Kraftwerk Lose Member, Tour With Radiohead

Kraftwerk co-founder Florian Schneider has left the band, a post on the band's official fan site announced on Jan. 5.

Schneider is leaving the group after nearly a 40-year partnership with Kraftwerk co-founder Ralf Hutter, but he apparently leaves a legacy of perfection, according to the web message.

"This partnership has generated an incredible music and huge advances in music technology.

"Florian is a great musician, always seeking the perfect sound through technology. Refined and perfected sounds and vocoders to impossible levels of perfection."

While no reason for the departure was given, it shouldn't come as a major surprise since Schneider didn't appear onstage for Kraftwerk's 2008 world tour.

The post also hints at future projects from both Schneider and the "new Kraftwerk." (We don't think it was too hard to replace him since they're all robots, anyway.)

You can see this "new Kraftwerk" — who include Hutter, Fritz Hilpert, Henning Schmitz and Stefan Pfaffe — when they open for Radiohead on the British band's first tour of Latin America in March. They'll also play three headlining shows of their own a month later in Germany.

Here are Kraftwerk's tour dates:

March 15-16 Mexico City, Mexico @ Foro Sol w/Radiohead
March 20 Rio De Janeiro, Brazil @ Praca Da Apoteose w/Radiohead
March 22 Sao Paulo, Brazil @ Chacara Do Jockey w/Radiohead
March 24 Buenos Aires, Argentina @ Club Ciudad w/Radiohead
March 26-27 Santiago, Chile @ San Carlos De Apoquindo Stadium w/Radiohead
April 25 Wolsfburg, Germany @ Altes Heizkraftwerk (two shows)
April 26 Wolsfburg, Germany @ Altes Heizkraftwerk