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Topic ClosedRIP Holger Czukay

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Direct Link To This Post Topic: RIP Holger Czukay
    Posted: September 05 2017 at 19:28
https://pitchfork.com/news/cans-holger-czukay-dead-at-79/

Oy. :( Sad news tonight.

RIP to the one of the best.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 05 2017 at 20:18
Quite shocked at that sad news. Cry
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 05 2017 at 23:52
RIP, one of my favorite musical figures of all time.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 06 2017 at 01:35
Soldato of the Pan Head Mafia. We'll make you an offer you can't listen to.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 06 2017 at 02:00
Originally posted by ALotOfBottle ALotOfBottle wrote:

RIP, one of my favorite musical figures of all time.
Sorry for quoting but I was going to write the exact same words as you. A truly unique artist.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 06 2017 at 04:20
Oh f**king NO !!!!!!!   I expected this genius to outlive me.
Things have just taken a MASSIVE downturn.........
sh*t, Holger. Gone.
CAN- lfest is high time.
Rest your soul, Holger. Inspirational bass- God.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 06 2017 at 05:18
The best Kraut rhythm section have left the planet
 
RIP to Holger and Jaki (again) Cry
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 06 2017 at 05:20
Very sad news indeed. Holger lived in Cologne near Zülpicher Platz; we often saw him shopping when we were in that area. He is a cultural icon in Cologne; his portrait can be found on several pillars of the Cologne subway. R.I.P.


Edited by BaldFriede - September 06 2017 at 05:22


BaldJean and I; I am the one in blue.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 06 2017 at 09:47
Hi,

It's really hard to fight tears today ... really hard.

As much as I have loved CAN from its very first days, and "Mother Sky" ripping through Guy Guden's Space Pirate Radio and many other of his shows ... still, today, I can hear the music, and a few years later, the two albums that I have mostly appreciated ... "Movies" and "On The Way to the Peak of the Normal" ... two albums, that I know Holger was not a total fan of a few years later as mentioned in a letter way back when. I always thought that the mixes of the sound effects, the music and the "story" that it told was outstanding, and totally far out.

Like some experimental things with sound effects, even Guy Guden's "mind melts" (my term, I seem to remember he did not like that term at all), which were sound effects in every which way, and sometimes combined with a bit of his own comedy, these are always difficult to listen to and appreciate and only later, after a 2nd listen does one see a thread that carries it and makes it into a new story and a new book and a new painting ... done with music and sound effects.

Holger did not follow up on these much, but his touch was still quite enjoyable in the next several solo albums, of all the CAN members these were my favorites and the ones I played the most.

I do not profess to have any Gods or idealistic heroes to look up to, but if there were any for me to name, Holger would be one of them, because the fearlessness to be able to experiment with the sound and cutting and eventual music, is something that does not exist in music today. And, even though, it was more a result of the time and place, that allowed for such things (in theater in Germany something similar was happening and in film Werner Herzog was allowing actors to do what they wanted), in the end, in the music business, this is a highly under appreciated side of things. Perhaps the more invisible and abstract forms that are found in some music, are more interesting to some audiences, as in a jazz type of thing, but done in rock music?

You can count those folks in one hand, and maybe in just one finger.

Today, a great friend, and to me, a total artist, has left us. I'm not sure I want to stop a few tears, or not, because some of the music he made, was for me, some of the most important things I have ever learned in my life, and took me to places that are even hard to explain, and word for anyone to hear and relate to ... a non-sensical dream more of less ... but one that would stand out for a long time, and you never knew or understood, why you remembered it so well, again and again.

R.I.P. my friend ... you will be missed and one can only hope that many other musicians learned something from what you and CAN did for such a long time ... the way of the world continues and all flames will flicker and eventually die ... but there is no reason why we can not say something like ... that was beautiful ... that was totally beautiful ... and one of the best things ever.

Your total family of friends and fans will forever remember you ... for the beauty that you have shared with us for such a long time.

With much love to you and family. And all CAN folks and fans ... for they have helped show something in music that is not the norm, and yet ... is one of the best!
Music is not just for listening ... it is for LIVING ... you got to feel it to know what's it about! Not being told!
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 06 2017 at 15:02
Can and Mute Records posted this to Facebook:

Holger Czukay, 24.3.1938 - 5.9.2017
We are very sad to confirm that Holger passed away yesterday, in his home, the old CAN Studio in Weilerswist. 
His wife U-She passed away only weeks before. Holger was devastated by the loss of his beloved partner, but was looking forward to making more music and was in good spirits. His passing has come as a shock.
We will post more information about funeral arrangements shortly.

Hard to believe that Jaki Liebezeit only passed away in January - may their rhythms resound throughout the universe!
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 07 2017 at 05:14
Really sad news. RIP Holger and say hello to Jaki.

Play some Can most days as they are one of my go to bands. Bought Limited Edition in 1974 and very quickly worked by way back to catch up.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 07 2017 at 10:49
I only found this today... very shocked. As you can guess from my avatar image, for me Holger was the biggest inspiration of them all.

Thank you Pedro for finding some very moving words!

I have been looking out for some news from Holger regularly. The last interview I found was this (August 2016):
http://www.moredarkthanshark.org/eno_int_mojo-aug16.html
From there:

"Will you release new music, do you think?

[Long silence] No. Not at the moment. I am not any more so active. That could change, and the music would sound different, I know."

I was still hoping for some more.

