As bass player and founding member of pioneering Krautrock outfit Can, Holger Czukay had a huge influence on experimental, avant-garde music and was part of a post-war generation looking to create a new German identity through art and culture.

Born in the independent port city of Danzig, he studied under the guidance of composer Karlheinze Stockhausen with fellow Can member Irmin Schmidt before they formed Can in 1968 with guitarist Michael Karoli and drummer Jaki Liebeziet. Their trademark 'Motorik' drum beat, and their mix of psychedelic garage rock riffs, classical music, jazz improvisation, early electronic rhythms and tape-deck samples were honed on classic albums 'Monster Movie', 'Tago Mago', 'Future Days' and 'Ege Bamyasi', and while Czukay was replaced on bass in 1977, he did continue to help produce the band.

He made his first solo album 'Canaxis' in 1969 with producer Rolf Dammers, after sneaking into Stockhausen's studio in Cologne at night and piecing together samples of medieval French minstrel Adam De La Halle, Vietnamese singers and ethnic, world music sounds with strings and tape effects in four hours. A decade later came the more readily available 'Movies', on which Czukay cut together snippets from short-wave radio (a technique he called radio painting) and experimented with different sound effects and sampling methods.

His eccentric humour further came out on albums 'On the Way to the Peak of Normal' in 1981, 'Rome Remains Rome' in 1987 and 'Radio Wave Surfer' in 1991, and he also played on the Eurythmics' debut record and collaborated with Jah Wobble and The Edge on album 'Snake Charmer' in 1983. He also worked with David Sylvian, Brian Eno, Peter Gabriel and Annie Lennox and released his final limited edit album '11 Year Innerspace' in 2015, just two years before his death in 2017 aged 79.

Holger Czukay

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