Published
Mon, Mar 23, 2020, 22:04
- His longtime bandmate Robert Görl posted news of his passing today.
DAF cofounder Gabi Delgado-López died on Sunday night at the age of 61.
Delgado-López's DAF bandmate Robert Görl posted news of his passing on Instagram. "I found out today that my longtime friend and bandmate Gabi Delgado passed away last night," he wrote.
Delgado-López and Görl have worked together on-and-off since meeting at Ratinger Hof in Düsseldorf in the late '70s. After forming DAF (Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft), the duo would start out on Warning Records and Mute (their Die Kleinen Und Die Bösen LP was Mute's first LP release), before finding success with a trilogy of records for Virgin, Alles Ist Gut, Gold Und Liebe and Für Immer. They'd then split up for the first of many times, Delgado-López and Gabi's contentious creative relationship key to the group's seminal output.
The punk-influenced EBM sound pioneered by DAF presaged acid house and techno. After relocating to Berlin in 1986, Delgado-López had a hand in the modern clubbing capital's nascent dance music scene, throwing early house music parties with WestBam and Marc Gubler and launching the techno and house labels Delkom Club Control, BMWW and Sunday Morning.
DAF performed live up to the end—they were playing gigs earlier this year.