Joe Jackson always surprises the interviewer anew, answers some questions as succinctly as possible or not at all, others in epic breadth. But the Englishman's career from the late seventies to the present day has also been so exciting. If you thought he was firmly on a certain musical steamer, he had long since hired somewhere else again and set off in a new direction.
![MOGWAI - "I don't want to play in a jam band"](https://www.eclipsed.de/sites/default/files/field/image/mogwai.jpg "MOGWAI - "I don't want to play in a jam band"")
In 1995 Stuart Braithwaite and Dominic Aitchison founded the band Mogwai in Glasgow. Named after a Japanese demon, the Scots have so far inspired their audience on eight studio albums with a partly brute, partly melancholic wide-screen sound. For the 20th anniversary "Central Belters" will be released, a compilation of classics and rarities curated by the group itself on six LPs and three CDs. So it's a fitting occasion to talk to keyboarder and soundtracker Barry Burns about two decades of band history.
eclipsed: What was the birth of Mogwai like?
No risk, no fun. If Michael Sadler is to be believed, he and his band colleagues have not only followed this motto for 40 years in the music business - and not badly. Exactly 20 years ago was exactly such a moment. After the critically viewed album "Steel Umbrellas" it would have been easy for the Canadians to play it safe and record a more proggig CD with the classic Saga trademarks. But they went "all in". The choice fell on a concept album. "Generation 13" was the name of the almost 70-minute opus - no easy fare.
We meet Jean-Michel Jarre, 67, at a luxury Berlin hostel to talk about his latest project, "Electronica 1 + 2". The Frenchman has invited 30 well-known musicians to record two concept albums with him - the DNA of electronic music, so to speak. The first part will be published in October, the second in April.
eclipsed: In the "Electronica" project, you tell the story of electronic music and its legacy from your perspective on two albums. How much time did you put into this project?
The English Spectre means in German "Schemen", "Phantom" or "Geist". In bond movies like "fireball," it was short for a criminal organization. The new bond that the whole world is waiting for even bears the title "Spectre". What could be a better promotion for the five bad guys of the Swiss formation Men From S.P.E.C.T.R.E.? She doesn't need them at all, her sound is hot and authentic enough to take over the world even without a Walther PPK in the touch. It is characterized by a full-fat sixties organ, psychedelic guitar distortions and driving rhythms.
"The idea for Avatarium was actually born out of a beer mood," laughs Marcus Jidell (ex-Evergrey, ex-Royal Hunt), guitarist of the Stockholm band. "At a party Leif [Edling; Candlemass] and Mikael Åkerfeldt [Opeth] wanted to start a Doom project. But since Mikael had a lot to do with his band, it didn't work out at first. Leif then wrote some songs relatively quickly and I helped him to record the numbers - I think they were 'Moonhorse', 'Lady In The Lamp' and 'Boneflower'. Suddenly we noticed that the whole thing sounded quite promising and decided to continue in this direction.
AVATARIUM - Girl With The Raven Mask (4:10)
Album: The Girl With The Raven Mask (2015)
Label/Distribution: Nuclear Blast/Warner
