Can

Cologne, 1968

Can began in Cologne in early 1968, when Irmin Schmidt and Holger Czukay, who had both studied with Karlheinz Stockhausen, set up an experimental collective first called Inner Space. Jaki Liebezeit came from free jazz, Michael Karoli was the only member with any rock experience, and David C. Johnson added flute, reeds and tape. The art collector Christoph Vohwinkel invited them to Schloss Nörvenich, where they built a studio. The American sculptor Malcolm Mooney became their singer and suggested the name The Can, and they dropped the article at the end of 1969.

A first album, Prepare to Meet Thy Pnoom, was shelved and only appeared in 1981 as Delay 1968. Monster Movie, recorded at the castle in July 1969, came out that August in a pressing of 500. Mooney made his last recordings with the band in December 1969 and left on a psychiatrist's advice.

Damo Suzuki

In May 1970 Czukay and Liebezeit saw Damo Suzuki, a young Japanese busker, in Munich, and he sang with Can that same night. With him they made Soundtracks (1970) and the double album Tago Mago (1971). Spoon, the theme of the three-part television thriller Das Messer, became their German hit. In February 1972 about 10,000 people came to a free concert at the Kölner Sporthalle, filmed for Peter Przygodda's Can Free Concert, and that April they toured England for the first time. In December 1971 they moved into a former cinema in Weilerswist, near Cologne, which manager Hildegard Schmidt soundproofed with about 1,500 old army mattresses. Irmin Schmidt compared working there to living inside an elephant's stomach.

Their method did not change. Tape ran on two Revox machines, nothing was written in advance, every piece was credited to the whole band, and Czukay cut the results into shape, with Liebezeit vetoing any edit that broke the groove. Ege Bamyasi, the first album made in the new room, came out in November 1972 and included Vitamin C, which became the theme of a Samuel Fuller television film. Future Days followed in 1973, and Suzuki left after a run of German dates that October.

Later seventies

Without a regular singer, Can made Soon Over Babaluma (1974), Landed (1975), their first record for Virgin, and Flow Motion (1976), whose I Want More reached No. 26 in Britain and put them on Top of the Pops. It was their only chart hit outside West Germany. Rosko Gee and Rebop Kwaku Baah, both formerly of Traffic, joined in 1977 for Saw Delight. The band played their last concerts in Portugal in May 1977, Czukay left at the end of that year, and Out of Reach (1978) and Can (1979) closed the decade. Across their career they scored some 21 films, work that gave them financial independence.

Afterlife

Mooney rejoined for Rite Time, recorded in 1986 and released in 1989, and the band reconvened for a Wim Wenders film in 1991. Sacrilege (1997) handed their tracks to remixers including Sonic Youth, Brian Eno and The Orb. Karoli died in 2001, and in 2003 Can received an Echo award for lifetime achievement. When the Weilerswist studio was dismantled in 2007 it was rebuilt at the Rock'n'popmuseum in Gronau, and master tapes found during the work became The Lost Tapes (2012). Liebezeit and Czukay both died in 2017, the year of the compilation The Singles, and Suzuki died in Cologne in 2024. Since 2021 Spoon and Mute have issued a series of restored concert recordings, from Stuttgart 1975 to Arles 1975.

Their influence runs through post-punk, from The Fall and Public Image Ltd to Joy Division, and on to Radiohead, Stereolab, LCD Soundsystem and Sonic Youth. Spoon, The Mooney Suzuki and Moonshake all took their names from the band. Schmidt told the story with Rob Young in All Gates Open (2018).