café
• 1991: The Mix (sound-data programming) (uncredited)

With Elektric Music (now Electric Music)

• 1993: Esperanto
• 1998: Electric Music

With Electronic

• 1996: Raise the Pressure

As Karl Bartos

• 2000: 15 Minutes Of Fame (Single)
• 2003: Communication
• 2004: Camera Obscura (Single)

• Karl Bartos official site

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