ThomasKoener Goethe-Institut Boston 22-10-2010 bySusannaBolle

Thomas Köner (born 1965 in

Bochum Bochum (, ; ; ; ) is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia. With a population of 372,348 (April 2023), it is the sixth-largest city (after Cologne, Düsseldorf, Dortmund, Essen and Duisburg) in North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous German federa ...

West Germany West Germany was the common English name for the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) from its formation on 23 May 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with East Germany on 3 October 1990. It is sometimes known as the Bonn Republi ...

) is a multimedia artist whose main interest lies in combining visual and auditory experiences. The

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

, in a review of Köner's work in 1997, calls him a "media artist," one who works between installation,

sound art Sound art is an artistic activity in which sound is utilized as a primary Time-based media, time-based Artistic medium, medium or material. Like many genres of contemporary art, sound art may be interdisciplinary in nature, or be used in Cross-genr ...

, ambient music and as one half of Porter Ricks dub techno. A noted characteristics of Köner's

dark ambient Dark ambient (referred to as ambient industrial especially in the 1980s) is a genre of post-industrial musicReed, Alexander: ''Assimilate: A Critical History of Industrial Music'', Oxford University Press, 2013, , p. 190 that features an ominous, ...

style are low drones and static soundscapes evocative of desolate, Arctic places. For his audio-visual works, he was awarded Golden Nica at Prix Ars Electronica in Linz, Transmediale Award, Tiger Cub Award at

International Film Festival Rotterdam International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) is an annual film festival held at the end of January in various locations in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, focused on independent and experimental films. The inaugural festival took place in June 1972, ...

, ARCO Award Best Young Artist in Madrid, among others. During Köner's solo exhibition of his video-art at the Musée d'art contemporain de Montreal, the museum described him as a major innovator in the contemporary music scene, as well as noted his collaborative practice which has led to his working with musicians, filmmakers and visual artists on installations and sound performances, and to his creation of six video works produced in two cycles, starting in 2003. 2006 Köner produced ''Station Eismitte'', a work inspired by

Alfred Wegener Alfred Lothar Wegener (; ; 1 November 1880 – November 1930) was a German climatologist, geologist, geophysicist, meteorologist, and polar researcher. During his lifetime he was primarily known for his achievements in meteorology and ...

's 1930 arctic expedition and named after the expedition's site. 2009 Köner created The Futurist Manifesto, a digital opera, to coincide with the 100 year anniversary of the famous manifesto published in 1909 by

Filippo Tommaso Marinetti Filippo Tommaso Emilio Marinetti (; 22 December 1876 – 2 December 1944) was an Italian poet, editor, art theorist and founder of the Futurist movement. He was associated with the utopian and Symbolist artistic and literary community Abbaye de ...

. It was commissioned by EMAP/EMARE. This work has been performed live several times in festivals across Europe with Carl Faia and Iris Garrelfs. Thomas Köner has been creating music for silent films since 1994, which he performs on his own or with a small ensemble. His music for F.W. Murnau’s ''

Faust Faust ( , ) is the protagonist of a classic German folklore, German legend based on the historical Johann Georg Faust (). The erudite Faust is highly successful yet dissatisfied with his life, which leads him to make a deal with the Devil at a ...

'' was commissioned by the

Auditorium du Louvre The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is a national art museum in Paris, France, and one of the most famous museums in the world. It is located on the Right Bank of the Seine in the city's 1st arrondissement (district or ward) and home to ...

in Paris and was premiered there in 2013 as part of the supporting program of the ''De l’Allemagne 1800 – 1939'' exhibition. So far, he has created and performed scores for 30 silent films including

Fritz Lang Friedrich Christian Anton Lang (; December 5, 1890 – August 2, 1976), better known as Fritz Lang (), was an Austrian-born film director, screenwriter, and producer who worked in Germany and later the United States.Obituary ''Variety Obituari ...

's ''

Metropolis A metropolis () is a large city or conurbation which is a significant economic, political, and cultural area for a country or region, and an important hub for regional or international connections, commerce, and communications. A big city b ...

'', F.W. Murnau's ''

'' and ''

Nosferatu ''Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror'' () is a 1922 silent film, silent German Expressionism (cinema), German Expressionist vampire film directed by F. W. Murnau from a screenplay by Henrik Galeen. It stars Max Schreck as Count Orlok, a vampire who ...

,''

Lotte Reiniger Charlotte "Lotte" Reiniger (2 June 1899 – 19 June 1981) was a German film director and the foremost pioneer of silhouette animation. Her best known films are ''The Adventures of Prince Achmed'', from 1926, the oldest surviving feature-length a ...

’s '' Die Abenteuer Des Prinzen Achmed'' (''The Adventures Of Prince Ahmed'') among others. Writing about his performance of

's ''

,'' Spanish national daily newspaper El Pais said that: "Thomas Köner envelops ''Metropolis'' in 21 century sounds".

Album discography

* 1990 '' Nunatak Gongamur'' ( Barooni) * 1992 ''

Teimo Teimo is the second solo album from German Ambient music, Ambient music producer, Thomas Köner. Köner has already fully developed his characteristic drone style here. It is also the record which made Köner known in electronic scene and together ...

