Holger Hiller - Ein Bündel Fäulnis in der Grube (1983)

Holger Hiller studied art at the Hochschule für bildende Künste in Hamburg, where he met Walter Thielsch and Thomas Fehlmann and recorded first works with them. With Fehlmann he later founded the band Palais Schaumburg in 1980, of which he was the singer. At the same time his solo career began. Hiller was one of the first musicians in Europe to use the sampler as his main or sole instrument.

From 1984 on, he lived in London, eventually working as producer for Mute Records. In 1988, he started a band project called Ohi Ho Bang Bang with video artist Akiko Hada, recording a song/video called "The Two," releasing it as both a 12" single and a CD Video. The video shows Hiller and Karl Bonnie creating different sounds from every item in a room, which Hada edited together to make a song out of the sounds whilst keeping the video footage of their creation intact. This transfer of sampling techniques from music to video might have been pioneering; only 10 years later, it got popular with "Timber" by Coldcut, who used custom-made software to create it.

Since 2003, Hiller lives in Berlin, working as an English language teacher.

With „Ein Bündel Fäulnis in der Grube“, Holger Hiller presented his solo debut having left Palais Schaumburg. Originally released in 1983 on the Düsseldorf scene label Ata Tak, an international release followed in 1984 via Cherry Red Records. Combining electronic sequencer sounds and sampling fragments with unconventional lyrics its multidisciplinary approach locates it somewhere between the pop and avant-garde. 

Tracklist:

01. Liebe Beamtinnen und Beamte
02. Blass schlafen Rabe…
03. Budapest - Bukarest
04. Jonny (du Lump)
05. Akt mit Feile (für A. O.)
06. Hosen, die nicht aneinander passen
07. Chemische und physikalische Entdeckungen
08. Mütter der Fröhlichkeit
09. Ein Bündel Fäulnis in der Grube
10. Das Feuer
11. Ein Hoch auf das Bügeln


Holger Hiller - Ein Bündel Fäulnis in der Grube (1983)
(320 kbps, cover art included)