Live in Paris 1973 | ||||
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Live album by | ||||
Released | February 23, 2024 | |||
Recorded | 12 May 1973 | |||
Venue | L'Olympia, Paris, France | |||
Genre | Krautrock | |||
Length | 91:14 | |||
Label | Spoon | |||
Can chronology | ||||
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Live in Paris 1973 is a live double-album by German krautrock band Can, recorded at a performance of the band at L'Olympia in Paris, France. It was released on vinyl and CD by Spoon Records on 23 February 2024, [1] two weeks after the death of Can member Damo Suzuki on 9 February 2024. [2]
Live in Paris 1973 is the fourth live album in a series prepared by Can founding member Irmin Schmidt and producer/engineer René Tinner, and the first official live release to feature vocalist Suzuki. [3] [1] [lower-alpha 1] The live performance features Schmidt, Holger Czukay, Michael Karoli, Jaki Liebezeit and Suzuki. It was one of the last concerts Suzuki performed in with Can. He left the band soon after Future Days was recorded. [3] [2]
The material on Live in Paris 1973 was sourced from tapes archived at Spoon Records, plus concert recordings by British fan, Andrew Hall. [4] [5] Bootleg recordings of this concert of varying quality have circulated for many years, but for this official release the audio quality of the source tapes was restored and enhanced by engineer and producer René Tinner. [5] [6]
The five track titles on the album are numbered in German: “Eins” (“One”), “Zwei” (“Two”), "Drei" (Three"), “Vier” (“Four”) and "Fünf" ("Five"). [5] The music is improvised, with three of the tracks, "Zwei", "Drei" and "Fünf" being improvised extensions of three Can songs, "One More Night", "Spoon" and "Vitamin C" respectively. The songs are from their 1972 album Ege Bamyasi , which had been released three months before the L'Olympia concert. [4] [6]
Review scores | |
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Source | Rating |
AllMusic | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Financial Times | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Mojo | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Record Collector | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
In a review at AllMusic, Paul Simpson wrote that "Live in Paris 1973 is Can at their on-stage best, and easily the band's most essential live release." [4] He called the band's improvisation around "Vitamin C" on "Paris 73 Fünf", "an extended freak-out", while "Paris 73 Zwei"'s reworking of "One More Night" showed their "mastery of killer grooves". [4] Simpson described the album as "a largely unfiltered display of the band's powers when they were at their prime". [4]
Reviewing the album in Mojo magazine, Ian Harrison called Live in Paris 1973 "the most astonishing" of the series of four live archival releases so far. [3] He wrote that Ege Bamyasi had just been released, and "Can were firing creatively and commercially", making this "one of the great[est] formations in Can’s history". [3]
Writing in a review in the Financial Times , Ludovic Hunter-Tilney described Live in Paris 1973 as "a vivid tribute to [Suzuki's] role in one of the best improvisational groups in rock’s history." [7] Hunter-Tilney stated that following the successes of Tago Mago and Ege Bamyasi, Can were "at the height of their powers." He said their long jams in Paris that night were "mesmerising", and Suzuki was often another instrument, "wailing with the guitar or barking chopped-up phrases in time to the rhythms." [7] Hunter-Tilney added that while Suzuki "didn’t like to look back", this album "allows us to do so, with gratitude." [7]
Sylvain Siclier wrote in a review of the album in Le Monde that Can's rendering of "Vitamin C" in "Fünf" is "beautiful" (belles), and added that Suzuki is "wonderful" (merveilleux) here. [6] Janne Oinonen wrote in The Yorkshire Post that Can "excelled in 'regressive rock', with the musicians scaling back every ounce of flab to arrive at a pure essence of groove that unveils a lean, fiercely potent European brand of avant-funk." [9] Oinonen called Live in Paris 1973 "electrifying", adding that despite being 50-year-old recordings, "it's difficult to think of a more timelessly fresh live album being released in 2024." [9]
All tracks composed by Irmin Schmidt, Holger Czukay, Michael Karoli, Jaki Liebezeit and Damo Suzuki.
No. | Title | Length |
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1. | "Paris 73 Eins (Part 1)" |
No. | Title | Length |
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1. | "Paris 73 Eins (Part 2)" |
No. | Title | Length |
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1. | "Paris 73 Zwei" | |
2. | "Paris 73 Drei" |
No. | Title | Length |
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1. | "Paris 73 Vier" | |
2. | "Paris 73 Fünf" |
No. | Title | Length |
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1. | "Paris 73 Eins" | 36:27 |
2. | "Paris 73 Zwei" | 9:20 |
No. | Title | Length |
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1. | "Paris 73 Drei" | 16:35 |
2. | "Paris 73 Vier" | 15:09 |
3. | "Paris 73 Fünf" | 13:46 |
Source: Liner notes [10]
Sound and production
Source: Liner notes [10]
Can were a German experimental rock band formed in Cologne in 1968 by Holger Czukay, Irmin Schmidt (keyboards), Michael Karoli (guitar), and Jaki Liebezeit (drums). They featured several vocalists, including the American Malcolm Mooney (1968–70) and the Japanese Damo Suzuki (1970–73). They have been hailed as pioneers of the German krautrock scene.
Irmin Schmidt is a German keyboardist and composer, best known as a founding member of the band Can.
Michael Karoli was a German guitarist, violinist and composer. He was a founding member of the influential krautrock band Can.
Kenji Suzuki, known as Damo Suzuki (ダモ鈴木), was a Japanese musician best known as the vocalist for the German Krautrock group Can between 1970 and 1973. Born in 1950 in Kobe, Japan, he moved to Europe in the late 1960s where he was spotted busking in Munich, West Germany, by Can bassist Holger Czukay and drummer Jaki Liebezeit. Can had just split with their vocalist Malcolm Mooney, and asked Suzuki to sing over tracks from their 1970 compilation album Soundtracks. Afterwards, he became their full time singer, appearing on the three influential albums Tago Mago (1971), Ege Bamyası (1972) and Future Days (1973).
Monster Movie is the debut studio album by German rock band Can, released in August 1969 by Music Factory and Liberty Records.
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Ege Bamyası is the third studio album by German krautrock band Can, originally released as an LP in 1972 by United Artists. The album contains the single "Spoon", which charted in the Top 10 in Germany owing its use as the theme of German TV thriller mini-series Das Messer. The success of the single allowed Can to move to a better studio in Weilerswist, where they recorded the rest of the album.
Soundtracks is a 1970 compilation album by the German krautrock group Can, containing music written for various films. The album marks the departure of the band's original vocalist Malcolm Mooney, who sings on two tracks, and his replacement by Damo Suzuki. "Don't Turn the Light On, Leave Me Alone" features Suzuki's first recorded performance with the band. Stylistically, the record also documents the group's transition to the more meditative and experimental mode of the studio albums that followed.
Future Days is the fourth studio album by the German experimental rock group Can, released on 1 August 1973 by United Artists. It was the group's final album to feature vocalist Damo Suzuki, who subsequently left the band to become a Jehovah's Witness, and explores a more atmospheric sound than their previous releases.
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