Holger Czukay (Holger Schüring, 24 March 1938 – 5 September 2017) was a Ger… Read Full Bio ↴Holger Czukay (Holger Schüring, 24 March 1938 – 5 September 2017) was a German musician. He co-founded the influential rock group Can in 1968. He was a singer and played bass guitar, guitar, keyboards, percussion, drums, and French horn.
He was born in the Free City of Danzig (now Gdansk). Czukay studied under Karlheinz Stockhausen from 1963 to 1966.
Czukay recorded some notable early ambient albums, and is important for his utilization of shortwave radio sounds and sampling, and has collaborated with a considerable number of musicians.
Initially Czukay had little interest in rock music, but this changed, when a student played him the Beatles' 1967 song "I Am the Walrus", a 1967 psychedelic rock single with an unusual musical structure and blasts of AM radio noise. This opened his ears to music by rock experimentalists such as The Velvet Underground and Frank Zappa.
Czukay co-founded Can in 1968. He played bass guitar and performed most of the recording and engineering for the group. Rosko Gee, former bassist of the British band Traffic, joined the band in 1977, with Czukay handling only tapes and sound effects on album Saw Delight, his final LP with the group before departing for a solo career.
After his departure from Can, Czukay recorded several albums. One of his trademarks was the use of shortwave radio sounds and his early pioneering of sampling, in those days involving the painstaking cutting and splicing of magnetic tapes. He would tape-record various sounds and snippets from shortwave and incorporate them into his compositions. He also used shortwave as a live, interactive musical instrument (such as on 1991's Radio Wave Surfer), a method of composition he termed "radio painting". Czukay also stated "If you want to make something new, you shouldn't think too far beyond one certain idea".
Czukay collaborated with a considerable number of musicians, notably a series of albums with Jah Wobble and David Sylvian, two younger British musicians who shared his interest in blending pop music with experimental recording and sampling techniques. Other collaborators include U.N.K.L.E, Brian Eno, Eurythmics, and German Neue Deutsche Welle band Trio.
In 2009, after a problematic time with the record company that had been gradually re-releasing his albums on CD, Czukay began a new collaboration with the Claremont 56 record label, releasing vinyl-only remixes of tracks from earlier albums, as well as some new recordings. This approach changed Czukay's plans for his back catalogue, so that the original albums Der Osten ist Rot (1984), Rome Remains Rome (1987) and Moving Pictures (1993) will no longer be reissued (in the case of Moving Pictures, because the master tapes have degraded beyond repair). Instead, most of the tracks are being re-made and newly organized as limited edition vinyl releases.
He was born in the Free City of Danzig (now Gdansk). Czukay studied under Karlheinz Stockhausen from 1963 to 1966.
Czukay recorded some notable early ambient albums, and is important for his utilization of shortwave radio sounds and sampling, and has collaborated with a considerable number of musicians.
Initially Czukay had little interest in rock music, but this changed, when a student played him the Beatles' 1967 song "I Am the Walrus", a 1967 psychedelic rock single with an unusual musical structure and blasts of AM radio noise. This opened his ears to music by rock experimentalists such as The Velvet Underground and Frank Zappa.
Czukay co-founded Can in 1968. He played bass guitar and performed most of the recording and engineering for the group. Rosko Gee, former bassist of the British band Traffic, joined the band in 1977, with Czukay handling only tapes and sound effects on album Saw Delight, his final LP with the group before departing for a solo career.
After his departure from Can, Czukay recorded several albums. One of his trademarks was the use of shortwave radio sounds and his early pioneering of sampling, in those days involving the painstaking cutting and splicing of magnetic tapes. He would tape-record various sounds and snippets from shortwave and incorporate them into his compositions. He also used shortwave as a live, interactive musical instrument (such as on 1991's Radio Wave Surfer), a method of composition he termed "radio painting". Czukay also stated "If you want to make something new, you shouldn't think too far beyond one certain idea".
Czukay collaborated with a considerable number of musicians, notably a series of albums with Jah Wobble and David Sylvian, two younger British musicians who shared his interest in blending pop music with experimental recording and sampling techniques. Other collaborators include U.N.K.L.E, Brian Eno, Eurythmics, and German Neue Deutsche Welle band Trio.
In 2009, after a problematic time with the record company that had been gradually re-releasing his albums on CD, Czukay began a new collaboration with the Claremont 56 record label, releasing vinyl-only remixes of tracks from earlier albums, as well as some new recordings. This approach changed Czukay's plans for his back catalogue, so that the original albums Der Osten ist Rot (1984), Rome Remains Rome (1987) and Moving Pictures (1993) will no longer be reissued (in the case of Moving Pictures, because the master tapes have degraded beyond repair). Instead, most of the tracks are being re-made and newly organized as limited edition vinyl releases.
Cool in the Pool
Holger Czukay Lyrics
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@GarrettWatts
This is so incredible and he seemed wildly beyond his time. It’s almost eerie how anachronistic this feels.
@NormAppleton
It's amazing, what is so great is how kind Holger is.
@pointsbeingmade7996
Anachronistic meaning?
@GarrettWatts
@@pointsbeingmade7996 Something that feels out of its time, so for instance… A MacBook in the 1800s.
@pointsbeingmade7996
@@GarrettWatts nice i think these things are beyond space and time timeless.
@pointsbeingmade7996
@@GarrettWatts feelings lie to you. Looking at the fact: It was created then. What feels ahead of its time is made from something preceeding it as inspiration.
New and old are feelings.
”New’ is simply combinkng something existing with something else that also exists.
@macronencer
There will never be another music video like this. And there will never be another Holger Czukay. Missing you, you sublimely insane genius.
@TheTigronette
I listen to this every time I need cheering up, completely earnest, completely tongue in cheek
@NormAppleton
Me too
@translucent.
RIP Holger. May you fly straight to the land of film soundtracks, open-ended bass grooves and crazy horn riffs. Thanks for opening up the world to me.