Malcolm "Desse" Mooney: poem for Damo Suzuki

photo: Gerald Jenkins

From one Can vocalist to another: Malcolm "Desse" Mooney has posted a poem for Damo Suzuki on Can's Instagram:

Days have gone by
CAN this be
A member has to say farewell
But joins other "BROTHERS in the SKY'
NO need to cry,
They have left music so you can understand the bye and bye the journey
where your ears take over
and you start to fly
to hear the overtones the rhythms the decisions made
to create a trance
to dance
and shake your head wondering when the trance would release you and in which world
would you land.
So, Damo, Rest in Power

Malcolm "Desse" Mooney (c) 2024

Damo Suzuki: 1950-2024

Former Can singer Damo Suzuki succumbed to colon cancer yesterday. He was 74. He never trained as a vocalist and made things up on the spot, a master improviser who sounded like nobody else. After leaving Can, he gave up music for a decade, before returing as a performer. He started Damo Suzuki's Network, with himself as the sole constant member, playing for audiences who could appreciate his "without-a-net" approach.

Damo Suzuki: The Aquarium Drunkard interview

photo: Michelle Heighway

Daniel A. Brown had a Skype chat with legendary improviser and former lead singer of Can Damo Suzuki for The Aquarium Drunkard. He always uses local musicians called the “sound carriers" to create new music on the spot:

The main thing is that I don’t like to travel with any responsibilities. So if you always play with a schedule of the same people, you kind of have responsibilities. If you play with different people you don’t have to take on any responsibilities. Which is a really good thing for me because I don’t have so much stress. But if you’re always scheduled with the same people you get stress because you know these people quite well and many problems come. Also, it’s quite dangerous, too, because if you’re always with four or five people in the same band you always, when playing, go in the same direction. That means for creativity, there’s not so much directions.