http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2002/10/18/106.html
Friday, Oct. 18, 2002. Page IV
No Rehearsals or Notes for This Musical Anarchist
By Sergey Chernov
Japanese-born musician Damo Suzuki is the closest thing to a living legend the experimental music world has got. Suzuki's fame dates back three decades, to the early 1970s, when he was lead vocalist for Can, the highly influential Krautrock band. Performing Germany's version of progressive rock, Can's influence can be heard in the music of most of the leading alternative acts to come out of Europe and the United State in the last few decades, including Sonic Youth and Pubic Image Limited, or P.I.L., the post-punk band fronted by John Lydon (formerly Johnny Rotten of the Sex Pistols). The members of Can -- in search of a new singer after frontman Malcom Mooney quit the band because of emotional problems -- literally stumbled upon Suzuki on a Munich street one day in 1970. Just over a year in Europe, Suzuki was biding his time as a street poet and musician. Can liked what they saw and heard and asked the 20-year-old immigrant to join the band, of which he remained a part until 1974. Although Suzuki may not be as famous as the musicians for whom he blazed a trail with Krautrock, he is widely revered and respected by fans and peers alike. Mark Smith of the legendary punk band The Fall even wrote a tribute song -- "I Am Damo Suzuki" -- to the singer in 1985. Suzuki quit Can in its heyday in 1974 to join the Jehovah's Witnesses, totally disappearing from the music scene for a full decade, but his absence only added to his fame. In the mid-1980s, Suzuki quit the religious group and resumed his musical career. He has since referred to the decade of his absence as a time when he "almost died," adding that he was lucky to live through it and to find music again. Although Can's music ran the gamut from hard rock riffs to nonlinear improvisation, Suzuki took the experimentation even further when he went solo. In concert today, he performs what he calls "Instant Composing," music that is born on stage, as it is played, without benefit of rehearsal or pre-composed parts. Additionally, Suzuki never keeps a regular backup band. Damo Suzuki's Network is an ever-changing collection of musicians to whom, in accordance with his very unique philosophy of music, Suzuki refers as "sound carriers." When musicians have played a piece before, wrote Suzuki in an e-mail interview this week, "there's security ... which I don't like to have. I like adventure, when you don't know what will come," adding that, for the same reason, he regularly journeys to the Sahara, traveling by foot without compass and with little water or food. "Sound carriers are making sound AT THE MOMENT and never think about theory or systems of music. ... We have freedom when we create sound," he wrote. "I'm an anarchist ... Every sound carrier is free when he plays with me." The very unique nature of Suzuki's instant compositions, which he characterizes as "a kind of stone age music," has helped to earn him a devoted following all over the world -- helpful, since he uses his shows to recruit musicians for Network. "If I tour in the United States, I have sound carriers from Los Angeles or a band from Boston," he wrote. "One day, I'll even go to West Africa and play with domestic sound carriers. ... Network is a project in which sound carriers who like to create music in the moment come together and become friends with the sound we make together." Not surprisingly, Suzuki is opposed to studio work, releasing only live recordings, many of them multi-disc albums. The largest of these was 1998's enormous seven-disc set, "P.R.O.M.I.S.E," which was recorded between 1987 and 1990 at performances in Germany and Austria and contains 35 songs and nearly eight hours of music. At his Moscow show Friday (he plays St. Petersburg on Sunday), Suzuki plays with a Network that includes American Jonathan LaMaster on bass, Kiev-born Boris Polonski on synthesizer and Germans Alex Schnert on guitar and Jens Kchenthal on drums. "Of course, we don't rehearse before a show," Suzuki wrote. "If the audience goes home after our show with smiles on their faces, Network has done a good job. You never know what will happen -- we sure don't know either. That's what makes us interesting." Suzuki's current two-date Russian tour was organized with the help of St. Petersburg folk/rock band Auktsyon, when, at the suggestion of a Moscow fan, Suzuki contacted them with a request for help setting up shows here. But this trip is not Suzuki's first to Russia. When the singer was just 18 years old in 1968, he left his native Japan for Europe, traveling across the Soviet Union to get there. "I came from Japan by ship, then took the Trans-Siberia Railroad," he wrote. "It was the middle of winter, and for me it was crazy cold. You know, I was just 18 years old. ... Everything was very strange for me. Many things were very new to my teenage eyes." Although Suzuki arrives Friday with a multinational Network, he plans to use the weekend to make contacts with local musicians, including the members of Auktsyon, in the hope of arranging future live shows here, possibly as early as next year. "When I come to Russia next, I'd like to perform with Russian sound carriers," he wrote. "My favorite composer is [Sergei] Prokofiev. So, it's very natural to have the idea to play with Russian sound carriers. I'd like to do a trans-Siberian tour." Damo Suzuki's Network performs at 11 p.m. on Friday at Sixteen Tons (Shestnadtsat Tonn), located at 6 Presnensky Val. Metro Ulitsa 1905 Goda. Tel. 253-5300/0530 | ||||
