Though the original members of the Cologne-based band Can were steeped in the musical avant garde, with the keyboard player Irmin Schmidt and the bass player Holger Czukay both students of the experimental composer Karlheinz Stockhausen, they were convinced that “contemporary music” could also contain rock, funk and free jazz.
Damo Suzuki, Can’s vocalist from 1970 until 1973, who has died aged 74, helped stretch their musical ambitions further still with his idiosyncratic and inimitable performances.
