Thomas Köner

Thomas Köner (born 1965 in Bochum, West Germany) is an award-winning multimedia artist whose main interest lies in combining visual and auditory experiences. The BBC, in a review of Köner's work in 1997, calls him a "media artist," one who works between installation, sound art, ambient music and as one half of Porter Ricks dub techno.[1] A noted characteristics of Köner's dark ambient style are low drones and static soundscapes evocative of desolate, Arctic places. [2]

Köner after a performance at
Goethe-Institut Boston (2010)

For his audio-visual works, he was awarded Golden Nica at Prix Ars Electronica in Linz, Transmediale Award, Tiger Cub Award at International Film Festival Rotterdam, ARCO Award Best Young Artist in Madrid, among others.

During Köner's solo exhibition of his video-art at the Musée d'art contemporain de Montreal, the museum described him as a major innovator in the contemporary music scene, as well as noted his collaborative practice which has led to his working with musicians, filmmakers and visual artists on installations and sound performances, and to his creation of six video works produced in two cycles, starting in 2003.[3]

2006 Köner produced Station Eismitte, a work inspired by Alfred Wegener's 1930 arctic expedition and named after the expedition's site.[4]

2009 Köner created The Futurist Manifesto, a digital opera, to coincide with the 100 year anniversary of the famous manifesto published in 1909 by Filippo Tommaso Marinetti. It was commissioned by EMAP/EMARE.[5] This work has been performed live several times in festivals across Europe with Carl Faia and Iris Garrelfs.

Thomas Köner has been creating music for silent films since 1994, which he performs himself or with a small ensemble. His music for F.W. Murnau’s Faust was commissioned by the Auditorium du Louvre in Paris and was premiered there in 2013 as part of the supporting program of the De l’Allemagne 1800 – 1939 exhibition.[6] So far, he has created and performed scores for 30 silent films including Fritz Lang's Metropolis, F.W. Murnau's Faust [7] and Nosferatu,[8] Lotte Reiniger’s Die Abenteuer Des Prinzen Achmed (The Adventures Of Prince Ahmed)[9] among others.

Writing about his performance of Fritz Lang's Metropolis, Spanish national daily newspaper El Pais said that: "Thomas Köner envelops Metropolis in 21 century sounds".[10]