‘The Timeless Power of the Divine: Karlheinz Stockhausen in Conversation, March 1999’
Profile of Karlheinz Stockhausen, based on a visit to the composer’s home in Kurten, outside Cologne, first published in issue of 184 of The Wire. The full text of the interview is available on the official Stockhausen Verlag website. A personal account of the visit can be found by clicking here. A full transcript of the original recorded conversation between KH and Stockhausen has also been posted on the Wire website – to access it, click here.
‘Death From Above: A Brief History of Helicopters and Modern Music’
Rotor blades, electronic music and the regime of noise: connecting Abba to Apocalypse Now the hard way. Published in The Wire, December 1999. In 2002 this is piece was made available in a broadcast version from Totallyword Radio, read by KH with production and sound design by Simon James.
‘The Future from Yesterday: A Cosmic Encounter with Peter Thomas’
Veteran German film and TV composer Peter Thomas reflects on his life and career: from big band swing in Berlin’s American sector to deep space and beyond. Published in the The Wire.
‘On Having Nothing To Say About Akira’
How themes of power and control in Katsuhiro Otomo’s 2000-page manga epic were cut to fit the movie screen. Published in Manga Max magazine.
‘The Final Programme: Carl Craig in Conversation’
Detroit Techno, abandoned architecture, radical design and the strange fate of Afro-American horror movie characters. Published in The Wire.
‘Welcome To the Live Space Ritual: The Secret Cosmologies of Sun Ra and Karlheinz Stockhausen’
Key note essay published in the catalogue for the Space Music Festival at the Korzo Theatre in Den Haag, The Netherlands.
Countless reviews, short features and columns appeared throughout 1999 in The Wire, Sight and Sound, Manga Max and Bizarre.
About Me
- Ken Hollings
- Ken Hollings is a writer based in London. His work appears in a wide range of journals and publications, including The Wire, Sight and Sound, Strange Attractor, Frieze, Noon and Satori, and in numerous anthologies and collections. His novel Destroy All Monsters was hailed by The Scotsman as ‘a mighty slab of trippy, cult, out-there fiction, mind-bending reading’. He has written and presented critically acclaimed programmes for BBC Radio 3, Radio 4, Resonance FM, NPS in Holland and ABC Australia. Ken is the author of Welcome to Mars, The Bright Labyrinth, The Space Oracle, Inferno and Purgatory - all available from Strange Attractor Press/MIT. His latest book 'Paradise: The Trash Project Volume Three' will be published by Strange Attractor Press/MIT in the autumn of 2024. His album with Howlround as The Howling, Incredible Night Creatures of the Midway, is currently available from The Tapeworm.