Frank Mertens (born Frank Sorgatz; 26 October 1961) is a German musician. He is a former member of the German

synth-pop Synth-pop (short for synthesizer pop; also called techno-pop; ) is a subgenre of new wave music that first became prominent in the late 1970s and features the synthesizer as the dominant musical instrument. It was prefigured in the 1960s ...

group Alphaville. Personality wise, he is a shy and quiet person who doesn't like to talk. Shortly after the success of their debut album, he left the band in December 1984, because he found public attention stressful. After he left, he founded the group Lonely Boys with his girlfriend at the time Matine Lille (née Richter) and Felix Lille (né Schulte). Mertens disbanded the group in 1987 to study

economics Economics () is the social science that studies the Production (economics), production, distribution (economics), distribution, and Consumption (economics), consumption of goods and services. Economics focuses on the behaviour and intera ...

. In 1991, Mertens moved to Paris to study art. In 1996 he moved back to Cologne, to work as a plastic artist. During the same year, he started but never completed a musical project called ''Maelstrom'', which was a combination of ambient music, ambient-style music, impressionistic and colorful art in the form of paintings, sculptures, and etheric poetry.

References

1961 births People from Herford (district) German keyboardists German new wave musicians Living people Alphaville (band) members {{Germany-music-bio-stub