Holger Czukay
Encyclopedia
Holger Czukay is a German musician, probably best known as a co-founder of the krautrock
group Can
. Described by critic Jason Ankeny as "successfully bridg[ing] the gap between pop
and the avant-garde
," Czukay is also notable for creating early important examples of ambient music
, for exploring "world music
" well before the term was coined, and for being a pioneer of sampling
.
(now Gdańsk, Poland). During World War II
, his family was among the millions relocated as refugee
s. Due to the turmoil of war, Czukay's primary education was limited. However, a pivotal early experience was working in a radio repair shop as a teenager—he became fond of the aural qualities of radio broadcasts (anticipating his use of shortwave radio broadcasts as musical elements) and became familiar with the rudiments of electrical repair and engineering.
Czukay studied music under Karlheinz Stockhausen
from 1963 to 1966 and then worked for a while as a music teacher. Initially Czukay had little interest in rock music
, but this changed when a student played him The Beatles
' 1967 song "I Am the Walrus
". 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 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 tape
s. 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 has 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 has caused changes to Czukay's plans for his back catalogue, so that the original albums The East Is Red, Rome Remains Rome and Moving Pictures will not be reissued (in the case of Moving Pictures because the master tapes have degraded beyond repair). Instead, most of the tracks are being remade and newly organized as limited edition vinyl releases.
With Can:
Krautrock
Krautrock is a generic name for the experimental music scenes that appeared in Germany in the late 1960s and gained popularity throughout the 1970s, especially in Britain. The term is a result of the English-speaking world's reception of the music at the time and not a reference to any one...
group Can
Can (band)
Can was an experimental rock band formed in Cologne, West Germany in 1968. Later labeled as one of the first "krautrock" groups, they transcended mainstream influences and incorporated strong minimalist and world music elements into their often psychedelic music.Can constructed their music largely...
. Described by critic Jason Ankeny as "successfully bridg[ing] the gap between pop
Pop music
Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...
and the avant-garde
Experimental music
Experimental music refers, in the English-language literature, to a compositional tradition which arose in the mid-20th century, applied particularly in North America to music composed in such a way that its outcome is unforeseeable. Its most famous and influential exponent was John Cage...
," Czukay is also notable for creating early important examples of ambient music
Ambient music
Ambient music is a musical genre that focuses largely on the timbral characteristics of sounds, often organized or performed to evoke an "atmospheric", "visual" or "unobtrusive" quality.- History :...
, for exploring "world music
World music
World music is a term with widely varying definitions, often encompassing music which is primarily identified as another genre. This is evidenced by world music definitions such as "all of the music in the world" or "somebody else's local music"...
" well before the term was coined, and for being a pioneer of sampling
Sampling (music)
In music, sampling is the act of taking a portion, or sample, of one sound recording and reusing it as an instrument or a different sound recording of a song or piece. Sampling was originally developed by experimental musicians working with musique concrète and electroacoustic music, who physically...
.
Biography
Czukay was born in the Free City of DanzigFree City of Danzig
The Free City of Danzig was a semi-autonomous city-state that existed between 1920 and 1939, consisting of the Baltic Sea port of Danzig and surrounding areas....
(now Gdańsk, Poland). During World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, his family was among the millions relocated as refugee
Refugee
A refugee is a person who outside her country of origin or habitual residence because she has suffered persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or because she is a member of a persecuted 'social group'. Such a person may be referred to as an 'asylum seeker' until...
s. Due to the turmoil of war, Czukay's primary education was limited. However, a pivotal early experience was working in a radio repair shop as a teenager—he became fond of the aural qualities of radio broadcasts (anticipating his use of shortwave radio broadcasts as musical elements) and became familiar with the rudiments of electrical repair and engineering.
Czukay studied music under Karlheinz Stockhausen
Karlheinz Stockhausen
Karlheinz Stockhausen was a German composer, widely acknowledged by critics as one of the most important but also controversial composers of the 20th and early 21st centuries. Another critic calls him "one of the great visionaries of 20th-century music"...
from 1963 to 1966 and then worked for a while as a music teacher. Initially Czukay had little interest in rock music
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
, but this changed when a student played him The Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
' 1967 song "I Am the Walrus
I Am the Walrus
"I Am the Walrus" is a 1967 song by The Beatles, written by John Lennon and credited to Lennon–McCartney. Lennon claimed he wrote the first two lines on separate acid trips. The song was in the Beatles' 1967 television film and album Magical Mystery Tour, and was the B-side to the #1 hit "Hello,...
