(the ironical alien)
The secret of Nomi's awe-encircled being can be found only in the combination of his appearance and work. This totality is coherent despite its being extremely eclectic, a mass of contrasting parts and and fragments. Aside from this eclecticism his work is also characterized by its irony. This is carried by a personality which can hold together a multitude of roles and characters. Nomi was a man who hid behind his roles, yet lent his face as a mask. At the same time however, Nomi still kept the features of a hidden, inner and final face behind these masks.
Nomi's musical assemblage represents a colorful bouquet with varying types of music from cabaret, chanson, disco, rock, popsong and even forms of classical music such as chant and aria.
Moreover, in preponderance over established musical pieces with a definite character, are pieces in which parts and elements of various styles are incorporated or interwoven into a musical score which at times become undistinguishable. Together with his colourful performances and musical video clips one finds a brilliancy of colours in his stage arrangements and costumes.
Nomi can be at once an ethereal fairy, a Baroque noble lady, a knight dressed in leather-armour, or a stellar being.
Thus Nomi's irony is able to manifest itself in this mirroring of opposites, contrasting one from the other and extinguishing one by the other. Yet the real magnitude of his performances is in the interpretation.
Nomi takes the light musical forms one by one, puts on their costumes, then slips out of them with ease to put on the next. In addition, he is also capable of judging uncompromisingly. Nomi exposes some of the rose-coloured idylls of the so-called classical music to show their light nothingness behind their pose of greatness. His ironical attacks on classical music begin with the 18th century. Nomi's interpretation of arias by Purcell and Dowland are dominated by tragedy and his own identification with it.
His irony is not reserved to music. While Nomi not only doesn't leave his situation and even himself untouched by irony, he even ponders the light formation of human culture with it. This is why it is essential to understand Nomi's irony within the original meaning of the word: as an operation of a higher education, intending to break through and find a new path in the chaos of our age. This intention is articulated in his interviews: "... that's my No.1 rule: I would like to entertain people. It may be educational for some people, it is partly serious, it is comedy, it has dramatic aspects - it's just as life. It has to do with the future, with the past - and it is present." Although Nomi is just as ironical in his interviews as he is in his songs and appearance.
Though Kierkegaard's description of the ironical holds true for Nomi in several respects, differences prevail. Nomi's basic position varies essentially from that of Kierkegaard's ironical man. Kierkegaard argues that "...the ironical person - as opposed to the prophet - breaks with the ranks of his age and assumes a position opposing them. The forthcoming is hidden from him, it is behind his back...". In the depths of Nomi's strange work, however, we seem to find the outlines of a mission of a different kind. According to Nomi's interpretation, he is just as comfortable in the regions of the future, as in the lands of past and present.
This concept of his mission is manifested in the opening piece of his first album, in the song called "Keys of Life". Nomi emphasises that "From ancient worlds I've come/ To see what man has done,/ What's faint and what is fiction... The future has begun,/ Much work has to be done / We are running out of time, / Beware the sign, the sign! / Exploring new dimensions, / New lifestyle by intentions / Do not ignore advise / You hold the keys of life / Keys of life ...".

(the mysterious alien)
A fundamental characteristic of Nomi's personality is concealment. This is accomplished through an almost total absorbtion in his roles. Nomi's self-descriptions show this "elastic irony" of concealment, with which he prevents his being identified with some popular element and thereby being extinguished. "Simple Man" - which is the title of his second album - " is what I am. Or at least that is what I'd like to be, because I like to be simple in any aspect of life, no matter what I do. What makes life complicated is the things that are on me and it is very hard to keep things simple. But I see it as I am complicated and there is a certain innocence to it."
In spite of the multitude of his roles, this concealment, personified by Nomi's distance to his audience, helps to reveal to us Nomi's true face. At time through irony, at time through the degree of concealment and in some exceptional cases in the degree of unconcealment. Nomi's true face bears the unmistakable signs of greatness behind his comical disguise.
Nomi's horizon covers the most distant regions of human frontiers. He is able to communicate his insights to the whole of mankind in spite of the spoiled sensitivity of his era. It becomes obvious when we consider one of his most explicit messages from an interview on his second album: "It" - the framing Dowland-song - "is a very personal thing to me, because this is my basic voice, this is where I come from and it is one of the oldest vocal styles in music history. I come like this and I go like it. This is the beginning and this is the end. That's why I call it 'From beyond' and at the end of the album it is returned because that's where I always refer to."
