Niko

Childhood and adolescence

Most of the sources indicate the place and date of her birth Cologne , October 16, 1938 . When she was two years old, she moved with her mother and grandfather to Spreewald in a suburb of Berlin . Niko's father, a military man, suffered a head injury during the war , which caused serious brain damage, and died in a concentration camp. After the war ended in 1946, Niko and her mother moved to the center of Berlin, where Niko began working as a seamstress. At thirteen, she stopped attending school ^[1] , and a little later her mother arranged for her to work as a photo model in Berlin. According to various controversial sources, at fifteen, Niko was raped by a member of the US Air Force who was sentenced to death ^[2] . Her song “Secret Side” from the 1974 album indirectly refers to this incident. ^[3]

Model Business and Cinema

When she worked as a model in Ibiza, the photographer Herbert Tobias gave her the pseudonym Nico in honor of his former lover, director Nico Papatakis. Soon Niko moved to Paris , where she worked in the late 1950s with such magazines as Vogue , Tempo , Vie Nuove , Mascotte Spettacolo , Camera , Elle . At age 17, she signed a contract with the house of Chanel , but flew to New York and refused to work. Despite the fact that she did not even graduate from school, Niko also learned English, Italian, Spanish and French in addition to her native German.

After appearing in several commercials, Niko appeared in a number of feature films, including works by Alberto Lattoada and Rudolph Mate , as well as in Federico Fellini ’s famous film Sweet Life (1959). At the same time, she settled in New York , where she took acting lessons from Lee Strasberg and where she lived most of the 1960s. In 1962, she appeared on the cover of the album of jazz pianist Bill Evans , and the following year she won the lead role in the film “Striptease” by Jacques Poitreno, for which she performed the title song written by Serge Gainsbourg . The song was not published until 2001.

In 1962, she gave birth to a son, named Christian Aaron "Ari" Peffgen , whose father herself called Alain Delon . Delon did not recognize paternity, but for the most part the child was raised by the parents of Alain Delon, ^[4] who gave him their last name, Boulogne.

The Velvet Underground

In 1965, she met Brian Jones from The Rolling Stones and recorded her first single “I'm Not Sayin”, which finished 12th in the Canadian charts. After being introduced to Brian Jones, Niko began working with Andy Warhol and Paul Morrissey on a series of experimental films, including Chelsea Girls and Imitation of Christ. At the same time, she met members of The Velvet Underground . Since Warhol was the de facto producer and manager of the group, he proposed to take Niko into the group as a singer, but members of the group, in particular Lou Reed , reluctantly agreed to this for musical and personal reasons ^{[5] [6]} .

The band was the “highlight” of the Warhol Exploding Plastic Inevitable show . Niko performed the main vocals in three songs (“ Femme Fatale ”, “ All Tomorrow's Parties ”, “ I'll Be Your Mirror ”) on the debut album The Velvet Underground and Nico , and also performed the backing vocals on the song “ Sunday Morning ” . The album received the status of a cult and innovative, despite the cool reviews of critics at the time of release. In 1967, Nico left The Velvet Underground, the reasons for which did not indulge in publicity. At that time, she had many short-term novels with the members of The Velvet Underground — Lou Reed and John Keil — and with other musicians: Jim Morrison , Jackson Brown , Brian Jones , Tim Buckley and Iggy Pop (the latter in memory of one of their dates wrote the song " We Will Fall ").

In 1967, Niko recorded her first solo album, Chelsea Girl , combining elements of traditional folk and baroque pop , but was not satisfied with the final version. Looking back, in 1981, the singer complained about the arrangement: “I asked for simplicity, and they added a lot of flutes” ^[7] . The album includes mostly songs written by Niko's acquaintances from The Velvet Underground; she herself is not listed as the author of any of the compositions.

The subsequent albums produced by John Keil from The Velvet Underground, which gave Niko much more freedom in the studio and helped her with the arrangements, were noticeably darker and more experimental. The dominant instrument on these recordings was harmonium , on which Niko accompanied himself during singing; Additional instrumental parts, most often violin or piano , were usually recorded by John Keil. When recording the album The End ... (1974) Nico collaborated with Brian Eno and Phil Manzanero from Roxy Music . The album includes a cover version of the song “ The End ” by The Doors and the German anthem “The Song of the Germans ” (and not a shortened version after World War II).

Between 1970 and 1979, Niko collaborated with French director Philippe Garrell . She met Garrell in 1969 and allowed her song “The Falconer” to be used in his film of the same year, The Virgin Bed. Soon after, she began to live with the director and became one of the central figures in the cinema circles. His films “She spent so much time in the light of spotlights ...” (1985) and “I no longer hear guitars” (1991) are devoted to Niko and, to a greater or lesser degree, show allusions to her.

On December 13, 1974, Niko performed at the infamous Tangerine Dream concert at the Reims Cathedral . The promoter sold so many tickets to the show that the public could not move or go outside, which is why some fans urinated right in the hall of the cathedral ^[8] . The Roman Catholic Church condemned this action, re-sanctifying the cathedral and forbidding to continue to speak on church property.

In 1978 she participated in the recording of the album of the Spanish group Neuronium "Vuelo Quimico" - she recited a poem by Edgar Allan Poe "Ullaum" in the title composition of the album ^[9] .

Niko's latest recording was a duo with new wave artist and artist Mark Almond titled “Your Kisses Burn”, recorded about a month before Niko’s death and released on The Stars We Are on Almond's album.

Singer died July 18, 1988 , while on vacation with her son on the island of Ibiza (Spain). She suffered a heart attack while riding a bicycle, and as she fell, she hurt her head; In the hospital, she was diagnosed incorrectly, and the next day, Niko died. Later, an X-ray confirmed that hemorrhage in the brain was the cause of death. The singer was buried with her mother at the Grunewald-Forst cemetery in Berlin.

Niko's work had a rather deep influence on the development of such styles as gothic rock , ethereal , ambient , industrial ; fans of her work called themselves Brian Eno, Bauhaus , Patti Smith , John Lydon from Sex Pistols (later - founder of Public Image Ltd ), Susie Sue from Siouxsie and the Banshees , Bjork , musicians from Coil , Nurse with Wound and Dead Can Dance , and also numerous musicians from gothic bands. On the big screen, Niko was first portrayed by Christina Fulton in the 1991 biopic The Doors , narrating Jim Morrison and the American rock band The Doors . In 2006, the premiere of the film “ I seduced Andy Warhol ” took place, the plot of which was built on the basis of facts from the life of another Warhol superstar Edie Sedgwick . The role of Niko in the film was performed by Meredith Ostrom. In 2017, Susanna Nikkyarelli shot the full-length film Nico, 1988 where she covered the life of Niko from the beginning of her solo career to her death.

• For over 15 years, Niko suffered from heroin addiction .
• Nico is dedicated to the songs of “Nico” by the British rock band The Cult and “Song for Nico” by The Warlocks and Marianna Feitful .
• “Dance, Dance Christa Päffgen” - the final track of the album Never Take Friendship Personal (2005) by the American rock band Anberlin .
• In 2008, the British industrial group Throbbing Gristle completely re-recorded the album by Nico Desertshore , publishing records of these sessions under the title The Desertshore Installation .

• Niko on the Internet Movie Database
• Niko (English) on the MusicBrainz website
• Niko (English) on the Discogs website
• Habits of Waste, Pt. 1: Solitary Dream . Biographical article, which includes a critical review of Niko's early work
• Habits of Waste, Pt. 2: Derelict Emotions A continuation of the biographical article about the late period of Niko’s work
• Niko - biographical sketch
• Niko Translation of an essay from a booklet of Chelsea Girl