Klaus was a visionary. His angelic voice, his androgynous style are still puzzling in 2005 !  Nomi gave a lesson to  Rock`n`roll, Pop, classical and many other musical casts, by blowing up conventions... Alas, on the on the night of the 5th to 6th of August 1983, Klaus Nomi passed away, as a victim of the plague of the 20th century (AIDS). At this time, his career had just begun. Klaus let us an incomplete work; he had so much to say...

The sentences that define Nomi the best are those of  Vera Galupe-Borszch known as Ira Stiff and Kristian Hoffman :

'Ira Siff says 'Vera Galupe-Borszch' (from La Gran Scena Compagny of New York)'

'He's was a very sweet man, very sincere an shy, He's the only person who ever made sense out of crossing opera with pop, who understood both styles and made them work together. He tood his voice to places and people who had never that sound before.'

'Kristian Hoffman, for East Village Eye'

His vision was naive, quaint, almost foolish, but forcefuf in its purity and innocence. Even at his most wildly ridiculous ('Lightning Strikes')

or quaveringly sublime (Purcell's 'Death') There was an acknowledgment of impeding apocalypse that lent it conviction. For Klaus, apocalypse was metaphor for purification, and as the oddball optimist surrounded by cynical detachement an resignation, he dared to believe in a better world... 

* Purcell (Henry) 1659-1695

English type-setter, making shows of an astonishing dramatic direction in his lyric works for the scene: ' Didon and Enée' (1689), ' King Arthur' (1691), ' The Indian Queen' (1695), ' The Tempest' (1695). Its sacred music, its songs for one or two votes and low continue, its imaginations for violate, its sonatas for two violins and low, its parts for harpsichord testify to large a maitrise.