“There's no real objection to escapism, in the right places... We all want to escape occasionally. But science fiction is often very far from escapism, in fact you might say that science fiction is escape into reality... It's a fiction which does concern itself with real issues: the origin of man; our future. In fact I can't think of any form of literature which is more concerned with real issues, reality.”
― Arthur C. Clarke
Kenji Suzuki(鈴木健二Suzuki Kenji, born 16 January 1950, in Japan), universally known as Damo Suzuki (ダモ鈴木), is a singer best known for his membership in the German krautrock group Can.
As a teenager, Suzuki spent the late 1960s wandering around Europe, often busking.
When Malcolm Mooney left Can after recording their first album Monster Movie, Holger Czukay and Jaki Liebezeit encountered Suzuki busking in Munich, Germany whilst the two were sitting outside at a street café, they invited him to join the group. And he did, performing with them that evening.
Suzuki was with Can from 1970 to 1973, recording a number of well-regarded albums such as Tago Mago, Future Days and Ege Bamyasi. Suzuki's first vocal performance with Can was "Don't Turn the Light On, Leave Me Alone" from Soundtracks His freeform, often improvised lyrics, sung in no particular languagegelled with Can's rolling, psychedelic sound.
Suzuki converted to the Jehovah's Witness faith when he married his German girlfriend, who was also a Jehovah's Witness, after the release of the album Future Days, and retired from music in 1974.
He returned to music in 1983, and currently leads what is known as Damo Suzuki's Network - as he tours, he performs live improvisational music with various local musicians (so-called "Sound Carriers" ) from around the world, thus building up a 'network' of musicians with whom he collaborates. As far as more recent recorded material is concerned, Damo is featured on Canadian underground hip hop producer Sixtoo's album, Chewing on Glass & Other Miracle Cures (Ninja Tune, 2004).
Among the musicians in his live shows have been Michael Karoli and Jaki Liebezeit of Can, Mani Neumeier of Guru Guru, Dustin Donaldson of I Am Spoonbender, Cul De Sac, Passierzettel, The Early Years, The Bees, Do Make Say Think, Broken Social Scene, Airiel, Acid Mothers Temple, The Holy Soul, Steve Dinsdale, The Sandells, Tay Zonday, the Omar Rodriguez-Lopez Quintet (with whom he has recorded the 2007 EP Please Heat This Eventually), The Skull Defekts, AIDS Wolf, Radio Massacre International, Edmondo Ammendola and Dave Williams of Augie March, Gordon J Watson & Simon Doling of Terminal Cheesecake, Jonny Williams, Stephen McBean from Black Mountain, Helena Espvall of Espers, The Prestidigitators, Gary Jeff of God, Calamalka, Karl Asa of J>A>W>, Hamish Black, tynder, Neočekivana Sila Koja Se Iznenada Pojavljuje i Rešava Stvar, The Dream Machine All-Stars, AK/DK, Ann Shenton of Add N to (X) and many, many others.
Suzuki has been recognised by name by at least two different bands. The Fall's 1985 album This Nation's Saving Grace features a song "I Am Damo Suzuki," inspired by and dedicated to the singer. The rock band 'The Mooney Suzuki' takes its name from Damo Suzuki and Can's earlier vocalist Malcolm Mooney. - -
Damo Suzuki is present on the following albums:
Can Soundtracks 1970
Can Tago Mago 1971
Can Ege Bamyasi 1972
Can Future Days 1973
Can Unlimited Edition 1976 (compilation)
Dunkelziffer In The Night 1984
Dunkelziffer III 1986
Dunkelziffer Live 1985 1997
Damo Suzuki's Network Tokyo On Air West 30.04.97 1997
Damo Suzuki's Network Tokyo On Air West 02.05.97 1997
Damo Suzuki's Network Osaka Muse Hall 04.05.97 1997
Damo Suzuki Band V.E.R.N.I.S.S.A.G.E. 1998
Damo Suzuki Band P.R.O.M.I.S.E. (7CD Box) 1998
Damo Suzuki's Network Seattle 1999
Damo Suzuki's Network Odyssey 2000
Damo Suzuki's Network JPN ULTD Vol.1 2000
Damo Suzuki's Network Metaphysical Transfer 2001
Damo Suzuki's Network JPN ULTD Vol.2 2002
Cul De Sac / Damo Suzuki Abhayamudra 2004
Sixtoo - Chewing on Glass & Other Miracle Cures 2004
Damo Suzuki's Network Hollyaris 2005 (2CD)
Damo Suzuki's Network 3 Dead People After The Performance 2005
Damo Suzuki and Now The London Evening News 2006 (CD)
Damo Suzuki's network Tutti i colori del silenzio 2006 (CD)
Omar Rodriguez-Lopez & Damo Suzuki Please Heat This Eventually 2007
Audioscope Music For A Good Home 2010 (CD)
Damo Suzuki & The Holy Soul Dead Man Has No 2nd Chance 2010 (CD)
Damo Suzuki & Cuzo Puedo Ver Tu Mente 2011(CD/LP)
Radio Massacre International "Lost in Transit 4: DAMO" 2010 (CD)
The Network
Damo Suzuki’s Network is an assembly of musicians. It’s a collective meeting place where like minded people go. In 1998, I toured as support to the Network in the United States. After three concerts, I was invited to perform with them. Both Damo and Michael Karoli came up to me and said, ” but of course you will play with us from now on.” I felt lonely on stage, so I asked Damo if my friends Tommy and then Dustin could also play with us and he of course said ” Yes, why not.” This process says more about Damo than me.
