For anyone in the Network to read that could not make it.
Speech by Elke Morsbach at the funeral of Damo Suzuki 2024
I'm glad you came to pay your respects to Damo.
The farewell to Damo is designed according to the will and character of Damo and I am very pleased that I was able to win over Daniel Siemens and Heinrich for a sermon that Damo would approve.
A few days before Damo's death he spoke in a language that I didn't understand, it wasn't Japanese, then he said: Elke, you have to say something too. I tried to say something in English because I thought it was for concertgoers. I couldn't think of much and after a while I finished my speech and Damo said: that was too short, you have to say more, talk.
I had no idea that it might be... would be this situation in which I should talk, because I can't imagine life without Damo. Maybe It will be too long for you, but I don't want to make it too short.
We had many plans. We wanted to spend the end of our lives by the sea, at the end of the world, we had found a place like that. Damo really wanted to live and definitely didn't want to leave me alone, but he didn't compromise. Damo had to reject the doctors' therapy because it was incompatible with his belief in our Creator and his son Jesus. Blood is life energy, blood contains the DNA that God created uniquely for each person. Mixing blood is an abomination to God. It was impossible for Damo to improve his condition through blood transfusions. Absorbing other people's life energy and the information it contains was impossible for Damo and he preferred to die rather than endanger his relationship with our Creator and his son Jesus. For him, eternal life was always the standard for decisions in the here and now.
So I want to tell you a few things.
First, my hat. Damo loved it when I wore hats. How much will be clear in this situation. We were already on our way by taxi to fly to China. Then he said: “You’re not wearing a hat at all.” I explained to him that you don’t take a hat with you on a trip like this. “But you have boxes,” he told the taxi driver to turn around and I took two hats with me in a large hat box, which we could always see on the tarmac as special luggage and which Damo wore as a matter of course in China, even though the Chinese probably found it unusual.
I chose this hat because this is the hat I painted, based on a photo Michelle Heighway took shortly after I bought it in London.
Damo actually wanted to become a comic artist, he only painted portraits for his family and started one for Michelle that he couldn't finish. He mentally said goodbye to music. I only gradually realised how hard that was for him, but he was very disappointed with the musicians during the Corona period. Since Damo couldn't live without creativity, he continued to devote himself to Damo's Kitchen, painting, poetry and intensifying his Bible studies.
There were a few more images that Damo shared in the last few days that were very revealing, but today I want to focus on Damo as a believer and musician. Two sides that initially seem to exclude each other.
Damo recognized that music is created not only by the arrangement of sounds, but also by space, geographical location and audience. They all bring their own frequencies, which Damo was able to translate into a composition thanks to his extraordinary sensitivity and sensitivity. You know his business card says: Metaphysical transporter. He was a live artist. His records and CDs only reflect a fraction of the energy that is in the room during a concert.
Freedom
Damo deliberately did not work with the record industry. All of his records and CDs were originally created by himself and later by the musicians. In doing so, Damo showed young musicians that they don't have to wait for a record deal and be told what to play, how and when. They were able to hold their own work in their hands.
No repeats
God hates repetition, the OT says that God hates the babble of the Gentiles who say the same thing over and over again. Every concert was unique. Different musicians in each case, selected locally. Always different compilations, even if he played in the same city again.
Because everything was improvised, he called it instant composing, every concert was different.
Sometimes, especially at the beginning of a concert, he repeats his elements, but this should not be seen as a classic repetition, rather Damo gave the musicians space to follow his idea and respond to it. Damo never said that any of the musicians played badly or played a wrong note, because he also saw that as an inspiration and a challenge.
It's no surprise that after a concert the audience revealed their version of the text with lights in their eyes - everyone had heard something different.
In this way, Damo composed a song for each audience member. His imaginative language opened the space for inspiration.
In a radio interview, I think it was in Latvia, the presenter asked him whether the concept could go wrong. Damo said yes it can go wrong but it never happened.
But that wasn't the reason for his fantasy language. He said he had no right to put thoughts into other people's heads. No manipulation.
Damo played in this way with more than 7,000 musicians from Australia to China, from Japan to Peru, from Moscow to Berlin and the Himalayas. We were together in Ukraine, Italy, Sweden and Norway. The list is long. There are around 40 countries in which Damo left his artistic mark. Due to the failed operation in 2014, it was clear that Damo would never be able to sing again. His doctor Dr. Lelli offered him a special abdominal operation to solve the problem, but I didn't want any more - putting Damo in danger again just to be able to sing was absurd to me. Then, I think it was 2016, between two major surgeries, Damo accepted a concert. He chose a band he knew well, Jelly Planet, and off we went, with all the IVs and medications. “Can you even sing?” I asked. “I don’t know, we’ll see.” The path to the festival site was marked with upside down crosses. I had never seen anything like it and it was in the middle of the Bavarian Forest. I tried to turn them over, then gave up, there were too many. Damo had actually chosen a hard rock festival, how badly did he want to know. The backstage hut was littered with blasphemous symbols, which I tried to discreetly throw in the trash. The cash register had a cross with Christ turned upside down. I said that Damo wouldn't perform if this cross was hanging here. The young cashier laughed, you must be superstitious, took the cross and put it in the drawer, where it stayed the whole evening. Meanwhile, Damo was sitting on the stage. He was too weak to stand. Then the band started and I heard Damo start to sing slowly and very quietly. People streamed in from the other stages and were spellbound by Damo's voice. After the concert, our merchandising was surrounded and I sold out the CD and LP “Floating elements,” from which we had just heard an excerpt. I pointed out that it wasn't their music, that this or that CD was much more rocky, but they wanted exactly these clear, delicate sounds. It showed me that people who go to concerts like this feel lost and that Damo could move their hearts. From then on, Damo travelled around the world again, albeit with physical limitations and a companion. The trip to the Himalayas was probably the most difficult, but I couldn't hold him back and, despite the hardships, he came back healthier than when he started. “Music heals me,” he explained.
