Intuitive Music

Klaus Nomi

Born Klaus Sperber in Germany 1944, Klaus Nomi grew up in Berlin where he worked as a child extra at the German opera house as a teenager, where he fell in love with the “belle canto”. He moved to NY in 1972 and later started singing in rock clubs, being a pioneer of fusioning pop with cabaret music and his unique counter-tenor and baritone opera singing.

In 1979, Klaus Nomi was discovered by David Bowie when a common friend, Sweddish film maker Anders Grafstrom, shown him a series of early video footage from Nomi’s performances. Bowie invited him to sing along with him and Joey Ariasin in the famous Saturday Night Live TV show a year later. This launched Nomi’s career, who recorded his first album “Klaus Nomi” in 1981, which was an unique hybrid of synth pop and opera vocals and featured interpretations of Lou Christie’s “Lightning Strikes” and Lesley Gore’s “You don’t Own Me”.

His second and last album, “Simple Man”, released in 1982, included Kristian Hoffman’s “After The Fall”, Doris Troy’s “Just One Look” and a curious version of The Wizard Of Ozz’ children classic “Ding Dong - The Witch Is Dead”.

Klaus Nomi was also an important figure to pioneer of the new romantic style, whose live performances used to be bizarrely theatrical, featuring make-up and futuristic costumes. Sadly Klaus Nomi’s career was over before he ever reached popularity, but he was beloved by a minority that still consider the artist like one of the most charismatic figures from the 80’s. Klaus Nomi happened to be the first music celebrity to died of AIDS, in August 6th 1983, at the age of 39.

After Nomi’s death several live and compilation albums were released, including “Encore” (1983), “In Concert” (1986), and “Eclipsed” (1999). In 2005, a documentary film on his life was produced under the title of “The Nomi Song”. The film, written and directed by Andrew Horn, gained a Teddy Award for the Best Documentary at the 54th Berlin Film Festival in 2005.