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Obituaries
Japan founder dies
By CMU Editorial | Published on Thursday 6 January 2011
Mick Karn, co-founder of and bass player with seminal new wave outfit Japan, died after losing a battle with cancer on Tuesday, he was 52.
The story goes that Karn started playing bass after the bassoon he played as a child was stolen and his school refused to replace it, buying a bass guitar from a friend for a fiver instead. He formed Japan with brothers David Sylvian and Steve Jansen in south London in 1974, though the first album didn’t come until four years later.
The early releases enjoyed success in Japan – partly aided by their choice of name – though less so here in the UK. But as their sound changed somewhat on album number three, ‘Quiet Life’ in 1979, with their music becoming more electronic, they started to win more acclaim back home. Commercial success began to grow in the early eighties, though the band wasn’t around very long to enjoy the fruits of that success, splitting in 1983. There was, however, a brief reunion in 1989, under the name Rain Tree Crow, which resulted in another album and more critical acclaim.
After Japan, Karn released a solo album, recorded another with Peter Murphy of Bauhaus under the name Dalis Car, and collaborated with various other artists, including Gary Numan, David Torn and a number of Japanese musicians. And in 1999 he formed a supergroup of sorts in the form of NiNa.
In 2004 he returned to his home country of Cyprus where he worked on various music and art projects. He was diagnosed with cancer last June.
