Can History

June 2003 marked the 35th anniversary of the founding of Can when Holger Czukay (bass),
David Johnson (flute), jazz drummer Jaki Liebezeit and beat guitar player Michael Karoli met in
classical conductor and piano player Irmin Schmidt's Cologne apartment in 1968. Their first
gig, a collage of rock music and tape samples, took place at Schloss Nörvenich (Castle
Nörvenich, near Cologne). The show is documented on the audio cassette Prehistoric Future.
The nameless collective had established its first studio, Inner Space, at the castle when
American sculptor Malcolm Mooney, visiting Irmin and Hildegard Schmidt, joined the band. His
intuitive drive led the musicians toward a unique take on rock music and the track Father
Cannot Yell originated from one of these early sessions. David Johnson, who by then had
become the band’s sound engineer, left at the end of 1968. Around this period, the lack of a
name was solved by Mooney and Liebezeit who came up with The Can.
The first Can album, Monster Movie (1969), defined Can music. Played and recorded
spontaneously and driven by repetitive rhythms, the album was recorded directly on to a 2-
track machine and then extensively edited. Soundtracks featuring film scores from 1969 and
1970, was the next album. Just after the record was released, Malcolm Mooney left the band
and returned to the U.S. following a psychological breakdown. The Mooney era is extensively
documented on Can - Delay, released in 1982.
In May 1970, Japanese singer Kenji "Damo" Suzuki joined Can after being spotted by Holger
Czukay and Jaki Liebezeit busking in Munich. The very same evening he performed with the
band at the Blow Up club.
In December 1971, Can founded the Can Studio - known as Inner Space until 1978 when Can
soundman René Tinner took over running the operation - in a former cinema in Weilerswist,
close to Cologne. All subsequent Can albums were produced there except Rite Time. The
studio has now been painstakingly disassembled and is being re-constructed to scale as a
working exhibit at the German Rock'n'Pop Museum in Gronau, near the Dutch border.
The period 1970-2 was a breakthrough time for the band with Tago Mago (1971) impressing
critics in England and France as well as Germany. Ege Bamyasi, released in 1972, featured the
track Spoon, the theme tune for the crime thriller Das Messer and also the band’s first chart
success in Germany. The track, which was the first time that Can used an early version of a
drum machine, led to a Goldene Europa TV award in recognition of Can’s soundtrack work.
Ege Bamyasi also included the music from another TV crime series in the form of Vitamin C.
The success of Spoon inspired the band to try to reach a wider audience which led to the Can
Free Concert. The event was filmed by Martin Schäfer, Robbie Müller and Egon Mann for
director Peter Przygodda at the Cologne Sporthalle on February 3rd, 1972. British music
weekly Melody Maker wrote: "Can are without doubt the most talented and most consistent
experimental rock band in Europe, England included." French magazine Rock & Folk portrayed
Can's music as "one of the most impressive musical experiments offered by contemporary
bands."

