Changes to the look of John Peel Wiki will take place in the near future due to a new skin being rolled out over Oct/Nov across Wikia. Please see the Wikia Staff Blog for further details. On this site, the changes will affect the navigation from the left menu, as well as introduce a fixed page width with narrower content space. Please be patient while adjustments are made for the switch to the new system.
UPDATE: As the change is now in force for some users, I have switched the navigation to the simplified one for the new system. Please check Navigation in the Help section if you can't find things. I also initially made small adjustments to the front page layout, but have now reverted to the old look until all users are on the new system.
COUNTDOWN: Just a reminder for people still using Monaco that the final switch to the new skin is due on Nov. 3. After that, it will no longer be offered as an option. Sorry. Nothing to do with me.
Holger Hiller (born 26 December 1956) is a German musician who studied art at the Hochschule für bildende Künste in Hamburg, where he met Walter Thielsch and Thomas Fehlmann and recorded first works with them. With Fehlmann he later founded the band Palais Schaumburg in 1980, of which he was the singer. At the same time his solo career began. Hiller was one of the first musicians in Europe to use the sampler as his main or sole instrument.
From 1984 on he lived in London, eventually working as producer for Mute Records. In 1988 he recorded Ohi Ho Bang Bang with video artist Akiko Hada. The video shows Hiller and Karl Bonnie creating different sounds from every item in a room, from those sounds the song is made by means of cutting, whereas every sound is still in sync with the video footage of its creation. This transfer of sampling techniques from music to video might have been pioneering, only 10 years later it got popular with Timber by Coldcut who used custom-made software to create it.
Since 2003 Hiller lives in Berlin, working as an English language teacher.
Peel was a supporter of the works of Palais Schaumburg, which Hiller was a member of and when he started his solo career, he continued playing his material, including a session for his programme in 1987. However, after 1991, it seems Peel lost interest in Hiller's work and rarely played any new material from the artist.
