Canaxis 5

Canaxis 5
Studio album by

Technical Space Composer's Crew
(Holger Czukay & Rolf Dammers)
Released1969 (1969)
Recorded1968 (1968)
StudioStudio für Elektronische Musik,[1]
(Cologne, Germany)
Genre
Length37:54
LabelMusic Factory
ProducerHolger Czukay
Rolf Dammers (co-producer)
Holger Czukay chronology
Canaxis 5
(1969) 		Movies
(1979)

Canaxis 5 (or simply Canaxis) is the only studio album by the Technical Space Composer's Crew, released in 1969 by Music Factory. On later issues, the artist credit was changed to Holger Czukay and Rolf Dammers. The album was remixed for Spoon Records releases and again for the Revisited Rec. release.[6]

Mark Prendergast of Record Collector describes it as "an experimental album of taped sound collages, mixing various field recordings with electronic tones", a direction he noticed Czukay digressed from to be bassist with Can.[2] Music and Musicians wrote that Canaxis 5 is the result of Czukay – a pupil of Stockhausen's – working with found sounds and musique concrète in collaboration with Rolf Dammers, adding that the "tape segments and multiple editing" utilised in the piece were based on the concepts of Pierre Henry and Pierre Schaeffer, who "are credited with its invention in Paris during the late 40s."[4]

Czukay's first album, it was created for the private label Music Factory, and according to the musician, sold well. He said he created the album by taking music from around the world, including Africa, Asia, Australia and Vietnam, using the radio to collect many of the extracts, and then "mixed the completed tape recordings with European music, e.g. choral music using tape loops.[7] Czukay said of the process: "Recordings were monaural and were made in the West German radio station at night when nobody was there. ... I can admit that I took the key without permission and went into Stockhausen's studio after he had left, to work through the night on my music. I really couldn't have done my composing any other way at the time. The basic equipment consisted of three tape recorders that were used to record sounds and tape loops from which two or three layers were built up."[7]

"Boat Woman Song" contains samples from a shortwave radio recording of the traditional love song "Doh Dam Tara", performed by members of the Cham culture, who primarily live in Cambodia and Vietnam. It was inadvertently credited as a completely different ethnic Vietnamese song, "Hò Mái Nhì", when the album was initially released.[8]

  1. ^ "Holger Czukay – Canaxis". Discogs. Retrieved 25 September 2018.
  2. ^ a b c Prendergast, Mark (April–May 1990). "Introspective". Record Collector (128–129). Retrieved 4 July 2023.
  3. ^ Olivetti, Mr (23 March 2018). "Holger Czukay – Cinema". Freq. Retrieved 4 July 2023.
  4. ^ a b "S.I." Music and Musicians International. 37 (15). 1988. Retrieved 4 July 2023. Back in 1968 Holger Czukay , a Stockhausen pupil , did some work with ' found ' sounds or musique concrète in partnership with Rolf Dammers . It resulted in an artefact titled Canaxis 5. This piece , using tape segments and multiple multiple editing , was based on the ideas of Pierre Schaeffer and Pierre Henri (sic) , who are credited with its invention in Paris during the late 40s.
  5. ^ a b c Cite error: The named reference Young was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ Buckley, Peter, ed. (2003). The Rough Guide to Rock (3rd ed.). London: Rough Guides. p. 261. ISBN 978-1-843531-05-0. OCLC 59305933.
  7. ^ a b Beecher, Mike (May 1982). "Holger Czukay". Electronics & Music Maker: 6–9. Retrieved 4 July 2023.
  8. ^ https://rateyourmusic.com/release/album/various-artists/music-of-viet-nam/ [bare URL]