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 quartet known as Kraftwerk. He was originally recruited to play on their US "Autobahn" tour, and his improvisations were an essential part of the earlier Kraftwerk recordings. He later left the group, when the founding members Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider became increasingly perfectionist in their attitude towards recording and releasing their music.