Canaxis

Holger Czukay (1938-2017), a founding member of the German band Can, studied music under Karlheinz Stockhausen from 1963 to 1966. Initially, Czukay had little interest in rock music but changed his mind after he heard the Beatles' I Am the Walrus, which opened his mind and ears to music by rock experimentalists such as The Velvet Underground and Frank Zappa. 

Czukay was notable for producing early recordings of ambient music, for having explored "world music" long before the term was coined, and for being a pioneer of sampling.  

In 1969, he released the album Canaxis with Rolf Dammers as a side project from Can. The album is sometimes credited to the "Technical Space Composer's Crew." Side A, Boat-Woman-Song, consisted entirely of highly manipulated samples of music from around the world looped through a tape recorder. The album preceded Brian Eno's ambient experiments by at least a decade and stands as a singular, visionary statement of musical possibilities.

Listening to this album 51 years after it was released (52 years after it was recorded), I hear similarities not only to Eno, but also Jon Hassell, William Basinski, and Swans.

Here's Side B, titled Canaxis.