H.R. Giger: Debbie Harry Metamorphosis: Creating the Visual Concept for KooKoo

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Giger also designed iconic and controversial record sleeves: on Debbie Harry's Koo Koo the singer appears with spears cutting through her face, while the poster insert for the Dead Kennedys' Frankenchrist prompted an obscenity trial. He also designed the cover for Emerson Lake & Palmer's 1973 album Brain Salad Surgery. A new book, Giger: Debbie Harry Species – Creating the Visual Concept for KooKoo , will document the early Eighties collaboration between the Blondie frontwoman and artist H.R. Giger. Harry commissioned Giger a couple of years after he achieved international fame for designing the phantasmagoric “xenomorph” in the movie Alien for the cover art of her 1981 solo debut, KooKoo . The album will be reissued in late September, and the book will come out via Titan Books on November 11. Especially for Giger, because he has been such a major influence on modern style in general, in art and design and

Giger described his artwork as “biomechanical,” BBC reports, and earned renown for his monochromatic dystopian landscapes and perverse monsters. Many paintings featured genitalia in the art, while others found machines fused to organic beings. there and we met him. We brought him over to the house, and we've been friends ever since, pretty much." KooKoo reached number six on the UK Albums Chart and spent seven weeks on the chart, being certified silver by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) for shipments in excess of 60,000 copies. The album reached number 25 on the US Billboard 200 and was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), denoting shipments in excess of 500,000 copies. Harry and her partner/bandmate, Chris Stein, had met Giger in 1980 at a show in New York of his paintings. Giger noted the meeting and once said: “There I was introduced to a very beautiful woman, Debbie Harry, the singer of the group Blondie, and her boyfriend, Chris Stein. They were apparently excited about my work and asked me whether I would be prepared to design the cover of the new Debbie Harry album.” Yeah, we just worked with J. H. Willams III who does Batwoman. He just did the last cover. I'd love to do more stuff with him.Chris Stein's house is itself a museum of horror and curiosities, with the Gigerchair right in the middle of a sort of Blondie co-founder, songwriter/musician and long-standing photographer, Chris Stein has put together an art book documenting the collaboration between himself, Debbie Harry and artist H.R. Giger on Debbie’s solo album KooKoo. With photographs and words by Chris Stein, Harry’s long-term collaborator, artefacts and sketches from the Giger archive, and an introduction by Debbie Harry, this is an essential behind-the-scenes insight into the processes of an incredible creative partnership. In the wake of Alien's success he became a go-to designer for repellent yet sensual imagery, with his work also used in horror sequel Poltergeist II and erotic sci-fi thriller Species, though he later said that "I was only pleased with Alien, and with the other [films] I was not very happy with." He designed a radically reimagined Batmobile for Batman Forever, shaped like a crooked X, but it was passed over for a more conservative design. Giger is an industrial designer, which is very apparent to you the moment you step into his home. Even something as alien-looking as his chairs is structurally sound. The Alien creature—with its McLuhanesque quality of being the machine as an extension of the organic—makes sense biologically. The face hugger, with its air sacs, isn’t just decorative. Giger’s work has a subconscious effect: it engenders the fear of being turned into metal. It’s awesome—the work of an ultimate perfectionist, a true obsessive.

When the visual artist H.R. Giger, best known for his biomechanical creature and set design for seminal 1979 sci-fi-horror film Alien, encountered Debbie Harry, the punk icon and lead singer of globally successful New Wave band Blondie, the results were sublime. My paintings seem to make the strongest impression on people who are, well, who are crazy,” Giger said in a 1979 interview, according to the Associated Press. “If they like my work they are creative … or they are crazy.” It was a heady moment for both sides of the equation. Alien had launched Giger to a whole new level of fame, while Blondie were still riding the crest of the new wave they had done so much to define; their fourth album Eat to the Beat had come out a few months before. But Harry and Stein were getting tired of being in Blondie. You’ll know H.R. Giger’s work even if you don’t know his name. You’ve seen Alien, obviously. The monster was his work. In fact, he was clutching an Oscar for Visual Effects the night he met Debbie and Chris at an exhibition of Alien paintings in New York. Perhaps slightly less iconic, the cover of Emerson, Lake & Palmer’s 1973 album Brain Salad Surgery was his first LP design. KooKoo – Debbie Harry’s first solo album, released in 1981 – was the second. Not that the ban mattered. Virtually the whole of Britain was now aware that Debbie Harry had an album due. It appeared in the shops on July 27 and steadily made its way up the charts. “A chic concept,” is how label Chrysalis described their controversial delivery, which couldn’t fail to excite interest whatever the problems of marketing. For Debbie and Chris Stein’s musical collaborators on the project were Nile Rodgers And Bernard Edwards, at that time pop’s sharpest razors in the producers’ box. The pairing stemmed from a time when Blondie and Chic were recording in adjoining studios, in 1979. The idea of a joint project was mutually appealing, and Edwards and Rodgers were commissioned to both produce and co-write the album. “We all admired each other’s work for a long time,” Debbie confirmed, setting the seal on the get-together.

