CULTURE / Music

Damo Suzuki forged a path outside of mainstream pop and rock

Damo Suzuki, who passed away at the age of 74 on Feb. 9, was best known as a vocalist for the German “krautrock” pioneers Can. He later launched Damo Suzuki’s Network, a live music project that took him around the world, playing with different musicians every night.

By Ian Martin
Contributing Writer

Feb 17, 2024

Somehow, impossibly, it felt as if Damo Suzuki couldn’t die. Too constantly changing, too fluid and intimately connected as a feature of the alternative music world, too irrevocably wedded to the present — it felt as if obstacles would simply flow through him.

But on Feb. 9, at the age of 74, he finally succumbed to cancer after a 10-year struggle.

Suzuki’s place in music history was set in stone by the 3½ albums he made with German “krautrock” pioneers Can — appearing on many tracks from 1970’s “Soundtracks,” followed by the groundbreaking “Tago Mago” (1971) and “Ege Bamyasi” (1972), and ending in 1973 with the more ambient and equally marvelous “Future Days.” But if Suzuki stood for anything as a musician, it was the opposite of being “set in stone.”