Yello
Pioneers of electronic pop
Initially formed as an electro-pop trio in Zurich in the late 70’s, from its fourth album – in a series of fourteen studio albums altogether up to “Point” in 2020 – the group has solidified into a duo around the figures of Boris Blank and Dieter Meier. In a highly efficient division of labour, Blank sees to the musical component, adopting a forward-looking approach with respect to the use of sampling and the personalisation of synthetic sounds. Meier for his part brings his own lyrics, the deep voice of the frontman, and the visual concepts that make Yello a surreal explosion of eccentricity. The result is already history: Yello they gifted us tracks like “The Race“ and “Oh yeah“ which took Swiss music to as-yet unseen heights in the international charts, managed to maintain a careful and always original production over the years, resisted on principle the numerous temptations of live performance (with almost mythical exceptions, such as the 1983 concert at the Roxy in New York or the four sold-out nights at the Kraftwerk in Berlin in 2016), always knowing how to benefit from the process of digitalisation in music culture.
How not to agree with electronic guru Carl Craig, who designated them "human legends" in 2019?
