Martin Kippenberger

2025 stock Kippenberger unplugged! Martin Kippenberger skipped out on this world after just 44 years -- in 1997, the art world's flamboyant enfant terrible, one of Germany's most famous painters best known for his biting provocations and prolific output, died of the consequences of his equally prolific alcohol consumption.

In 1978, Kippenberger moved to Berlin, launched Kippenberger's Büro (together with his future gallerist Gisela Capitain) and became the managing director of Kreuzberg's seminal venue SO36 where he proceeded to confuse the local punks with acts like Red Krayola, Scritti Politti, Kleenex or Kevin Coyne. His own band Luxus (featuring Christine Hahn of Malaria!, among others) released a limited edition single in 1979, available in homeopathic quantities. In subsequent years, he cranked out a steady stream of further singles, with fellow painter Albert Oehlen, among others. Kippenberger's not-so-secret love and passion, however, was swing music -- expansive, and possibly pompous, big band jazz -- and traces of this have found their way onto a Golden Kot Quartett release, which lists Kippenberger as its drummer. "Yuppi Du," on the other hand, makes the most of his Dadaist humor, while several versions of "Ja, Ja, Ja, Nee, Nee, Nee" pay tongue-in-cheek homage to Joseph Beuys.

Now, give or take three decades later, Edition Kröthenhayn releases the surviving works of Kippenberger and his friends on CD and vinyl. Expect 60 minutes of music: jazz, noise and obscure sound experiments squeezed into a limited, hand-numbered (1,000 copies) CD box containing a 72-page book. Edition is replete with a slip lid box and banderole and is a prime example of luxurious, high-quality bookbinding. In addition, essays and writing by Max Dax (Spex), Wolfgang Müller (Die Tödliche Doris) and Frieder Butzmann are accompanied by many previously unpublished -- and unseen -- photographs.