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Future Days (1973) was the last Can album with Damo Suzuki. First Michael Karoli took over
the vocal duties, followed by short interludes with a succession of singers, among them Tim
Hardin. The recording of Soon Over Babaluma that same year marked the end of the era of
recording straight onto 2-track. Landed (1975), was the first Can LP to be produced using
multi-track technology. The album led Melody Maker to call them "the most advanced rock unit
on the planet."
Double album Unlimited Edition (1976) was an extended version of a release that had quickly
sold out as Limited Edition two years earlier. Among the tracks were the multi-facetted
experiments known as the Ethnological Forgery Series (EFS). Flow Motion, also released in
1976, featured the disco hit I Want More and saw the band performing on UK primetime
hitshow Top Of The Pops. The following year Can was augmented by ex-Traffic rhythm duo
Rosko Gee (bass) and Reebop Kwaku Baah on percussion.
Holger Czukay had retired as a bass player and on Saw Delight was in charge of "special
sounds". His new instrument was a shortwave radio receiver; while his idea to create new
impulses for the musical process via radio signals didn't fit within the new Can structure, it
became the basis for his first solo album, Movies (1979). The next Can album, Out of Reach
(1978), was recorded without Czukay, who had left the band in May 1977, during the final Can
tour. On the last show of the tour, in Lisbon at the end of May, Can performed in front of 10,000
fans. The double album Cannibalism (1978) was not just a "Best of ..." compilation, it was in
fact, an early indication that Can’s reputation would continue to grow.
The British avant-garde and several punk acts were deeply inspired by Can. Speaking for
many, Pete Shelley (Buzzcocks) is quoted on the Cannibalism cover: "I never would have
played guitar if not for Marc Bolan and Michael Karoli of Can”. At the end of 1978 the band
released Can. Meanwhile Michael Karoli built the Outer Space Studio studio in France, close to
Nice. It was there in November 1986 that the original Monster Movie line-up got together again,
with vocalist Malcolm Mooney to record Rite Time. The album was released in 1988. The band
assembled again at the Can Studio with the same line-up minus Holger to record the track Last
Night Sleep for Wim Wenders' film Until the End of the World.
In May 1997, the remix CD Sacrilege provided further evidence of the durability of Can's music.
For this tribute, prominent representatives of the techno, dance and ambient scene reworked
15 classic Can tracks. Ironically, the importance of Can’s contribution to the wider musical
pantheon was summed up by Andrew Weatherall who refused an offer to remix a Can track for
Sacrilege: “I love to remix other people’s work. But Can? No way. You don’t touch music that
perfect. There is nothing to add or take away.”
The band’s chosen means of celebrating its 30th anniversary in 1999 was characteristically
original. Eschewing a reunion tour as too obvious, and, more importantly, as being against the
spirit of the group, the Can Box and the Can-Solo-Projects tour were the ways in which the
group marked the occasion.Can Box includes recordings from the period 1971-77, a tri-lingual
book featuring a comprehensive group history, interviews, reviews and photos by Hildegard

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Schmidt and Wolf Kampmann plus a video with both the Can Free Concert film by Peter
Przygodda, and the Can Documentary by DoRo-film.
The Can-Solo-Projects tour, which featured Holger Czukay & U-She, Jaki Liebezeit’s Club Off
Chaos, Irmin Schmidt & Kumo plus Michael Karoli’s Sofortkontakt!, started on March 19th 1999
in Berlin at the Columbia Halle. The tour was so well received that a second leg was organised
for September 1999. This went ahead without Holger Czukay who was obliged to pull out at the
last minute due to unforeseen circumstances.
Can worked together for the last time in August 1999 at Irmin's studio in Provence with Jono
Podmore, to record a cover-version of The Third Man theme (from the film of the same name)
for the Pop 2000 compilation released on Herbert Grönemeyer's label Grönland/EMI.
On November 17th, 2001, Michael Karoli died after a long fight against cancer.
In March 2003 Can received the most prestigious prize that the German music industry can
offer: the Echo award for lifetime achievement was presented at an awards ceremony in Berlin.
Herbert Grönemeyer, one of Germany’s most famous artists, made the official speech while
Brian Eno sent in a short, witty film about the group. The prize was handed over by the Red Hot
Chili Peppers whose guitarist John Frusciante also spoke of his appreciation and respect for
Can’s music.
The remaining members of Can are all active as both solo artists and collaborators.
Since his first solo album Canaxis (1968), Holger Czukay (http://www.czukay.com) has released
a further 11 solo works as well as having collaborated with Brian Eno, Jah Wobble, The Edge,
Eurythmics, Conny Plank and Air Liquide. His latest project is the LP The New Millenium
together with U-She through fünfundvierzig/indigo. In 2003 Czukay performed concerts in
Russia and Germany and is scheduled to release a DVD this year which will contain video from
Czukay’s considerable personal collection (there are already 80 videos available on his
website) and features narration by the artist in what he describes as "a journey through sense
and nonsense, depending on your own position."
After many years playing in and around the Cologne jazz scene and a period involved in free
jazz around Europe, Jaki Liebezeit joined the collective which eventually crystallised as Can in
1968. He played on every album and at every gig until the band split in 1978. He then began
work as a session drummer and appeared on around 50 LPs in the 80s and 90s with artists as
diverse as Gianna Nannini, The Eurythmics and Brian Eno, whilst continuing to work with the
other Can members on their various solo activities. In 1980 he formed Phantomband with
whom he recorded 3 albums and in 1982 he founded his drum group Drums off Chaos
(http://www.drums-off-chaos.de) who are still together today. He has worked extensively with
Jah Wobble since 1982 on various albums including Invaders of the Heart and the Solaris
project. Liebezeit’s constant urge to experiment led him to form Club Off Chaos in 1996 in
order to concentrate on improvised electronic music. CoC released 3 albums and toured
extensively. He is currently performing regularly and recording with Burnt Friedman with whom
he released the album Secret Rhythms in 2002. Liebezeit and Friedman are currently working
on a new album.

