REAL GONE
Ex-Can singer and free ‘metaphysical transporter’ Damo Suzuki left us on February 9.
“IF BY ACCIDENT something happens, for me it’s much better and more interesting than if I plan to do something,” Damo Suzuki told MOJO in 2018. “Then,” he added with a look of terrible boredom, “it’s getting really like work.”
He put this philosophy into practice like few others, staying true until the end to his ideals of spontaneous performance, and the wordless whisper/scream vocalising he once described as “the language of the Stone Age”. This millennium, across the world, he went on stage with like-minded strangers without rehearsal and let whatever was possible manifest. Dubbed Damo Suzuki’s Network, these ad hoc line-ups of ‘Sound Carriers’ ranged from trios to formations of over 50, and ages from 15 to over 80.
Suzuki, a Liverpool FC fan who compared these performances to football games, admitted he did occasionally give guidance, but only with a minute to spare – all the better to jump in at the deep end. “With the music there is no winner and no loser,” he told me. “But it is a sport – a mind-sport, with the result of making everybody happy.” unity. Turn remember He was born Kenji Suzuki in Oiso, Kanagawa prefecture in Japan on January 16, 1950. Raised by his indefatigable mother Kimie after his architect father died when he was five, the young Suzuki was a devotee of soul and The Kinks. In search of adventure, he left Japan aged 18 and headed to Sweden and Ireland. In April 1970 he was in Munich appearing in the same production of Hair as Donna Summer when he was spotted “making a happening” on the street by bassist Holger Czukay and drummer Jaki Liebezeit of Can. Can had recently lost vocalist Malcolm Mooney and were paralysed: sensing a perfect fit, Czukay invited Suzuki to join them for a gig that night.
His arrival ushered in a golden time of creative fulfilment for Can, whose albums were comprised of edited, hypnagogic improvisations. 1970’s Soundtracks featured defining Suzuki moment Mother Sky, with classics Tago Mago (1971), Ege Bamyasi (1972) and Future Days (1973) following. There was even a West German chart hit with TV crime theme Spoon in 1972. Yet, uncomfortable with pop stardom and now a Jehovah’s Witness, Suzuki left after an August ’73 gig in Edinburgh and returned to normal working and roup family life. ir closest After facing cancer aged 33, he amless came back to music, in time for The t on, and Fall’s berserk 1985 tribute I Am im. Damo Suzuki. After fronting The
Damo Suzuki Band and Dunkelziffer, from 2003 he was settled into his neverending tour, improvising gigs with local musicians. Being diagnosed with cancer again, in 2014, did not stop him. When MOJO met him in Cologne in 2018, he spoke f