". This opened his ears to music by rock experimentalists such as the Velvet Underground and Frank Zappa
Frank Zappa
Frank Vincent Zappa was an American composer, singer-songwriter, electric guitarist, record producer and film director. In a career spanning more than 30 years, Zappa wrote rock, jazz, orchestral and musique concrète works. He also directed feature-length films and music videos, and designed...
.
Czukay co-founded Can
Can (band)
Can was an experimental rock band formed in Cologne, West Germany in 1968. Later labeled as one of the first "krautrock" groups, they transcended mainstream influences and incorporated strong minimalist and world music elements into their often psychedelic music.Can constructed their music largely...
in 1968. He played bass guitar
Bass guitar
The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
and performed most of the recording and engineering for the group. Rosko Gee
Rosko Gee
Rosko Gee is a Jamaican bassist who has played with the English band Traffic on their albums When the Eagle Flies and The Last Great Traffic Jam , with the supergroup Go conceived by Stomu Yamashta, which also included Steve Winwood, Al Di Meola, Klaus Schulze and Michael Shrieve, and with the...
, former bassist of the British band Traffic
Traffic (band)
Traffic were an English rock band whose members came from the West Midlands. The group formed in April 1967 by Steve Winwood, Jim Capaldi, Chris Wood and Dave Mason...
joined the band in 1977, with Czukay handling only tapes and sound effects on Saw Delight
Saw Delight
Saw Delight is the ninth Can studio album, and features two new band members who were ex-members of the band Traffic, with Can's bassist Holger Czukay giving up the bass in favour of experimental effects....
, 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
Shortwave
Shortwave radio refers to the upper MF and all of the HF portion of the radio spectrum, between 1,800–30,000 kHz. Shortwave radio received its name because the wavelengths in this band are shorter than 200 m which marked the original upper limit of the medium frequency band first used...
radio sounds and his early pioneering of sampling
Sampling (music)
In music, sampling is the act of taking a portion, or sample, of one sound recording and reusing it as an instrument or a different sound recording of a song or piece. Sampling was originally developed by experimental musicians working with musique concrète and electroacoustic music, who physically...
, in those days involving the painstaking cutting and splicing of magnetic tape
Magnetic tape
Magnetic tape is a medium for magnetic recording, made of a thin magnetizable coating on a long, narrow strip of plastic. It was developed in Germany, based on magnetic wire recording. Devices that record and play back audio and video using magnetic tape are tape recorders and video tape recorders...
s. 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 has collaborated with a considerable number of musicians, notably a series of albums with Jah Wobble
Jah Wobble
Jah Wobble is an English bass guitarist, singer, poet and composer. He became known to a wider audience as the original bass player in Public Image Ltd in the late 1970s and early 1980s, but left the band after two albums...
and David Sylvian
David Sylvian
David Sylvian is an English singer-songwriter and musician who came to prominence in the late 1970s as the lead vocalist and main songwriter in the group Japan...
, 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
Brian Eno
Brian Peter George St. John le Baptiste de la Salle Eno , commonly known as Brian Eno or simply as Eno , is an English musician, composer, record producer, singer and visual artist, known as one of the principal innovators of ambient music.Eno studied at Colchester Institute art school in Essex,...
, Eurythmics
Eurythmics
Eurythmics were a British pop rock duo, formed in 1980, currently disbanded, but known to reunite from time to time. Consisting of members Annie Lennox and David A...
, and German Neue Deutsche Welle
Neue Deutsche Welle
Neue Deutsche Welle is a genre of German music originally derived from punk rock and New Wave music...
band Trio
Trio (band)
Trio was a German band. It formed in the small German town of Großenkneten in 1980. The band is most noted for the song "Da da da, ich lieb dich nicht du liebst mich nicht aha aha aha" which was a hit in 30 countries worldwide. Trio was a product of the Neue Deutsche Welle...
.
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 has caused changes to Czukay's plans for his back catalogue, so that the original albums The East Is Red, Rome Remains Rome and Moving Pictures will not be reissued (in the case of Moving Pictures because the master tapes have degraded beyond repair). Instead, most of the tracks are being remade and newly organized as limited edition vinyl releases.