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In 1998 Irmin Schmidt's fantasy-opera Gormenghast was premiered. The opera is based on
Mervyn Peake’s trilogy of the same name with a libretto by Duncan Fallowell. Reviewing the
premiere in The Times, critic Rodney Milnes wrote: “If Richard Strauss had written rock music,
this is what it would have sounded like - gloriously, unashamedly lush.” A CD of exerpts from
the opera recorded live on stage was released in January 2000 and a new production is due to
tour Europe starting in May 2004.
(http://www.spoonrecords.com/gormenghast.html)
Schmidt has also recorded three solo albums: Toy Planet (with Bruno Spoerri), Musk at Dusk
and Impossible Holidays (with lyrics by Duncan Fallowell), plus about 100 commissions for film
and theatre, documented on 3 CD Box Anthology - Soundtracks 1978-1993. He still regularly
composes film music.
Masters Of Confusion, the first Irmin Schmidt & Kumo album was released worldwide in
September 2001 on Spoon/Mute records. The duo’s extensive tour that year included concerts
at the Sonar festival and at the London Jazz festival. They also created a sound installation for
the Barbican Centre as part of the Elektronic festival, held in October 2001, and performed
further concerts across Europe in 2002 including the Montreux Jazz festival. Irmin Schmidt &
Kumo are touring in autumn 2003 plus preparing a second album for release in 2004.
(http://www.spoonrecords.com/masters.html)
Michael Karoli worked on numerous solo and group projects starting with the construction of
the Outer Space Studio near Nice, France in 1978 and the development the Microsonic
recording technique (used on Deluge). He produced the German progressive group Bit/s in
1981 and married Shirley Argwings-Kodhek the same year. Karoli’s two daughters, Tamara and
Angie were born in 1989 and 1992. Between 1981 and 1984 he composed, recorded & produced
Deluge with Polly Eltes. Alongside Liebezeit and Czukay he performed on German music show
Rockpalast and played concerts with Liebezeit, Czukay and Jah Wobble.
During the 80s he also studied African rhythm and dance with Seni Camara, and recorded with
Le General Dady Mimbo. With Czukay, Liebezeit and Sheldon Ancel, he recorded Holger
Czukay’s Radio Wave Surfer. Alongside Czukay, he also recorded Charlatan by Belgian singer
Arno (ex-TC-Matic) and played guitar on the David Sylvian/Czukay album, Flux & Mutability.
Karoli also recorded and co-produced the group Belgian Associality the following year. He also
played guitar on almost all solo albums, film & theatre music by Irmin Schmidt and on four of
Holger Czukay's solo projects.
In 1997 he performed in Japan with Damo Suzuki, Mani Neumeier, Matthias Keul and Mandjao
and in 1999-2000 Karoli performed with Sofortkontakt! on the Can-Solo-Projects tour. Prior to
the release of the Can Box, Karoli spent several months listening to over 100 hours of Can live
recordings in order to clean up and select the tracks that would eventually be included on the
Live 1971-77 double CD. In June 2001 Karoli played with Suicide, James Chance, Hvratsky,
Larry 7 and Malcolm Mooney at The Cooler in New York. This show, which included She Brings
The Rain with Malcolm Mooney, was to be his last concert.

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On November 17th, 2001, Michael Karoli lost his long battle with cancer. In a eulogy that
appeared in the UK press, Julian Cope wrote: “He was a wizard and a true star. The fifteen
minutes of Mother Sky was a furious, mantric Turkish L.A. Woman with Karoli riffs so catchy
that I'm still ripping 'em off 30 years later. He blasted into the song like some potted history of
West Coast Rock - blew our heads off - then sodded off completely. Whole segments of the
song were guitar free, leaving us all desperate, until... bango bango! Karoli would surf back in
on waves of Turko-phase.”

