Comments for Czukay, Holger, Canaxis

The copy of the album I have has a bonus track which was recorded during the radio show in 1960 (!). I would not characterise this album as "ambient" because, according to Eno''s concept of the ambient style, it is the "background" music, the one you hear without listening to. As to Canaxis, it is hardly so, especially "Boat-Woman-Song". I would classify it as avant-garde or (lest to overuse the term), as experimental. A magnificient work based on "found" material, especially if take into account the technical means by which it was created. "Canaxis" itself posesses a forsight of industrial music long before the term was coined.

Recorded in Cologne at the time of Can`s 1968 formation,Canaxis is an experimental work that might today be classifiedas Ambient. It`s somewhat similar in style to other early worksby German artists such as Kraftwerk and Tangerine Dream: spacey, floating music featuring electronics and (in this case) tape edits of among other things Vietnamese women singingtraditional music. The accumulated effect might be describedas something like being taken for a ride around the globe in a UFO.