Holger Hiller

Holger Hiller (born 26 December 1956 in Hamburg) is a German musician.
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 recorded Ohi Ho Bang Bang with video artist Akiko Hada. The video shows Hiller and Karl Bonnie creating different sounds from every item in a room, from those sounds the song is made by means of cutting, whereas every sound is still in sync with the video footage of its creation. 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 Holger Hiller lives in Berlin, working as an English teacher.

Discography

• Konzentration der Kräfte (Duo-EP, Holger Hiller/ Walter Thielsch)
• Das ist Schönheit (compilation, double-LP, 1980, recorded at Kunsthochschule Hamburg, songs by Holger Hiller and Thomas Fehlmann)

with Palais Schaumburg

• Träneninvasion, Single (ZickZack Records, 1979)
• Macht mich glücklich wie nie, Single (ZickZack Records, 1980)
• Telefon/Kinder der Tod, Single (ZickZack Records, 1981)
• Palais Schaumburg, LP (Phonogram Records, 1981)

Solo works and other projects

• Holger Hiller, Solo EP (AtaTak, 1980)
• Ein Bündel Fäulnis in der Grube, LP (AtaTak, 1983)
• Guten Morgen Hose (short opera), EP with Andreas Dorau (Atatak, 1985)
• Oben Im Eck, LP (Mute Records, London, 1986)
• Ohi Ho Bang Bang (mit Karl Bonnie), 12" (Mute Records) and Video (camera Akiko Hada), London, 1988
• As Is, LP (Mute Records, London, 1992)
• Demixed, LP (Mute Records, London, 1993)
• The Fall of a Queen or The Taste of the Fruit to come, Video, London (Music Holger Hiller, directing and text Wolfgang Müller, camera Akiko Hada, TV Prod. Channel 4, 1994
• Unerhört, concept: Wolfgang Müller, radio play, Bayerischer Rundfunk (with the voices of deaf people), 1995
• Little Present, CD (Mute Records, London, 1995)
• holger hiller, LP (Mute Records, London, 2000)