Michael Karoli - an inside view by Kai Althoff

Kai Althoff spent much time with Karoli including the last month of the musician’s life. The
following is a summary of his impressions of the guitarist/violinist.
“I first met Michael at the age of 12 when my father - a friend of Irmin Schmidt - took me to the
studio in Weilerswist. From then on I saw Michael and Shirley regularly both at their homes in
France and Essen and in the studio.
I was already interested in music but Michael introduced me to it in a way that enabled me to
really feel what it was all about by the way he explained what was happening and by simply
listening to it with him. If you really wanted to know about something, Michael had a profound
understanding of music and a brilliant, very positive mind. Despite this he was never precious
and what he said then remains just as true now as it was then.
Although music was everything to him, he invested just as much time and energy in his friends
and in his esoteric studies. Shirley was always just as deeply involved as well, she was not
only his greatest love, she was truly an ally as well. Michael was cool, but in a natural way. This
was not something you could ever learn.
When he really got ill, he was very calm about the whole thing and fought like a hero. He had
no self-pity but he deeply did not want to die and leave his family and his music. I spent some
time with him in Essen in 2001 when he could no longer move very well but, as soon as he
found a comfortable position on the sofa, he would play acoustic guitar for hours. What he
played was very sweet and mellow. It seemed to speak of a world he was about to enter.
At the time, we often watched TV with the sound off and when the images of the Twin Towers
came on his guitar playing was like a soundtrack. The whole moment was utterly surreal and
way above my head but it did seem at that moment like Michael could change everything if he
wanted to.”

Collaborators
Hildegard Reittenberger and Irmin Schmidt met in 1957 and were married in 1963. Hildegard
Schmidt took over as manager of the group in 1969, the year before the Schmidt's daughter
Sandra was born.
Hildegard Schmidt's impact as manager was soon felt when she succeeded in convincing both
the band and their label at the time, United Artists, to include more avant-garde tracks such as
Aumgn and Peking O on Tago Mago, thereby making it a double LP. Her instincts proved well

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founded as Tago Mago became Can’s best selling album. She rapidly earned universal respect
as one of the very few female managers in a male-dominated business.
Schmidt played a central role in Can's touring life, operating as everything from agent for the
band - in a time when agencies and venues for rock music barely existed - to tour manager and
live sound assistant, being present at all the band’s gigs since 1968. She employed this
experience again in 1999 when she conceived of and co-ordinated the two Can-Solo-Projects
tours.
In 1980 she recovered all rights for the Can albums that had been released on United Artists
and launched Spoon Records. She continues to run the label and defends its independence
passionately. Despite the fact that Can has been an occasional rather than a full-time affair for
its core members since 1978, she has remained the manager of the Can legacy and of the solo
careers of both Holger Czukay and Irmin Schmidt.
Whilst building up Spoon Records, she formed and still runs 2 publishing companies: Spoon
Music, Germany and Messer Music, U.K. Since 1988 Schmidt has worked closely with Daniel
Miller and Mute Records. They developed and released the Can remix album Sacrilege in 1997
and the Can Box (including video, book and live CDs) in 1999.
During a promotional tour for Sacrilege she began to document all the band's activities with
her personal DV camera, a practice she continues today. This unique and intimate material is
the basis of the film Can Notes.

Swiss-born René Tinner started his career with Can as road manager and sound engineer in
1974. Alongside that, he worked as studio technician, engineer and/or producer on numerous
projects including all of Can’s recordings from Soon Over Babaluma through to Rite Time. He
has worked on many Can solo projects including engineering some of Irmin Schmidt’s Musk At
Dusk, working on parts of Impossible Holidays and Anthology - Soundtracks; Deluge by
Michael Karoli and Polly Eltes; four solo albums by Holger Czukay plus Czukay and Sylvian’s
Flux & Mutability and Plight & Premonition and three albums by Jaki Liebezeit including
Freedom Of Speech and Nowhere.
Tinner has also worked with a broad range of artists outside the Can family including
engineering two albums for Lou Reed, Take No Prisoners and The Bells, and on six albums
with German superstar Marius Müller-Westernhagen. Other artists he has recorded and mixed
include Gautsch, Trio, Klaus Dinger, Element of Crime, Rams and Jingo de Lunch. Tinner, who
became the sole owner of the Can Studio in 1991, most recently worked there with Jim Capaldi
on his latest album. He will be involved with future Irmin Schmidt film music projects as well as
acting as sound engineer on Irmin Schmidt & Kumo’s live engagements.

