Can Vocalist Damo Suzuki Dies at 74
10.02.2024 - 19:13
/ variety.com
Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music Damo Suzuki, the Japanese lead singer of the wildly innovative band Can, has died, according to a statement from the band’s social media accounts. No cause of death was cited, although he had been battling colon cancer for a decade; he was 74.
“It is with great sadness that we have to announce the passing of our wonderful friend Damo Suzuki, yesterday, Friday 9th February 2024,” the statement reads. “His boundless creative energy has touched so many over the whole world, not just with Can, but also with his all continent spanning Network Tour.
Damo’s kind soul and cheeky smile will be forever missed. “He will be joining Michael, Jaki and Holger for a fantastic jam!,” the note concludes, along with a message of love to his family, referencing deceased fellow Can members Michael Karoli (guitar), Jaki Liebezeit (drums), and Holger Czukay (bass and electronics).
A post shared by CAN_SPOON_RECORDS (@can_spoon_records) Along with Kraftwerk, Neu and others, Can was a leader of the innovative and experimental coterie of German groups that arose in the wake of psychedelia in the late 1960s, loosely grouped under the “Krautrock” tag. While the groups began at a similar starting point and even shared some members, they quickly branched into wildly diverging directions, with Can pursuing a more organic and improvisatory path than the others.
The group’s original singer, Michael Mooney, had left after the 1969 release of its debut album, “Monster Movie”; Suzuki, who had left Japan as a teenager to travel in Europe, was busking on a street in Munich when Liebezeit and Czukay asked him to join the group onstage that night. He officially joined in 1970 and worked with the group on its best-known and
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