beep beep I am a robot (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} tekno_plaid) wrote in ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif){kind=small} soundwave_music,@ 2008-11-20 21:20:00 |
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Klaus Nomi
I'm by no means an expert on his life and music but he's a pretty remarkable performer and I think more people should listen to him.
From wiki:
Klaus Nomi was a German countertenor noted for remarkable vocal performances and an unusual, otherworldly, elven stage persona. Nomi is remembered for his bizarrely theatrical live performances, heavy make-up, unusual costumes, and a highly stylized signature hairdo which flaunted a receding hairline. His songs were equally unusual, ranging from synthesizer-laden interpretations of classical music opera to covers of 1960s pop standards like Chubby Checker's "The Twist" and Lou Christie's "Lightnin' Strikes"
...
As the story goes, he was classically trained as a countertenor, but became increasingly interested in falsetto, and so began focusing on that in his stage performances. His first ever recorded performance, and many others, are combined with an overarching biography in The Nomi Song, which I also have if anyone's interested. :)
His career was based in New York, he was part of the 'East Village' collective, and was a contemporary of Bowie and Basquiat, among other less well known contemporaries. He was one of the first celebrities to die of AIDS in America, which I think is a shame since we've never really seen anyone like him since. :(
He has a distinctive, haunting (one could say otherworldly) voice. Even when he's singing a poppy song, he has an operatic enunciation, so it all sounds very proper and just so. He's definitely New Wave, and probably unlike anything you've heard outside of the Met.
Videos:
A stunning Samson and Delilah aria
Simple Man - his most "famous" song 1 2
Performing as backup for David Bowie
(Ok guys how was that write-up? It felt like a book report lol)
I'm by no means an expert on his life and music but he's a pretty remarkable performer and I think more people should listen to him.
From wiki:
Klaus Nomi was a German countertenor noted for remarkable vocal performances and an unusual, otherworldly, elven stage persona. Nomi is remembered for his bizarrely theatrical live performances, heavy make-up, unusual costumes, and a highly stylized signature hairdo which flaunted a receding hairline. His songs were equally unusual, ranging from synthesizer-laden interpretations of classical music opera to covers of 1960s pop standards like Chubby Checker's "The Twist" and Lou Christie's "Lightnin' Strikes"
...
As the story goes, he was classically trained as a countertenor, but became increasingly interested in falsetto, and so began focusing on that in his stage performances. His first ever recorded performance, and many others, are combined with an overarching biography in The Nomi Song, which I also have if anyone's interested. :)
His career was based in New York, he was part of the 'East Village' collective, and was a contemporary of Bowie and Basquiat, among other less well known contemporaries. He was one of the first celebrities to die of AIDS in America, which I think is a shame since we've never really seen anyone like him since. :(
He has a distinctive, haunting (one could say otherworldly) voice. Even when he's singing a poppy song, he has an operatic enunciation, so it all sounds very proper and just so. He's definitely New Wave, and probably unlike anything you've heard outside of the Met.
Videos:
A stunning Samson and Delilah aria
Simple Man - his most "famous" song 1 2
Performing as backup for David Bowie
(Ok guys how was that write-up? It felt like a book report lol)