We could experience this basic sound according to Nomi even if we didn't understant its meaning. To further understand this it is important to study his two albums. With an understanding of his music, the first and most essential proof would be derived from his Purcell interpretations, which show an authentic and modern sound contrasted with the better known performances which are dominated by a late romantic style. Nomi interprets Purcell's operas from their very cores: their death-themes and anthems.
The second essential proof is derived from the structural layout of Nomi's albums. ("Since this is a conceptual album, most of the cuts make sense following each other in a certain way.") This conception is apparent through the parallelism between the two albums. The title of the first album "Klaus Nomi" is in contrast to his second one, "Simple man". This comparison is also present in the build-up of the two albums. Aside from the framing music on the second one, both show the same basic musical structure.
The first one starts by the already mentioned "Keys of Life", and closes with a cut leading to an acoustic apocalypse: an interpretation of Saint Saens' "Samson and Delilah". The culmination is derived from "The Cold Song" (the aria of the Cold Spirit in Purcell's "King Arthur"). In contrast the second album opens with "From Beyond", yet actually begins with a piece "After the Fall" and ends with Purcell's aria "Death" (from Dido and Aeneas). The musical and dramatic culminating point is achieved by a song "Wayward Sisters", (also a Purcell aria). This linearity between the two albums achieves a new dimension and meaning by the framing of the second album. The progression which begins at "From Beyond" returns to its starting point ("Return"), from which new themes of inception can begin againThis musical representation of existence is stated explicitly at a special point, in an extract from a text written by Dyden for Purcell's King Arthur. It is also the motto of the album: "What power art thou / Who from below / Hast made me rise, / Unwillingly and slow / From beds of Everlasting snow / See'st thou not how stiff / And wondrous old, / Far unfit to bear the bitter Cold / I can scarcely move, / Or draw my Breath, / let me, let me, / Freeze again to Death."
At first these words of the Cold Spirit do not seem to represent Klaus Nomi's central idea. Yet it later becomes apparent that the ageless figure of the Cold Spirit, his stiff and broken movements doubtlessly resemble Nomi. An essential fact is the position of the text taken out of the original context. The above words of the Cold Spirit take on a much milder meaning when the formerly nameless being is addressed, "Great Love, now I recognise you, you are the most ancient of all gods...".
We must therefore consider the motto of Nomi's first album independently, within its entirety, in order to get a full understanding of its meaning. The abandonment of the God of Love, the world of the all-pervading cold and the use of the german word for chaos - Getose - gives one a world-view that seems to align itself with a more concentrated vision of that which is occuring at the base of this new era. This has also been emphasised in several statements by Nietzsche containing the phrase "God is dead": "But how could we do this? How could we drink up the sea? Who put the sponge in our hands so that we could wipe away the whole horizon? What did we do when we loosened the Earth from its Sun? Where is it moving now? Where are we moving now? Farther and farther from any kind of a Sun? Are we not falling, all the time? Backward, sideways, forward, in all directions? Do up and down still exist? Are we not going astray in this immense vacuum? Are not we feeling the breath of the empty space? Has not it become colder? Isn't the night coming incessantly?"
As time begins to change its place in the overall scheme of things, Nietzsche's piercing and comprehensive vision has become an everyday reality. For, since Nietzsche's time man has thrown the gates wide open, and ushered in the cold of the "empty space". We have been led further and further away from our earthy boundaries. Since the dissolution of the Heaven-Earth hierarchy, man's thoughts about the Universe have been characterized by its detachedness from the Earth. Within the last few decades outer space has come within man's immediate proximity. Stepping out into space man has begun his conquest of the Galaxy. This, paired with the astrophisical prospects of the era, allows for the transmission of Universal thinking to be carried into an undefined and undefinable space outside the Earth. With its lack of a reflexive thinking science has perpetrated the outcome of this process. Universal chaos, according to the former belief-system, becomes more acceptable when it is supported by science.
