Hendrik Otremba
Foto: Dirk Elsing
Hendrik Otremba / 21:40 – 22:20
If someone fills his lyrics with literary references in such a skillful way, not only works as a musician but as a painter and culture journalist, it becomes clear that this can not have been everything. There’s even more to him. Hendrik Otremba released two critically acclaimed records as singer and lyricist of the band Messer. On those albums, Otremba is hunting for the shadows of his soul and those of the human condition. He hunts them with the fires of poetry, descends into worlds of dreams and memories. Now, Otremba publishes his debut novel »Über uns der Schaum (Above us the Foam)«. At Pop-Kultur he is going to read from the book for the first time, accompanied by the Noise musician Raune.
Attention: This lecture will be held in German.
Richard Hell
Richard Hell / 22:40 – 23:20
When he was 17 years old and completely broke, Richard Hell moved from Kentucky to New York. There, he became one of the protagonists of the just forming CBGB punk-scene and an icon of the »Blank Generation« – so the dead-on title of his legendary album. Hell was a founding member of the bands Television, the Heartbreakers, and, of course, Richard Hell & the Voidoids. In 1984 he retired from music to work as a journalist (for Spin, New York Times, and Esquire among others), before publishing his first novel »Go Now« in 1996, followed by »Godlike« and two collections of essays, journals, lyrics, and other nonfiction. Now Hell has sat down to recap his winding biography under the title »I Dreamed I Was a Very Clean Tramp«. Working on a new novel already, the never-sleeping has also recorded a musical tribute to his former collaborator, the late Robert Quinne. This evening will see Hell himself presenting various excerpts from his manifold body of work.