![THE BEATLES - Turn off your mind... 50 Years "Revolver"](https://www.eclipsed.de/sites/default/files/field/image/BeatlesGettyImages-3278896%20web.jpg "THE BEATLES - Turn off your mind... 50 Years "Revolver"")
We know that without the Beatles the topography of popular music would be different. This has a lot to do with the fact that the four Liverpoolers - a quartet as painted for the optimistic and innovative sixties - were in the right place at the right time, namely in London, and were thus able to rise to shining icons of a decade whose achievements have shaped our world to the present day.
The man's in a good mood. He has a good time, owns a farm in the English county of Devon. His wife Kris, his dogs and other "amenities" around him. No wonder that he seems deeply relaxed, laughs just as often as he speaks, does not always hit the core of the questions with his answers. After all, he'll soon be seventy-five. He knows the past very well, and the future does not seem to affect him.
eclipsed: You've just completed a tour of England. How are you now?
The music of only a few rock acts is so predestined for a symphonic realization as that of the Alan Parsons Project. Here rock sounds, electronic components and orchestral music merge to form an art rock jewel. Andrew Powell, who has worked with avant-garde composers such as Karlheinz Stockhausen and György Ligeti, took on the role of arranger and conductor on the albums. His work comes fully to bear in the live implementation. Alan Parsons (67) reports how it came to "Live In Colombia".
Neoprog experienced its heyday in the middle of the eighties. The reference works of the genre, which resumed the melodic prog of the seventies and poured into a new, more modern (with some bands also: more kitschy) form, originate from this time. Some few acts like Pallas or Marillion grabbed Majordeals, the latter even filled the big halls. But this high didn't last long: Only ten years later the MTV stars were Oasis, Spice Girls and Jamiroquai, on the radio they played "Killing Me Softly" by the Fugees and Alanis Morissettes "Ironic".
There is nothing left of the death metal roots and the growl singing that could still be heard on their 1993 debut "Dance Of December Souls". One can compare the evolution of Katatonia with that of her compatriots Opeth. In 2003 they had their commercial breakthrough with "Viva Emptiness". Creative stagnation has always been a foreign word for the band from Stockholm, which is why they don't shy away from experiments like on the last recording "Dethroned & Uncrowned". On the current album "Fall Of Hearts" a warmer sound has surprisingly crept in.
For Latin rock fans, it's a surprise that the original Santana band has reunited for the album entitled "IV". In addition to Carlos Santana, 2016 keyboarder Gregg Rolie, drummer Michael Shrieve and percussionist Mike Carabello as well as guitarist Neal Schon are also in the game. Only drummer José "Chepito" Areas is not included, just like bass player David Brown, who died in 2000 at the age of 50. Instead, "IV" was joined by some interesting younger spitballs, whose elan rubbed off on the older colleagues.
From Minnesota, he moved out into the world at the beginning of the sixties to reshape the music scene to his liking - which he did impressively. He will influence people who are not even born today with his work and his life just as he influenced his contemporaries with it. Bob Dylan celebrates his 75th birthday on May 25th. eclipsed celebrates and summarizes 75 magical moments of an unprecedented career.
At the end of July it's time again: "The mountain calls!" Then the "Burg Herzberg Festival" in Breitenbach in eastern Hesse opens its doors to thousands of old and young hippies. This time under the motto "Back To The Garden", based on a line of text from Joni Mitchell's anthem "Woodstock".
Last year the "Night Of The Prog" festival, idyllically situated in the middle of the Upper Middle Rhine Valley UNESCO World Heritage Site, celebrated its tenth anniversary. But after the festival is before the festival, and so the organizer had his hands full during the last months to present another impressive line-up. After all, there should be something for every friend of progressive music.
![Goldseelchen - BLUES PILLS are much more soulful on "Lady In Gold](https://www.eclipsed.de/sites/default/files/field/image/BluesPills2016a%20web.jpg "Goldseelchen - BLUES PILLS are much more soulful on "Lady In Gold")
On Sunday, 16 April, the Donz village near the Swabian Alb is visited by journalists. The idyllic spot in Lautertal is the home of Nuclear Blast. Since its foundation in 1987, the record company has become a global player in the metal business. In the meantime, however, the label makers have also turned to the less metallic rock sector.
