Robert Görl

Robert Görl is a German drummer, electronic musician, and vocalist best known for being a co-founder of pioneering electro-punk/Neue Deutsche Welle act <a href="spotify:artist:4KtyUYo9zaM9YggIVc7uxx">DAF</a>. Initially formed as an industrial noise group, <a href="spotify:artist:4KtyUYo9zaM9YggIVc7uxx">DAF</a> eventually settled on the duo lineup of Görl and vocalist <a href="spotify:artist:3gtuw0fzZFYbAA1DTkLN4X">Gabi Delgado</a>, and their stripped-down, sequencer-driven music and highly sexualized image helped lay the groundwork for EBM and industrial dance music. The duo reached their commercial peak with 1981's Alles Ist Gut and split a year later, with both members releasing solo albums and occasionally reuniting over the following decades. Görl resurfaced as a techno producer in the 1990s, issuing acid-tinged efforts like 1996's Watch the Great Copycat and collaborating with <a href="spotify:artist:1zdrhzkCEqTrUrIiRzVeQ3">Pete Namlook</a> and Karl O'Connor (<a href="spotify:artist:4erwZm1JybuSPTUg5Bu7nT">Regis</a>). After <a href="spotify:artist:3gtuw0fzZFYbAA1DTkLN4X">Delgado</a> died in 2020, Görl revisited unused <a href="spotify:artist:4KtyUYo9zaM9YggIVc7uxx">DAF</a> material from the early '80s, and released Nur Noch Einer in 2021.

Robert Görl was born in Munich in 1955. He was trained in jazz drumming and started a classical music education, but he became interested in punk rock and experimental music, and formed <a href="spotify:artist:4KtyUYo9zaM9YggIVc7uxx">DAF</a> (Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft) with vocalist <a href="spotify:artist:3gtuw0fzZFYbAA1DTkLN4X">Gabi Delgado</a> in 1978. Initially based in Düsseldorf, the band included members of <a href="spotify:artist:6pbcoJoywonKNUK9hLJG7B">Der Plan</a> (which Görl also played in), and their 1979 debut, Produkt Der Deutsch-Amerikanischen Freundschaft, was a set of free-form improvisations. The half-live, half-studio Die Kleinen und Die Bösen was <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Mute%22">Mute</a>'s first album release in 1980, appearing as the band relocated to London. The same year, Görl played on <a href="spotify:artist:42jKTuRe7F69Ja2Qa5JEQV">Robert Rental</a>'s single "Double Heart," also issued by <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Mute%22">Mute</a>.

Reduced to just Görl and <a href="spotify:artist:3gtuw0fzZFYbAA1DTkLN4X">Delgado</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:4KtyUYo9zaM9YggIVc7uxx">DAF</a> signed to <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Virgin%22">Virgin</a> and released their most successful and influential album, Alles Ist Gut, in 1981. Gold und Liebe appeared the same year, and Görl drummed on <a href="spotify:artist:0NKDgy9j66h3DLnN8qu1bB">the Eurythmics</a>' single "Belinda." <a href="spotify:artist:4KtyUYo9zaM9YggIVc7uxx">DAF</a> broke up during the recording of 1982's Für Immer, and Görl released his solo debut, Night Full of Tension, on <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Mute%22">Mute</a> in 1984. The album was sung by Görl entirely in English, unlike all of <a href="spotify:artist:4KtyUYo9zaM9YggIVc7uxx">DAF</a>'s prior music, and <a href="spotify:artist:5MspMQqdVbdwP6ax3GXqum">Annie Lennox</a> guested on two songs. <a href="spotify:artist:4KtyUYo9zaM9YggIVc7uxx">DAF</a> then reunited and recorded 1986's 1st Step to Heaven, a more stylized synth pop album that was also sung in English.

Görl dropped out of music for a while, and studied Buddhism in Asia for several years following a serious car accident. He released the synth pop single "Electric Marilyn" in 1991, then embraced the harder, faster side of techno. Munich-based <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Disko+B%22">Disko B</a> released several Görl EPs beginning in 1993, with CD compilation (Psycho) Therapie appearing in 1994, and the acid techno album Watch the Great Copycat arriving in 1996. Görl collaborated with <a href="spotify:artist:1zdrhzkCEqTrUrIiRzVeQ3">Pete Namlook</a> as the duo Elektro, which veered from ambient to hard trance, and he additionally surfaced on <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Harthouse%22">Harthouse</a> as part of the trio Heat. Görl's Sexdrops, co-produced by British techno artist <a href="spotify:artist:4erwZm1JybuSPTUg5Bu7nT">Regis</a>, was released in 1998, and the entirely self-produced Final Metal Pralinées followed in 2000. <a href="spotify:artist:4KtyUYo9zaM9YggIVc7uxx">DAF</a> reunited and released the drum machine-driven Fünfzehn Neue D.A.F.-Lieder in 2003. After splitting again, Görl issued the solo single "Seltsame Liebe" in 2006, and he performed as the drummer for electro-pop band <a href="spotify:artist:1IjPJum5sJ6iSr3mBsSYJk">Client</a>. He released a darker, more experimental techno album called Dark Tool Symphony in 2007.

<a href="spotify:artist:4KtyUYo9zaM9YggIVc7uxx">DAF</a> re-formed for their 30th anniversary in 2008, and the single "Du Bist DAF" appeared in 2010. 2018 saw the release of the <a href="spotify:artist:4KtyUYo9zaM9YggIVc7uxx">DAF</a> remix album Reworx and Görl's The Paris Tapes, an album of previously unheard instrumental demos recorded in the late '80s. <a href="spotify:artist:3gtuw0fzZFYbAA1DTkLN4X">Delgado</a> died of a heart attack in 2020, soon after the duo decided to work on new <a href="spotify:artist:4KtyUYo9zaM9YggIVc7uxx">DAF</a> material, and Görl recorded the single "Ich Denk An Dich" with producer <a href="spotify:artist:3VhxWwbwFXGCW4EoUrCtVl">Sylvie Marks</a>. He then reworked material from <a href="spotify:artist:4KtyUYo9zaM9YggIVc7uxx">DAF</a>'s early London rehearsals, and made songs based on unused sequences. Nur Noch Einer, credited to Görl and <a href="spotify:artist:4KtyUYo9zaM9YggIVc7uxx">DAF</a>, was released by <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Gr%C3%B6nland+Records%22">Grönland Records</a> in 2021. ~ Paul Simpson, Rovi