HK119

HK119 is hardly the average pop star. A star, yes. But neither pop nor average. A star who fell to earth from the Metropolis future of Fritz Langs dystopian vision, through George Lucass THX1138 and the virtual canyons or Tron all the way back today with a message that the world urgently needs to hear. First, there are the striking, futuro-Amazonian looks the Asimov bone structures, geometric jawline and trapezium hair, and a figure thats somewhere between Catwoman and the Thin White Duke at his thinnest and whitest. Then there is the voice the androgyne sound of a tomorrow that has yet to be imagined, but once experienced, is never be forgotten. An organic-synthetic humanoid rendering of Grace Jones, Siouxsie Sioux and Nina Hagen filtered through the innards of Daft Punks mixing desk deep in the catacombs of Paris.There is art multimedia living-sculpture experiences of what unenlightened lifeforms and obsolete humanoid beings call music. Constructivist synth-punk with resonances gathered from the radioactive debris of 30 years of pop: HK119 has everything, and nothing, to do with Bauhaus, The Human League, Suicide, Kraftwerk and The Slits. These strands converge into timecoded two- and three-minute science-fact songs that discourse on media sickness, consumerist malaise, the post-modern condition and the evils of plastic surgery. And lastly there is the performance. Videos are in circulation that show HK119 performing at salons, arts galleries, museums, Third Spaces and underground cinemas in Athens, Rotterdam, Finland, Tokyo, Liverpool and London clubs including Fesh, Kashpoint, nagnagnag and Electogogo. They are performances that have to be believed to be seen, and vice versa. Audiences look on aghast and perplexed as a catlike figure conjures beguiling spectacles that transcends art, music, fashion and physics punk from twenty-second century beamed back to 2005 and before. Audiences have never seen anything like this before, because they watching the future unfolding itself. Only rudimentary facts are known about HK119. She was born in a sauna in Finland. There may or may not be a human presence behind her painstakingly constructed façade. Her name is a barcode. She reads New Scientist for fun...But we do know that she set out to trash the conventions around music making. I abandoned using computers early on, and went into a simple digital eight-track she says of her album, HK 119. It was an organic feel, a very punk approach. Two- or maximum three-minute songs. I mixed music with image and created a persona for each. HK119 looks as enigmatic as she sounds. Very soon afterwards I realised the character needed a name and needed to evolve HK119 is this monstrous character who entices people to use mobiles as much as possible and buy as much stuff as possible and live to excess these are the contemporary illnesses of todays society. We all like to shop, we watch shit on TV when it goes to extremes it is a concern in terms of what kind of humanity were gonna become.There is a strong premonitional vibe to HK119s discourse. She has identified a hyperconsumerist future where individuals sacrifice their identity to the needs of the capitalist construct, but everybody is too busy shopping to bother worrying about it. HK119 has a profound empathy with the human condition of the Twenty-First century, and she employs a dazzling aesthetic range to convey her message. The iconography of Russian Constructivism fascinates me, she says. I relate to their complete awe of technology from the beginning of the 1900s, their love of speed and technology which was going to set us all free. But my vision is dystopian. Are advances in science and technology going to create more problems than they solve.There is only one way to understand HK119, however. Watch her live performances to experience her unique combination of conviction, style and substance. People should expect to see intense passion and humour. Youre not sure if you should be laughing at me ... I might appear to be angry and some of the things I sing about are worth being angry about ...HK119 is a message from the future for today. You have been warned.