Many people believe that dark-rock was just one of the phenomenon of punk explosion at the end of the Seventies. Though, the spectral music of Christa Paffgen alias Nico anticipated many features of dark-rock culture. She's most famous as the singer of the early Velvet Underground. But Nico solo career (summarized in the excellent anthology "The Classic Years" featuring some Velvet's classic hits too) left a deep mark in rock history. Nico's desolate and dark arrangements, her sinister voice and funeral atmospheres were destined to become a model for a multitude of rock bands.

She was a real dark priestess indeed. Her private life was mysterious as well. She is presumed to be born in 1938, or 1941 or 1943, according to different biographies. It's believed that she was born in Cologne (Germany) or in Budapest (Hungary), at the end of the second world war. She had a hard infancy: her father died in a Nazi concentration camp, her mother grew her up difficultly in the American zone of Berlin. 

But Christa Paffgen was talented since she was an adolescent. Valkyriesque body, blond haired, beautiful face, she started her career as a pin up in Paris. In that period she met in Ibiza the photographer who gave her the nickname Nico, from the name of his died friend, Nico Papatakis. The artistic attitude brought the young Nico to experience cinema, starring in Pointrenaud's "Strip Tease" and Fellini's "La dolce vita". In Italy Nico had a flirt with Alain Delon. They also had a son called Ari. In the first half of the Sixties, she moved to London where she published the single "I'm not saying" for the Immediate records by Robert Plant, who became later the singer of Led Zeppelin.

Nico's debuted on rock scene in New York, where she met Bob Dylan who dedicated her the song "Visions of Johanna" and introduce her to Andy Warhol. The master of Pop Art put Nico into his entourage, made her play some parts in experimental films such as "Chelsea girl" and seconded her musical ambitions forcing his favorite group, the Velvet Underground, to engage her as their singer. At first Lou Reed and the others didn't accept her, fearing to be obscured by her charisma. Then Nico became a close friend of the former Velvet musician John Cale, who accompanied her a few years later with his viola in some concerts all around the world.

The result of this difficult cohabitation is the masterpiece album The Velvet Underground and Nico, firmed by the Andy Warhol's banana on the cover. An album destined to become one of the most important works in the entire rock history. Nico's voice left a mark on wonderful ballads such as "All tomorrow's parties", "I'll Be Your mirror, "Femme Fatale", "Sunday Morning". The American group got a great fame in the underground clubs of New York becoming a cult-band for thousands of rock fans. But Nico soon left the Velvet Underground and started a solo career accompanied by the harmonium that John Cale (who became her producer too) gave her. In  1975, she explained to the press: "The Velvet Underground had some identity problems, they wanted to get rid of me because I got the main attention from the press".

She debuted as a solo singer in 1968 with Marble Index, an hermetic and difficult album that showed her talent thanks to some delicate and ethereal songs such as "No one is there", "Frozen Warnings" and "Nibelungen". But the Nico's masterpiece came two years later, in 1970, and it was called Desertshore. An extraordinary album that - curiously enough - was almost ignored by rock audience for a long time. It was a collage of mini-symphonies, set in a frozen atmosphere, dark like a gothic cathedral or a medieval castle, and lost in the mist of time. Her spectral music called to mind alabaster pavements and lights of candles, horse rides in the forest and esoteric rituals. Just listen to the voice & harmonium nightmare of "Janitor of Lunacy", the abstract elegy of "Abschied", the dark lullaby of "Le Petit Chevalier", sang by a child with a sinister carillon on the background, or the wonderful, hypnotic ballad "All That Is My Own".

Nico's songs sound like prayers and psalmodies, with solemn vocals accompanied by the essential sound of the harmonium. The arrangements are minimalist but give the songs the sense of a requiem, while Nico's voice digs into darkness, recalling mysteries of an archaic era and foreseeing visions of apocalypse. 

After she released this record, Nico abandoned the rock scene and moved to Paris. She occasionally played in concerts, accompanied by her harmonium. Among her rare exhibitions, an acoustic concert together with John Cale (recorded in the bootleg "En concert a l'enfer") and a participation to the Bataclan festival in 1973, together with Cale and Lou Reed. In this occasion she met the Italian composer Franco Battiato.

The following year, Nico joined the famous 1^st of June Rainbow Concert with Kevin Ayers, John Cale and Brian Eno, and performed a spectral show in the Reims cathedral together with Tangerine Dream. 

In 1974 she released The End, an even more hermetic and desolate album. Among the tracks, a dark cover of the Doors hit "The End" and a gothic version of "Das lied der deutschen", the German national anthem. Afterwards, she disappeared for a while, alimenting her mysterious myth. Her nocturne music got a new rock vibration with the album Drama of Exile (1981), featuring new original tracks such as "Purple Lips" and "Only Flight", and two covers of David Bowie ("Heroes") and Lou Reed ("Waiting For My Man") classic hits.

In 1985 she came back with John Cale and cut Camera Obscura, that partly recalled the cold atmospheres of Desertshore. Nico started a worldwide tour summarized in two live albums: Behind the iron curtain (recorded in the Eastern Europe) and Live in Tokyo. The German musician used to seduce her fans with dark looks and shocking words. "I came here to die with you", she said once frightening the audience. 

Many difficulties related with drugs addiction tormented her latest tours. "A real artist have to self-destroy, I think I'm succeeding in it", she admitted in 1980. Her psychological disease were confirmed by a successive declaration as well: "I don't know how can I live. It's a constant struggle with myself. I feel an alien with myself and it's dramatic. I do not have any reference to understand who I am. I live like in a exile".

During the Eighties Nico became a sort of "Billie Holiday of the punk generation" and the dark-rock movement designated her as its muse. Siouxsie Sioux wanted her as a supporter for her concerts and a new career seemed to start for Nico. But in July of 1988 the German singer mysteriously died in Ibiza. The diagnosis said she died of a brain aneurysm while riding her bicycle. Nico's ashes were buried in Berlin, in a small cemetery inside the Grunewald forest, near her mother's grave, with the music of Desertshore on the background. Like her own life, Nico's death will always be surrounded by mystery.