Michael Karoli

Michael Karoli (29 April 1948 – 17 November 2001) was a German guitarist, violinist, and sound-mixer. He was a founding member of the krautrock band Can.

Biography

Early life

Michael Karoli was born 29 April 1948 in Straubing, Bavaria, to Susanne and . The year of his birth, Hermann "had just been freed after testifying in the Nuremberg Trials" and Pohl trial. Hermann had been a member of the Waffen-SS and fought on the Eastern Front during the WWII. After Herman got shot in his lung, he was moved back to Berlin, where he headed the audit department of the Berlin administrative centre until the end of the war. In 1943, Hermann married Susanne who had worked as a film editor. After the trials, Hermann and his brother Richard established an accounting company based in Essen, and in 1971 ''Der Spiegel'' magazine called Karoli one of the "most influential consultants to West German companies".

Growing up, Michael Karoli learned banjo, violin, cello, and electric guitar. Karoli familiarized himself with a wide range of music from classical and Romani music to swing and blues. While attending board school in St Gallen, Switzerland, he started a band with his school friends playing modern jazz, and by the mid-sixties switched to rock, pop, and soul music emerging from Britain and US.

In 1966, Karoli befriended his guitar teacher Holger Czukay, introducing Czukay to the contemporary rock music of The Beatles, Velvet Underground, and Frank Zappa. They played with rock pianist Tony Ashton and several members of his band, Remo Four, proposing him an idea to form an experimental band, but didn't followed through. When Michael was finishing school, Czukay was fired from the Institut auf dem Rosenberg, as Czukay explained, "for being too … er … intriguing!"

Career

In late Autumn 1967, as Michael began studying for a law degree in Lausanne, Czukay got the letter from his ex-classmate Irmin Schmidt, inviting him to visit Cologne and join his band. Czukay brought Karoli with him and formed Can. According to Schmidt, Karoli "had to fight with his family, doubting his career choice. Schmidt and Holger talked to Hermann Karoli and convinced him that "it was really something serious." Hermann "reluctantly gave in". When Can debuted their first album, ''Monster Movie'', Hermann told the band he liked the song "Father Cannot Yell", and Schmidt said Hermann was "very convinced that they had a marvellous group".

While playing with Can, Karoli mostly performed on guitar and violin, occasionally picking up bağlama, bass, and various non western instruments. After vocalist Damo Suzuki left Can in late 1973, Karoli became the band's main vocalist. In the years following the Can's split, Karoli joined the band for its three reunions, in 1986, 1991, and 1999. Karoli continued working with the ex-members of Can, appearing on albums made by Irmin Schmidt and Holger Czukay.

Soon after the release of Can's 1976 album '' Flow Motion'', Karoli and his girlfriend Shirley set out on a trip to central and east Africa for a couple of weeks, traveling through the Congo, Zaïre, and Kenya". In 1997, Karoli told a journalist: "When you visit a nightclub in Africa where a good highlife band is playing, you feel like a carrot chucked into a boiling soup. You have to move… that influence was inevitable on ''Saw Delight''". Karoli's bandmate, Rosko Gee, confirmed that "Michael's style of playing may have changed after his trip", and thought Michael became a better guitar player, comparing the aftermath of his trip to the revelation that hit George Harrison after his trip to India.

After leaving Can, Karoli invested in property in southern France, buying a former olive oil mill near Nice

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