Vocalist Damo Suzuki (http://www.damosuzuki.de) and the loose musical collective Damo
Suzuki’s Network have undertaken a Never Ending Tour where the singer aims to connect with
free-music lovers across the globe; teaming up with local bands to produce spontaneous,
instant compositions. He is playing regularly in 2003 and was characteristically philosophical

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about the refusal of U.S authorities to allow him in to the country in June of that year. A new
double live album, recorded in Los Angeles and St. Petersburg, is due out late 2003, early 2004.

Sculptor and artist Malcolm Mooney is currently working on an exhibition of drawings and
paintings for a show in autumn 2003 at the Welancora Gallery in Brooklyn, New York. Mooney
is also still involved in music and is looking for a deal for his Hysterica Suite with the California
based group Tenth Planet. In 2001, Mooney recorded Salted Tangerines with Andy Votel for
Twisted Nerve Records/XL Recordings. Thanks to the Votel connection, Mooney also recorded
Rip Van Winkle for a Dave Tyack record. He is presently writing an article about Can, the first
part of which will come out in August.

Rosko Gee toured extensively with a number of artists in the late 70s and early 80s including
jazz-fusionists Al DiMeola and Trilok Gurtu. He also played a major U.S tour with the reformed
Traffic in 1981. Based in Cologne, he has recorded several albums with various musicians
including Josef Ferger. The duo have recently finished work on a new double CD, The Hooded
Ones, inspired by druidic culture. Since 1995 Gee has been the bass player on the Harald
Schmidt Show, the German equivalent of the David Letterman Show.

Originally from Ghana, percussionist Reebop Kwaku Baah, born Remi Kabaka, had established
himself as one of the most in-demand and innovative percussionists on the international
session circuit when he joined Can. Alongside his career with Traffic, he contributed to
recordings by Eric Clapton, The Rolling Stones, The Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, Jim Capaldi and
Free amongst others. After he died unexpectedly from a brain hemorrhage in Sweden in 1982,
his wife consented to the release of Masimbabele, from the 1977 album Trance. The track went
on to be a major global hit that year.

Jono Podmore aka Kumo worked in London as a composer, engineer, producer and string
arranger throughout the 80s and 90s. In 1997 under the name Kumo, he released his first,
critically acclaimed solo album Kaminari and embarked on a series of gigs and DJ
commitments world-wide. In the same year he began work with Irmin Schmidt on his opera
Gormenghast as engineer and programmer and continues to work closely with Irmin Schmidt.
The album Masters Of Confusion was also the result of this ongoing partnership.
In 2000 a second solo album 1+1=1 was released and Podmore currently has several new
productions in development plus his own solo work. (http://www.psychomat.com)
In the first half of 2003 he has worked on the 5.1 surround mixes of Can tracks for the Can DVD
and on a new album with Irmin Schmidt. The duo will be touring in autumn 2003. He is married
to Sandra Schmidt, daughter of Irmin and Hildegard, and has one daughter, Lara. Podmore
currently divides his time between Cologne and London.

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Uli Gerlach’s first job for Can was helping to transport and install the 1500 ex-Army mattresses
that were used to soundproof the Can Studio in Weilerswist, during the summer of 1970. He
then went on to become tour manager and general assistant taking care of everything from
instrument repairs to child-minding. Gerlach left the group in 1974 to pursue a career in
business. In 1999 he formed Can Concert Services to co-ordinate the Can-Solo-Projects
concerts and performances by Irmin Schmidt & Kumo, whilst continuing his career with a
major logistics company.

Peter Przygodda was born in 1941 in Berlin and started working as an independent filmmaker
and film editor in 1970. After working together with Irmin Schmidt on a number of films he
produced and directed the documentary Can Free Concert in 1972. He is responsible for
editing almost all of Wim Wenders' films and in 1978 he received the Bundesfilmpreis for his
work on The American Friend. Alongside that, Przygodda has worked with several renowned
German directors incuding Syberberg, Geissendörfer, Hauff and Schlöndorff. He has also
directed numerous documentaries and the short film Besuch auf dem Land. He recently
compiled and edited another film for Can, Can Notes, which is included on the Can DVD.
(Text by Gary Smith 31.08.2003)