The goal is simple, for musicians to communicate with each other and with the audience. There are no ego’s involved. Musicians send smoke signals to each other. They respond in kind. Damo selects musicians who have the potential to communicate freely and who are able to respond honestly to each other in the here and now. This also involves a respect for and dynamic communication with the audience. Both Damo and Can refer to this process as Instant Composing. Each concert is a unique event. There are never any rehearsals. Mistakes are moments of opportunity. For the musician, this process is in equal parts exciting and terrifying. I remember those joyous words that introduced the sixties cartoon series Stingray, ” Anything can happen in the next half hour.” For Damo, the half hour may well be two or four hours but the same principle holds true. Anything can happen.
As Damo says, ” I like every concert. When everyone is in the same space and time are very happy. For me it is a really great moment, sometimes, even teardrops start falling because of my happiness. I feel very lucky to be in this moment with such an audience.”
On stage in Seattle, I had a four track tape recorder that I would occasionally use much in the same way that Holger Czukay used dictaphones with Can. I remember a tape snapping and I vigorously pulled it out of the machine, holding it up for inspection. Damo turned round and gleefully told the audience, ” see, no tapes!” Suffice to say, the tapes were not used again. It’s not that the music eschews anything really except the act of premeditation. In the Can book, Damo said, ” I’m not so much interested in anything in particular, that’s why I’m singing about nothing.” His words may not sound exactly like English or German or Japanese or French but I’m convinced that they impart meaning to everyone, regardless of mother tongue. This way of making music, as Damo often says, stems from the stone age. Instead of using thigh bones to beat out a rhythm or smoke signals to pass on messages, we now use drums, guitars or mobile telephones to communicate. Maybe we haven’t evolved as much as we’d like to think we have!
Damo records every show and has released several albums which document the process described in a more coherent way than one can hope to do with words. The Network continues to grow. More musicians are involved in changing permutations. Damo likens the journey to that of a train ride, he says,” I’m not interested to see passed landscape again. I feel like I’m in a train traveling down the track… I’m anxious to get to the next station, and if this stop is not on map, it will be much more fun.”
The journey started many years ago and the train has clearly not reached it’s destination. http://www.damosuzuki.com/
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- DOWNLOAD SOME OF HIS WORK (STUDIO & LIVE )
- Omar Rodriguez Lopez and Damo Suzuki -Please Heat This Eventually (2007) (320kbps)
download here
Jazz Impressions of Japan is a 1964 album by The Dave Brubeck Quartet. It was recorded on June 16–17, 1964 at the legendary CBS 30th Street Studio,
except for "Zen Is When" which was recorded on January 30, 1960. It was
released on August 10, 1964. The album, as the back cover of the
remastered CD confirms, had been long out-of-print until it was reissued
on CD in 2001, then re-released in 2008 and 2009.
In the album booklet, Brubeck talks about the quartet's trip to Japan
and provides poignant and interesting information for each piece of the
album, explaining what inspired a certain piece, for instance. In fact,
the album is a sort of trip diary. This is how Brubeck himself
describes the project: "The tunes in this album are personal impressions
from the Quartet's tour of Japan, Spring 1964. No one in a brief visit
can hope to absorb and comprehend all that is strange to him. Sights and
sounds, exotic in their freshness, arouse the senses to a new
awareness. The music we have prepared tries to convey these minute but
lasting impressions, wherein the poet expects the reader to feel the
scene himself as an experience. The poem suggests the feeling."
"Koto Song" is the only piece from the album that became a Brubeck
standard; he would record it numerous times in the following years.
Track listing
All pieces by Dave Brubeck, except where noted.
"Tokyo Traffic" 5:52
"Rising Sun" 4:42
"Toki's Theme" (From the CBS-TV series "Mr. Broadway") 2:10