In this situation, universal thinking becomes the privilege of fools and comedians. Of course, this is not without precedents, as human inclination to tragi-comedy has shown itself at least once before in its full context. Perhaps the greatest example for this was the tragi-comic play of the crucifixion of a saviour. It was therefore not by chance that Nietzsche's above mentioned statements were titled "The Mad Man". (Just as Klee's opus 1 self-portrait - the first piece in his carefully catalogued oeuvre - was given the title "The Comedian".)
Traditional fortresses of reflexive thinking, moreover, have not been left untouched by this "breaking of order" in today's world. Once firm human establishments have also started to disintegrate from the inside. Works of art have become mere imitations, operas, musical comedies. The process of corrosion has destroyed the solid foundations of philosophy, dragging with it all other established frontiers. Masters of today's philosophy either deceive us by exposing yesterday's traditions as today's ones or pretend to defend their theories by analising them to pieces. Artistic channels have been thwarted by the demand of the established power or become transformed through the inspiration of an art trade attempting to reprocess ancient and decomposed art forms. Thus it is no wonder that the intellectual of this century must step on stage dressed in strange contexts; often wearing a dunce's cap.
"Being imbued with all the philosophies, styles, histories and writings, rock stars expressed what was essential for them." This statement by David Bowie exposed the very essence of our age. Bowie was the star of the seventies; an extraordinary quick-change actor with an excellent knowledge of the media which he used to step on stage. Just as Nomui was created, Bowie's image had also been created in the theatre, his impact due more to his theatrical than his musical talents. This was also enhanced by the public feeling of the seventies, a mixture of serenity and disappointment which felt it was receiving a new cosmic dimension from Bowie. With the fading away of earthly utopies, hopes were being projected towards outer space. In his album "Space Oddity" Bowie sings about leaving the Earth behind: " ... here I float /.../ far above the Moon, Planet Earth is blue, and I have nothing to do there". (Bowie dedicated this album to Stanley Kubrick, however, who, with his film "2001 Space Odyssey" was the first to open a cosmic way of thinking in the movies around the late sixties.)

(the Space-Mirror)
During the last phases of man's expansion, mankind has looked toward space in the hopes of a new and better world. Yet there doesn't seem to be any realistic solution to this non-human dimension in the order of the Universe. The depths of space can only reflect the citizen of Earth back on himself. This is the basic philosophy found in Nomi's work. The opening and closing pieces of his albums start from and return to the acoustic projection of the Universe, and attempt to reveal this final base. His songs, moreover, illustrate the very hopelessness of our colonising dreams. In his piece "Rubber Band Laser" he states: "Rattling through the Galaxies / Looking for a home / Interstellar tragedies / Living like a gnome /Stretching like a comet tail /from star to star and back /.../ I'm out here on the space range / All the livelong day / ... / Picking diamonds from the sky / To bring back home to you / ... / Ride side by side / When worlds collide / And slip into the Martian tide ".
Here again, the edge of his sharp irony is carried by music. Country and western music - and the visual aspect of western - is the rallying cry of the New World's conquerers. This style originated from technically ensured heroes who could extinguish entire continents at will. Thus, Nomi's musical irony is suitably paired to this technical nightmare of universal expansionism. Cosmic homelessness finds its resolution in world obliteration. We should not be deceived by the last few words of the song, although they pretend to hope for survival. The next piece on the album - the witch's aria from Purcell's Dido and Aeneas - does not leave any doubt to what Nomi feels will be our chances of survival after this cataclysm.)
Following this piece of the infernal regions Nomi treats us to a comical tune from "The Wizard of Oz", yet not without irony. "... and, yeah, I come as the wicked witch from the Barock era and I am being killed and everybody is very happy about it and sings: 'Ding-dong, the witch is dead.' "
Childishness, melody and themes of happiness make up a considerable portion of the songs. The second cut from this album, "Lightning Strikes", displays an ironic scene of paradise: poses of seduction accompanied by traditional rock compositions, replaced by a soprano refrain, tell us of the sudden, lightning-like arrival of desires. Aside from caricaturing the rose-tinted themes of 'entertaining music', Nomi attempts to show us the consequences of playing with desires. The next song, ("Twist") tells of the blurring of age-limits, of perversion, backed by Nomi's hysterical song-speech, shuddering music.
Death themes share approximately the same proportion in Nomi's work as romantic themes. An extremely poignant interpretation of "Falling in Love Again" (made popular by Marlene Dietrich and, later, Elvis Presley) comes to the forefront yet so too does an interpretation of a popular song of the sixties, "Just One Look", and a declaration of love, "wasting MyTime", where at the culminating point of the song he sings of the destroying effects of this art form and the manipulating use of 'love' by the medias. In addition, Nomi emphasises this in "I'm Wasting My Time": "When I'm with you I feel so unreal ... ". Nomi attempts to shed new light on the time-boundary of this 'becoming unreal". He sees the dividing line as lying between Saint Saens's unrealistic, overflowing, gauzy poem and Schumann's sugar frosting idyll - and Purcell's realism on the other side. Surely Nomi's interpretation of Dido's leave-taking - as contrasted to former interpretations - originates from Nomi's deep identification with the lover in death's field of force.
Beyond Nomi's personal projections, death-themes are also present on both albums with a collective dimension, as man's own final judgement. In the titles "Total Eclypse" and "After the Fall" he sings about the schorched Earth and the eclypse of the Sun, and attempts to create a vision of a radioactive death: "After the Fall we'll be no more man again, after it all blows away. We'll take a million years of civilisation, we're gonna give it the electric chair / ... / I see a hundred million low mutants / ... / And I'm telling you, we'll build our radioactive castles out in the radioactive air ...".

("you don't know me" - Nomi)
Nomi's use of 'double entences' with his name and symbols or emblems of demonic images are used to conceal his inner personality. This concealment is also reflected in his music. There are two cuts on his first album which play with the name Nomi. In the first one - "Nomi Song" - musical elemnts of disco, rock'n'roll and march are accompanied by words that help to mask Nomi's 'real face': "If they saw my face / Could I still take a bow? / Will they know me ... / Now?".
By using a cold musical build-up from electronic noises on the other cut, "Nomi Chant", Nomi makes it possible for us to guess what this face can be like. By dwelling on distorted notes we can feel the real, cold closeness of the 'empty space'.
Without an interlude Nomi switches to the fever-blistered music of Saint Saens. This weird vision is accomplished and wiped away by an all-pervading explosion. It sounds as if the last waltz was dying away on a titanesque spaceship; "Last dance, let the entire cast dance ...".
Nomi always used withdrawal as a counterpoint to his 'unconcealed' appearances. The first line of the song "You Don't Own Me" - following the "Nomi Song" - states: "You don't know me". Aside from using the already mentioned structural and thematic counterpoints during his two albums Nomi expresses the same intent with their titles: Klaus Nomi - Simple Man; which is an almost symmetrical unity of a statement and its withdrawal.
This flashing of visibility and hiding casts a strange light on Nomi's work and personality - a light which shines on into the future even after Nomi leaves us with his unfathomability.
Thus Nomi can be considered a great actor, yet his performances do not belong to the mausoleums of either acting or music. Like Nietzsche before him - and comparable to Nietzsche - Nomi stepped on the world stage under the spell of a different kind of understanding; he set up the widest possible scenario. But unlike Nietzsche - perhaps because he started from and was bound to descend to somewhere else - Nomi did not share Nietzsche's serene acceptance of man's prospects. Nomi was never able to describe himself as Nietzsche did in this extatic manifesto: "/ he wanted to own himself again, through all eternities, crying da capo statelessly not only to himself but to the whole play and drama, and not only to one drama but basicly to the person who needs this drama and makes it needed - because it is always himself who is needed and is made needed -, but how? Isn't it then a circulus vitosus deus?"
According to Nomi's confession - given in the mask of the Cold Spirit - he was far from crying da capo to the future revival of his fate. (Da capo - and this is fate's irony with the ironical - was cried after him with the title of his posthumus album: "Klaus Nomi - Encore!")
We do not have to share in their conclusions to realise: the coldness and the exceptionally sparkling light of their works draw our attention to the very bases of existence. Having heard Nomi's music we are able to overcome and break through the all-embracing clash of sound with a strenghtened sensitivity. Guided by sounds we are led to lands of a different kind. In these new realms, where infinite roads have been opened for us by Reich's music, we no longer have to shrink back from relaxing in the stream of eternity. We will not shrink away from ghosts of repetition and we will not be held back. The ascending orbit of our voices makes us step in front of the endless pulsation, it unfolds itself for us and commits us to merge with the infinite.

1986.

Translated by Marton B. Balogh