Karl Bartos

Former Kraftwerk member Karl Bartos has continued making electronic music ranging from synth pop to soundtrack work. He joined Kraftwerk in 1975 and played a major part in shaping several of their most important albums. As Kraftwerk grew to be perfectionists, their release schedule became quite slow, a byproduct that frustrated Bartos enough to leave the group and launch a solo career. He formed Elektric Music, which morphed from synth pop to more guitar-based pop, and also contributed to albums by Electronic and OMD. He released two albums of Kraftwerk-style electropop, Communication (2003) and Off the Record (2013), and later composed a soundtrack for the classic silent film The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, which was released in 2024.