Damo adjusted the fees so that young people could also pay the entrance fees. And here we come to his great correctness. He never owed anything and his word was valid. I was impressed by the lovingly, creatively designed posters. Some were small works of art, we would have liked to exhibit them. A Damo concert was just different.
Damo saw everything as a test from God, so his entire artistic work incorporates everything he needs for life in eternity and I'm sure he doesn't have to wait in the grave for the Last Judgement, but right away has travelled to glory.
Damo and I are sure that we are living in the end times, tested by the prophets and revelation. The return of our Savior Jesus is imminent, so Damo would consider himself lucky if you can also recognize this and follow him in his faith. Our faith has fulfilled, enriched and made our lives lively. Our trust in God's leadership has also strengthened our trust in one another. Try it!
We are not pious, we are not religious, we believe, we believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. That's all you need to return to eternity of joy.
Musician was Damo's profession in which he implemented his values. In everyday life, Damo initially developed the project as a Bible on a tree and later as a Bible on a bench. Every day he sought out passages from the Bible that he found succinct and important.
Warnings and explanations. He then compared the text in different Bible versions, one was always Japanese, then Elberfelder, Schlachter, Menge, but also the Jantzen Bible.
He warned people about the feel-good gospel. During the Corona period he was not only disappointed with the musicians, but also with Bible teachers, because if you study the Bible, if you have faith, then everything is in God's hands, whom you trust.
Warnings because the feel-good gospel cannot save. The tolerance that it is open to everyone and they can decide is no help. Only when you know everything can you make a decision; he missed this information. He couldn't understand the fear of so-called Christians during the Corona period. Jesus says 365 times in the New Testament that we should not be afraid. Those who believe have no fear and with the mask the mask falls. Damo was never afraid that a concert would go wrong or that he would die. Damo only ever worried about me.
When it came to quotations from the Bible, he chose the version that people could understand most easily. He put them in brochure sleeves and taped to the edges.
He started with one sheet, he took two with him when I accompanied him and lately there were different places and soon 20, which he placed on the benches and weighed down with a stone. His backpack was still full of stones and Bible quotes. Damo was careful not to be seen because he did not want to distract from the Word of God. Our park is huge, very huge and there are lots of benches. Sometimes I discovered that the leaves were torn, burned or left in the trash and I was annoyed, but Damo said that these people made their own judgement. That was Damo's contribution to evangelism. At home he was always very busy and didn't feel like talking about everyday things like shopping, but when I had a question about the Bible he would immediately stop and his eyes would light up.
It seems that God and Jesus didn't answer our prayers, we had a prayer group later, and I couldn't understand that. But God's paths are winding and can only be understood at the end, so I trust that there is meaning here too, because I know that God knows Damo's faithfulness. But we were told twice in the clinic that Damo was dying, but each time I was able to take him home. The emergency doctor who certified his death said that for her it was a miracle that Damo had lived so long, for me it was far too short, I had asked God for more time, I was able to see that Damo's energy only left on the 3rd day. He died at home and was laid in state for almost 4 days. This is the grace to release yourself in peace. He is buried in a place under a pine tree, Suzuki means tree or forest, a place here in Bad Honnef that he knows and where there is no church nearby. Damo avoided churches because God is not concerned with buildings, but with the community made up of believers. For Damo, the symbols, the confessionals, all of these were signs of heresy. In China there was the most beautiful church I've ever seen on the beach. It was small, made of wood, simple and elegant. Inside, I looked directly out to sea through a huge window and remembered the stories of Peter and Jesus as the storm came. I was excited and asked Damo to look at it, but he said no but gave me the freedom to do all that. This church was built by a Japanese person.
Jesus says: I am the way, the truth and the life. The path is narrow, but it is the only path to freedom.
It was the truth that revealed itself to us. It was a mystery, but the more we studied the Bible, the more veils fell. We recognized lies in history, we recognized the character of people, we discovered lies everywhere, that is liberating, even if it sometimes hurts.
Finally, I would like to briefly mention that Bach was chosen because he wrote his music only to honour God and developed special frequencies to drive away the darkness. Damo only listened to classical music at home and so I thought I would find something .
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrVDATvUitA
I couldn't find a piece and I wrote to Mr. Müller that maybe. someone else would call and help, I didn't believe it myself and then a short time later Dominik von Senger called to cancel his participation today and I mentioned my problem and he said: it's very simple, taking AIR is perfect. I then chose it without checking it because I trusted his selection. I wrote to Mr. Müller, perhaps. And then we mastered it and then Daniel called and said he was checking out the musicians in the community, and then the second piece came. So Bach was right, although Damo liked listening to the Russian composers.
You all know that we are not married, although it is written in the newspapers every now and then and of course that does not fit with what I said about following God's commandments, but that was due to formalities that Damo could not fulfil, but Damo said we are married before God and that matters more. Damo and I will see each other again!