The last image I've seen is this: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CmFBrKQVEAATyk6.jpg

I hadn't seen new pictures of him before for a few years; he looks quite aged on this one, very different from what I've seen from 2012/13 or so. I knew that U-She, his wife and collaborator, had been very ill for quite some time. I hadn't heard of her death either, but I believe that caring for her over years took Holger quite some energy. Holger would write personal notes when ordering something from Dignose or his personal website and he mentioned something like this, also he mentioned it when I saw him live at London's Roundhouse in 2009, when he was still at full power. Actually he played a number of things there that in this form where never released but are quite exciting (here's something remixed from old Can material but there were also genuinely new things):


In 2015, "Eleven Years Innerspace" was published. I wrote a review about this, somewhat annoyed by the lack of any information when this material had actually been recorded, but chances are at least some of it is post-2009 and therefore genuinely his last recordings.

I think that many don't know what he released in the last 25 years of his life; at least there are not so many reviews of this stuff on progarchives, but all of this is experimental, explorative and fresh and some is extremely good, much better than the 1983-1991 period in my opinion. So listen to Moving Pictures - Good Morning Story - La Luna - Linear City - Time and tide - The New Millenium - 21st Century - Eleven Years Innerspace - live double CD Clash (with Dr. Walker, the latter has currently 5.00 stars from three ratings) and think of Holger!!

Cry


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Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 08 2017 at 06:22
Hi,

Here is a kind of idea of how I see things with Holger ... and how they affected me.

This is something that requires a bit of history to make better sense, as it will not show up with any value otherwise.

Coming from the early days of complete experiments in Germany, TAGO MAGO is a that sort of thing, which according to Holger and his posts on the website, were grabbed at random, from some 20 hours of stuff. It could be said that some parts of it were "selected" because they were way too exciting and the continuity was amazing. I would say that both long pieces fit the mold.

By the time, Holger did his first two solo albums, I think that there was a need to "make sense" of these random things. MOVIES and ON THE WAY TO THE PEAK OF THE NORMAL were "experiments", but already there was a sense of organization in them, which the continuity of the music made it seem so, anyway. And I think that Holger found the doing of this extremelly exhausting, and from that point on the use of sound effects and noise changed to something else, simpler you and I might say, but at the same time, still with an experimental edge in it, in that he might have been playing over it randomly, or adding something else to it, however this came via keyboards, now, and not a cut and paste process ... the "new" cut and paste was now a part of the process in the performance side of things as you added and changed things, sometimes, randomly.

In that sense, Holger never lost his inner child of trying to put things together and see if they worked ... and musically, most of them did, and very well, which I think is a suggestion that when it comes to "finding" music, there are not many folks that can open up new ideas as easily ... most simply use a few different words for a song, and that is a HUGE difference in process. One is more clever, while the other spends more time on the creative elements of it, rather than the cleverness of it, and its presentation, which to me is the difference between "art" and a "song", if we would define that.

And now you add Damo to the mix ... another "voice" doing yet something else! A total free form that stood out and brought us TAGO MAGO, EGE BAMYASI and FUTURE DAYS. The courage it takes to add an unknown to the music process, is one of the most amazing things ever ... and there was no fear ... they even performed many times and you can see it on several videos ... it worked, even if it had been rehearsed a bit to help clean it up and make it more presentable. I'm not sure AUGMN would make for a good presentation on a stage ... for example, but it would be fun to try, and I would love to!

CAN had the same interesting process, and after FUTURE DAYS and SOON OVER BABBALOOMA, here came an album that was totally off kilter, and that most folks can not really relate to ... LANDED is actually a massive treat of mixing and cutting and pasting and putting together, and it is beautifully done, but I think that the whole thing was becoming just a studio thing, and not a LIVE thing, which most folks enjoy the most.

For me, a lifetime of exploration and presentation, is an art form. And Holger stood out in such an incredible way, regardless of how he and CAN are collectively remembered as. The sheer level and wide range of the creative expanse they put together is insane, and amazing at the same time. I would think that most folks would be happy with just one or two of those things, and yet ... we got so many of them ... that it is difficult to even choose one over the other.

Well done, my friend ... really well done!
Music is not just for listening ... it is for LIVING ... you got to feel it to know what's it about! Not being told!
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 08 2017 at 21:17
First Walter Becker from Steely Dan and now Holger Czukay. It's been a tough week. RIP Holger. 
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 14 2017 at 15:27
Originally posted by moshkito moshkito wrote:

... still, today, I can hear the music, and a few years later, the two albums that I have mostly appreciated ... "Movies" and "On The Way to the Peak of the Normal" ... two albums, that I know Holger was not a total fan of a few years later as mentioned in a letter way back when. I always thought that the mixes of the sound effects, the music and the "story" that it told was outstanding, and totally far out.

Like some experimental things with sound effects, even Guy Guden's "mind melts" (my term, I seem to remember he did not like that term at all), which were sound effects in every which way, and sometimes combined with a bit of his own comedy, these are always difficult to listen to and appreciate and only later, after a 2nd listen does one see a thread that carries it and makes it into a new story and a new book and a new painting ... done with music and sound effects.

Holger did not follow up on these much, but his touch was still quite enjoyable in the next several solo albums, of all the CAN members these were my favorites and the ones I played the most.

I wanted to thank you for this - I have Movies and listened when I first bought it (probably about 15 years ago!) but it didn't really touch me so haven't listened until I read your post a few days ago! Great to revisit, I like your appreciation of it and find that I appreciate it much more and am spinning it pretty regularly!

As sad as I am about his lost I also feel great gratitude and appreciation for his music, his approach and his inspiration.  
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