H.R. Giger: Debbie Harry Metamorphosis: Creating the Visual Concept for KooKoo

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It's a little incongruous, but I think it's fallen into place. People accept it. The imagery is sorta sci-fi, while the music was urban. It's up to everyone to interpret it as they will. mutual," Chris remembers. "It just came up. He actually did paint on her face, I think, but I don't really remember, you'll

Swiss artist Hans Ruedi Giger is a genre unto his own, single-handedly inventing the biomechanical horror of the 1980s with his designs for Ridley Scott’s 1979 Alien, the film that launched him into international prominence and turned Debbie Harry on to his work. Meeting him the following year, the Blondie singer asked Giger to design the cover and music videos for her solo album, KooKoo. Giger made his name with a style he called “biomechanical”, and his creepy, sci-fi designs can be pretty disturbing. But not as disturbing as spending time in his studio, going by these photos. Skeletons, skulls and sculptures are all part of the scenery, along with a “temple” accessed by a big human-shaped doorway. Not to mention a full-size Alien mask. “Giger happily told us that he would run into it late at night and it would ‘scare the shit’ out of him,” reports Stein. A beautiful coffee table art book chronicling the extraordinary collaboration between Debbie Harry and H.R. Giger for Harry’s 1981 solo album KooKoo. Not that the ban mattered. Virtually the whole of Britain was now aware that Debbie Harry had an album due. It appeared in the shops on July 27 and steadily made its way up the charts. “A chic concept,” is how label Chrysalis described their controversial delivery, which couldn’t fail to excite interest whatever the problems of marketing. For Debbie and Chris Stein’s musical collaborators on the project were Nile Rodgers And Bernard Edwards, at that time pop’s sharpest razors in the producers’ box. The pairing stemmed from a time when Blondie and Chic were recording in adjoining studios, in 1979. The idea of a joint project was mutually appealing, and Edwards and Rodgers were commissioned to both produce and co-write the album. “We all admired each other’s work for a long time,” Debbie confirmed, setting the seal on the get-together.

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Born in 1940 in Chur, Switzerland, Giger studied architecture and industrial design in Zurich, before beginning a successful career in art and interior design from the mid-1960s onwards. Beginning with ink and oil paintings, he graduated to using an airbrush, which helped articulate his vivid, often disturbing style, characterised by dark sexuality and cyberpunk energy. Chrome" served as the B-side to "The Jam was Moving", only being issued in Germany as a single and in the US as a promotional 12-inch single only. More recently, in October of 2019, Debbie became a best selling author with the release of her memoir, FACE IT. In an arresting mix of visceral storytelling and stunning visuals including never-before-seen photographs, bespoke illustrations and fan art installations, FACE IT upended the standard musical memoir while delivering a truly intimate portrait of an iconoclast. With all the grit, grime and glory recounted in intimate detail, FACE IT recreated the downtown scene of 1970s New York City, where Blondie played alongside The Ramones, Television, Talking Heads, Iggy Pop and David Bowie. Following her path from glorious commercial success to heroin addiction, the near-death of partner Chris Stein, a heart-wrenching bankruptcy and Blondie’s break up as a band, to her multifaceted acting career, a stunning solo career and the triumphant return of the band, FACE IT is a cinematic story of a woman who made her own path, and set the standard for a generation of artists who followed in her footsteps. You’ll know H.R. Giger’s work even if you don’t know his name. You’ve seen Alien, obviously. The monster was his work. In fact, he was clutching an Oscar for Visual Effects the night he met Debbie and Chris at an exhibition of Alien paintings in New York. Perhaps slightly less iconic, the cover of Emerson, Lake & Palmer’s 1973 album Brain Salad Surgery was his first LP design. KooKoo – Debbie Harry’s first solo album, released in 1981 – was the second.

I'd like to see someone even vaguely compile how many versions of the Alien are floating around the world in models What happens with guys like Giger and Robert Williams is that once they have an association with Hollywood or with

Steve Stevens, ‘Atomic Playboys’

KooKoo was recorded while Harry and boyfriend Chris Stein were taking a break from the band Blondie. The album was produced by Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards of the R&B band Chic, who had just had major success working with Diana Ross on her 1980 album Diana. Harry and Stein first met the pair at the Power Station recording studio in New York while Blondie were recording their 1979 album Eat to the Beat, and they remained good friends in the intervening years. KooKoo was one of three albums to be (co)written and produced by Rodgers and Edwards in 1981, the other two being Chic's fifth album Take It Off and Johnny Mathis' I Love My Lady, which remained unreleased until 2017.