Pankow, ‘Freiheit fuer die Sklaven’

In 1981 Deborah Harry released her fist solo album KooKoo. The iconic cover art was by H.R. Giger. The LP and single sleeves were based on photos of Harry taken by acclaimed photographer Brian Aris, from which Giger then painted some huge canvasses, creating several variations, one of which is included on the album’s inner sleeve. Giger got the idea for the design after his own experience with acupuncture: The cover art for the album was created by Swiss artist H.R. Giger, known for his design work on the 1979 sci-fi/horror film Alien. Based on a photograph of Harry taken by the renowned photographer Brian Aris, Giger created several variations of the cover (another of which is seen on the album's inner sleeve) in what Harry described as a combination of punk, acupuncture and sci-fi. Harry stated that the album title came to her after she saw Giger's completed work, and although she had misgivings about the conceptual ideas behind the artwork (as she did not identify either the album or herself as "punk"), she was suitably impressed to use it anyway. [4]

The album, was produced by Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards of Chic. It was largely ignored by all but devoted fans and the media elite. Chrysalis records advertising campaign, with posters of Harry’s skewered face, were deemed too disturbing, and were subsequently banned from being displayed on London’s Underground network. A beautiful coffee table art book chronicling the extraordinary collaboration between Debbie Harry and H.R. Giger for Harry's 1981 solo album KooKoo. video -- he is credited for "concept and design," among other things -- for Debbie Harry's 1978 solo debut album, Kookoo. His style is so unique that there is no way to categorize him simply. HR Giger was the designer of Alien, probably the most famous sci-fi character shown on silver screen. His strange, enigmatic artworks are a combination of industrial stylistics and apocalyptic vision of the future. His pieces are as beautiful and fascinating as they are scary and repulsive.It’s in that role that he has worked on this book, documenting the project to create an album cover and two videos in the studio of the famous Swiss artist. Canadian album certifications – Deborah Harry – KooKoo". Music Canada. December 1, 1981 . Retrieved December 24, 2020. After the album came out, Stein and Harry penned an article for Heavy Metal (which was already intimately familiar with Giger’s work) about working with the artist. In the piece, which is called “Strange Encounters of the Swiss Kind” and is coauthored by Harry and Stein, the following observations are registered: KooKoo is the debut solo album by American singer Debbie Harry, released on July 27, 1981, by Chrysalis Records. Produced by Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards of Chic, the album was recorded whilst Harry took a break from her band Blondie. It was a moderate commercial success, reaching number 25 on the US Billboard 200 and number six on the UK Albums Chart.

Here are some intriguing shots of Harry wearing a unique Giger bodysuit and other moments behind the scenes: Outside of music, Debbie has also engaged in a successful acting career with over 30 film and television roles to her credit (including Videodrome, Hairspray, and Heavy to name a few). She has become and still remains a true national treasure, one whose influence continues to impact the worlds of music, fashion and art. Giger said that the idea of the metal spikes derived from a medical procedure he had recently undergone: “Since I had just had an acupuncture treatment from my friend and doctor, Paul Tobler, the idea of the four needles came to me, in which I saw symbols of the four elements, to be combined with her face. I submitted the suggestions by phone to Debbie and Chris. They liked the idea and, in addition, they commissioned me to make two videoclips (music videos) of the best songs.” A beautiful coffee table art book chronicling the extraordinary collaboration between Debbie Harry and H.R. Giger for Harry’s 1981 solo album KooKoo.Surrealist painter Hans Ruedi Giger, whose designs inspired the creature in Alien and whose otherworldly and often grotesque art graced album covers for Emerson, Lake and Palmer, Debbie Harry and Danzig, died Monday, following hospitalization for falling down the stairs in his Zurich home. He was 74. Swiss artist Hans Ruedi Giger is a genre unto his own, single-handedly inventing the biomechanical horror of the 1980s with his designs for Ridley Scott’s 1979 Alien, the film that launched him into international prominence and turned Debbie Harry on to his work. Meeting him the following year, the Blondie singer asked Giger to design the cover and music videos for her solo album, KooKoo. The Giger Bar: Discover the 1980s Tokyo Bar Designed by H. R. Giger, the Same Artist Who Created the Nightmarish Monster in Ridley Scott’s Alien