'' (Barooni) * 1993 ''

Permafrost Permafrost () is soil or underwater sediment which continuously remains below for two years or more; the oldest permafrost has been continuously frozen for around 700,000 years. Whilst the shallowest permafrost has a vertical extent of below ...

'' (Barooni) * 1995 ''

Aubrite Aubrites are a group of meteorites named for Aubres, a small achondrite meteorite that fell in 1836 in Aubres near Nyons, France. They are primarily composed of the orthopyroxene enstatite and are often called enstatite achondrites. Their igneou ...

'' (Barooni) * 1997 ''

Nuuk Nuuk (; , formerly ) is the capital and most populous city of Greenland, an autonomous territory in the Kingdom of Denmark. Nuuk is the seat of government and the territory's largest cultural and economic center. It is also the seat of gove ...

'' (part of the ''Driftworks'' box) * 1998 '' Kaamos'' ( Mille Plateaux) * 2001 '' Unerforschtes Gebiet'' (LP picture disc) ( Die Stadt) * 2002 ''

Daikan ''Daikan'' (代官) was an official in ancient Japan that acted on behalf of a ruling monarch or a lord at the post they had been appointed to. Since the Middle Ages, ''daikan'' were in charge of their territory and territorial tax collection. In ...

'' ( Mille Plateaux) * 2003 ''Zyklop'' ( Mille Plateaux) * 2009 '' La Barca'' (CD version) ( Fario) * 2012 ''Novaya Zemlya'' (

Touch The somatosensory system, or somatic sensory system is a subset of the sensory nervous system. The main functions of the somatosensory system are the perception of external stimuli, the perception of internal stimuli, and the regulation of bo ...

) * 2014 ''Cloître'' (with Jana Winderen) (

) * 2014 ''Tiento de las nieves'' ( Denovali) * 2016 ''Tiento de la luz'' ( Denovali) *2020 ''Motus'' ( Mille Plateaux)

Re-releases

* 1997 ''Teimo/Permafrost'' (2xCD re-release by Mille Plateaux) * 2003 '' Unerforschtes Gebiet'' (CD release with bonus track) (Die Stadt) * 2004 ''

'' CD/DVD ( MillePlateauxMedia) * 2010 ''Nunatak • Teimo • Permafrost'' (box re-release by

Type Type may refer to: Science and technology Computing * Typing, producing text via a keyboard, typewriter, etc. * Data type, collection of values used for computations. * File type * TYPE (DOS command), a command to display contents of a file. * ...

) * 2010 ''La Barca'' (expanded 2xLP version) (Fario) * 2014 ''La Barca (complete edition)'' (further expanded download version) (Thomas Köner

as Porter Ricks (with Andy Mellwig)

* 1996 '' Biokinetics (Porter Ricks album), Biokinetics'' (

Chain Reaction A chain reaction is a sequence of reactions where a reactive product or by-product causes additional reactions to take place. In a chain reaction, positive feedback leads to a self-amplifying chain of events. Chain reactions are one way that sys ...

) * 1997 ''Porter Ricks'' (Mille Plateaux) * 1999 Porter Ricks : Techno Animal ''Symbiotics'' ( Force Inc. Music Works) * 2016 ''Shadow Boat'' (Tresor) * 2017 ''Anguilla Electrica'' (Tresor)

as Kontakt der Jünglinge (with
Asmus Tietchens Asmus Tietchens (born 3 February 1947, in Hamburg), who also records under the monikers Hematic Sunsets and Club of Rome, is a German composer of avant-garde music. Tietchens became interested in experimental music and musique concrète as a chi ...
)

* 2001 ''0'' (Die Stadt) * 2001 ''1'' (Die Stadt) * 2002 ''-1'' (Die Stadt) * 2003 ''n'' (Die Stadt) * 2014 ''Makrophonie 1'' (Die Stadt)

Awards

- German Sound Art Award Deutsche Klangkunst-Preis / Produktionspreis WDR, Marl, 2004 - Golden Nica, Prix Ars Electronica, Linz, 2004 - Tiger Cub Award, Best Short,

, 2005 - transmediale.05 Award, International Media Art Festival, Berlin, 2005 - ARCO Award Best Young Artist at Arco, Feria International de Arte Contemporaneo, Madrid, 2005 - Off Screen Award Best New Media Work, Images Festival Toronto, 2007 - MuVi-Award for best German Music video, 55. International Short Film Festival Oberhausen, 2009 - Nomination for Nam June Paik Award, 2012

Artist-in-residence

- Cité International des Arts, Paris, 2001 - Villa Aurora, Los Angeles, 2006 - Villa Kamogawa, Kyoto, 2016

References

External links

Thomas Köner's websiteReview of ''The Futurist Manifesto'' on BCNinternet
(the link is broken as of 2017-05-05) *Review of ''Metropolis'' by Fritz Lang in El Pai

1965 births German artists Living people German experimental musicians People from Bochum {{Germany-artist-stub