Introduction
Fernando Abrantes (born 1960 as Fernando Fromm-Abrantes) is a German-Portuguese producer and musician.
Background
He is a former member/ keyboardist of the electronic/experimental pop band Kraftwerk.
He went to the German School in Lisbon and studied Music and Electronics in Düsseldorf together with Kraftwerk members Fritz Hilpert and Henning Schmitz. He lives in Lisbon, where he owns a music production studio. He is fluent in German, Portuguese and English.
In 1985/ 1986 he performed a few shows as keyboardist of Sandra and her world hit "Maria Magdalena".
Abrantes joined Kraftwerk in winter 1990/ 1991 during production of the album "The Mix", shortly after the departure of electronic percussionist and songwriter Karl Bartos. Abrantes performed with the band the The Mix UK-tour (10 concerts) in 1991. He can be seen in robotic form in promotional pictures from this period and in the booklet of the album The Mix in addition to the music video for the updated version of The Robots, made the same year. He also performed "The Robots" live with the band in the popular German TV show "Mensch Meier".
Due to divergences about the band's artistic direction with the band's co-founder Ralf Hütter, Abrantes left Kraftwerk soon thereafter and was replaced by Kling Klang studio engineer Henning Schmitz, who remains in the band to this day.
Fernando Abrantes is one of the producers of the official music of the Expo '98.