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.
Traum Mal Wieder
Holger Czukay Lyrics
We have lyrics for these tracks by Holger Czukay:
The Photo Song Looking through a photograph Giving everybody fun Facing the…
The lyrics are frequently found in the comments by searching or by filtering for lyric videos
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@stevelynch227
A genuine musical innovator - perhaps the inventor of loops and sampling. RIP Holgar
@Hipster_In_Denial
Such an amazing piece. One of my favorites of all time.
@noiseklinik
one of the best ambient tracks ever
@TheLightAhead
One of my all time favorites - since I bought the album "Der Osten its Rot" in 1984!
@Fontsman
Maybe my favourite ever piece of music. I imagine this as the music we hear when our time on this earth is over and we ascend to the heavens. Spellbinding.
@wadetine7180
Agreed - I love all the tape loops and stuff on this. So good to hear it again.
@StarsOnESP
One of his very greatest tracks.
@sonicidal
Interesting, I need to look into that album. My partner and I just had a baby and this song was playing (on a Virgin Ambient compilation) when he popped out. Whole new levels of meaning now...
@jannaacquafresca5089
sonicidal 7
@Possedee
absolutely genius beauty!