Discography
Solo:- Canaxis 5 (1969, remastered and expanded 2006)
- Movies (1979, remastered and expanded 2007)
- Biomutanten / Menetekel (as Les Vampyrettes with Conny PlankConny PlankKonrad "Conny" Plank was a German record producer and musician. He was born in Hütschenhausen. His creativity as a sound engineer and producer helped to shape some of the most important and innovative recordings of postwar European popular music, covering a wide range of genres including...
) (1981) - On the Way to the Peak of Normal (1981)
- Full Circle (1982) collaboration with Jah WobbleJah WobbleJah Wobble is an English bass guitarist, singer, poet and composer. He became known to a wider audience as the original bass player in Public Image Ltd in the late 1970s and early 1980s, but left the band after two albums...
and Jaki LiebezeitJaki LiebezeitJaki Liebezeit is a drummer probably best known as a founding member of Can who has been called "one of the few drummers to convincingly meld the funky and the cerebral"....
(re-issue of a UK-only EP, expanded with two additional tracks) - Snake Charmer (1983) EP, collaboration with Jah Wobble, The EdgeThe EdgeDavid Howell Evans , more widely known by his stage name The Edge , is a musician best known as the guitarist, backing vocalist, and keyboardist of the Irish rock band U2. A member of the group since its inception, he has recorded 12 studio albums with the band and has released one solo record...
, and Ben MandelsonBen MandelsonBen Mandelson is an English world musician, and also manager and producer.-Punk and New Wave years:... - Der Osten ist Rot (1984)
- Rome Remains Rome (1987)
- Plight and PremonitionPlight and PremonitionPlight & Premonition is the first of two collaborations between David Sylvian and Holger Czukay, Flux and Mutability being their second. It was released in March 1988. The music is ambient, makes use of 'found sounds'...
(1988) collaboration with David SylvianDavid SylvianDavid Sylvian is an English singer-songwriter and musician who came to prominence in the late 1970s as the lead vocalist and main songwriter in the group Japan...
. A re-issue, featuring separate remixes of the album by both Czukay and Sylvian, was planned but has yet to be released - Flux and MutabilityFlux and MutabilityFlux and Mutability is the second collaboration between David Sylvian and Holger Czukay. It was released in September 1989...
(1989) collaboration with David Sylvian - Radio Wave Surfer (1991, remastered and expanded 2006) Live recordings made in 1984, 1986 & 1987
- Moving Pictures (1993)
- Clash (1998, remastered and expanded 2007) collaboration with Dr. Walker
- Good Morning Story (1999, remastered and expanded 2006)
- La Luna (2000, remastered and expanded 2007)
- Linear City (2001, remastered and remixed 2006) Audio collaborations with Susanne Drescher, Per Odderskove, Ray Darr, Darren B. Dunn, Marc Uzan, Ola Norlander, Haki, U-She, Drew Kalapach, Michael Letourneau, Alan Evil from IFPR, Luca Kormentini, Andrew Paine (Boomboy), The Weeds of Eden, Michael Banabila, Dreamfluid, Beatsystem, Noiseman433, Dane Johnson, James Webb, Panoptic, 1605 Munro, Tom Hamlyn
- The New Millennium (2003) with U-She
- Time and Tide (2001, remastered 2007) with U-She
- 21st Century (2007) with Ursa Major, Drew Kalapach voice, electronics
- Ode to Perfume/Fragrance (2009) 10 inch single, limited edition of 500
- Good Morning Story (2010) Double LP with three additional tracks, limited edition of 500
- Way to LA (2010) 10 inch single collaboration with Bison and Ursa Major
- Let's Get Hot/Let's Get Cool (2010) 12 inch single, limited edition of 500 red vinyl and 500 blue vinyl
- Persian Love (Remix)/My Persian Love (2010) 12 inch single, gold vinyl, limited edition of 1001
- Dream Again (2010) 10 inch double EP of remixes from The East Is Red and Rome Remains Rome, clear vinyl, limited edition of 666
- Hit Hit Flop Flop (Remix)/Hey Baba Reebop (2011) 7 inch single, limited edition of 444
With Can: