A legend returns.
Damo Suzuki, former frontman of Kraturock-kings Can, brings his ‘Network’ back to Ramsgate this September. His sound carriers this time? The ludicrously brilliant Lapis Lazuli. This performance is entirely improvised, with Damo lending his idiosyncratic vocals to whatever glorious music the band end up curating.
For a man with an unerring desire to do new things and never repeat past glories, it’s a set-up that fits his artistic vision like a glove. We’re in for a night of utter brilliance.
Damo Suzuki was born in Japan in 1950. As a teenager, he left Asia to travel Europe and was quickly recruited to be the singer of Can, an avant-garde band from Cologne that lived in an abandoned Cinema who, depending on who you speak to, invented post-punk, ambient music, and The Stone Roses. The Fall even wrote a song about him. Damo left Can after 4 albums in 1974 to walk around the world, and since 1983 he has been on a never ending world tour, playing improvisational music with a network of hundreds of musicians worldwide. Suzuki had little experience as a musical performer before joining Can in 1970, but his bold, theatrical style and abstract lyrical sensibility put its stamp on three of the group’s most memorable albums (1971’s Tago Mago, 1972’s Ege Bamyasi, and 1973’s Future Days) before he left the group in 1973.
Lapis Lazuli are one RMH’s favourite bands, and we’re utterly thrilled that they have been selected as sound carriers. They are a multi-genre fusion band from Canterbury combining Funk, Progressive, Psychedelic, Fusion, Rock, Latin, Balkan and Afrobeat styles. It’s sheer genius, frankly.
“Tonight stood as the exhilaratingly potent fusion of the old avant-garde and the new, courtesy of a legend who never stopped looking forward” – The Line of Best Fit
“My favourite thing is whatever I’m doing” – Damo Suzuki
