June 2016

RETRO? ROCK! - Blues Pills and the New Generation Rock

Rock'n'roll in the conference room. Blues Pills have come this far by now. During the first personal conversation eclipsed with Dorian Sorriaux and Elin Larsson, only a few kilometres away from the current meeting point in a noble hotel in Cologne, things were much less civilized: half-naked and sweaty after a support gig for Orchid, the band welcomed us in the backstage room of the mangy, albeit charming, building 9. That was less than three years ago, and even then it was clear to us that a rough diamond was beginning to sparkle.

Weiterlesen

THE BEACH BOYS - The Cathedral of Pop

Van Dyke Parks, Brian Wilson's co-author of 1966/67, sits in the garden of his house in Pasadena and ponders: "'Pet Sounds' was an album that totally surprised me," ponders the little white-haired man, "because it was completely different from his predecessors who had cultivated this kitschy surf sound. It was plain music by plain boys from the white middle class. But what followed was a revolution. Perhaps even the most ambitious and best American pop music has ever produced. It was the Cathedral of Pop, an imposing building that still stands today and attracts many visitors."

Weiterlesen

ERIC CLAPTON - Closed Society

Originally started to raise money for Eric Clapton's drug clinic in the Caribbean, the "Crossroads Guitar Festival" is now considered an institution where the best guitarists on the planet get together. Now Clapton, who has just released the respectable old work "I Still Do", draws an impressive interim balance of "his" festival with the elaborate three-CD box set "Crossroads Revisited". The idea was born from an embarrassment: Eric Clapton, after all one of the wealthiest rock musicians of the scene, needed money. Not for himself personally, but for a project that was close to his heart.

Weiterlesen

JON ANDERSON & ROINE STOLT - Pure Teaching

When a prog obsessive like Roine Stolt joins forces with a scene icon like Jon Anderson, you can expect great things. Many Yes fans hope that this collaboration will be no less than a worthy album in the tradition of the Prog pioneers. The fact that he was booted out of "his" band may not have completely wound Anderson yet. But he's been looking for ways to keep making yes music. One of these ways brought him together with Flower King boss Roine Stolt. eclipsed talked to both artists about this surprising, but somehow also logical cooperation.

Weiterlesen

FATES WARNING "I'll keep the answers to myself."

Just a few days ago Jim Matheos returned home from Germany to the USA. The "Awaken The Guardian" anniversary show with ex-Fates warning singer John Arch at the "Keep It True" festival was a triumphal procession. Now it's time for the promotion tour of the new album. In conversation, the descendant of Greek immigrants proves once again that he belongs to the introverted representatives of his guild, yet this time the guitarist also reveals unusual facets of his personality.

eclipsed: Jim, first let's share your impressions of the Keep It True gig.

Weiterlesen

BIG BIG TRAIN - Flaming Folklore

Greg Spawton and Andy Poole founded Big Big Train. Since then, they have been meticulously making sure that the band constantly expands their sound through regular reshuffles. On the most recent recording "Folklore" there are proud eight accomplices at work, which gives the whole a sporadic orchestral character. "When I joined the band in 2009," says singer, flutist, guitarist and keyboarder David Longdon (51), "Greg and Andy urged me to get as involved with the sound cosmos as possible That's what he did on "folklore" more than ever.

Weiterlesen

SWANS - Thank you very much, my dear swan!

We don't talk to Michael Gira in an anonymous hotel room or a shabby backstage chamber of a club, but in the living room of guitarist Kristof Hahn, who since 1989 belongs to the illustrious circle of New York "Destructive Apostles" ("Der Tagesspiegel"). Gira looks like a living work of art: a tall, skinny cowboy hat wearer who smokes a chain, slurps black coffee, speaks good German ("as a teenager I worked in a sawmill in Solingen"), his counterpart is strictly fixed and has a lot to tell.

Weiterlesen

THE JIMI HENDRIX EXPERIENCE - London calling

The crucial day is a Friday. More precisely: September 23, 1966. 180 passengers gathered at the departure gate of New York's John F. Kennedy Airport, a few moments later they boarded a Boeing 707. Among the passengers were two young men: 27-year-old Englishman Brian James "Chas" Chandler and 23-year-old American James Marshall Hendrix, who will soon call himself Jimi. For them, Pan Am flight 102 to London is associated with the launch of a mission. They want to change the world of music.

Touchdown at the Thames

Weiterlesen

Dark Monolith - On July 15th Joy Divisions IAN CURTIS would become 60 years old

Hardly any song in rock history is so closely linked to the fate of its creator: Joy Divisions dark "Love Will Tear Us Apart" remains forever surrounded by the knowledge of the suicide of its frontman Ian Curtis at the age of 23. However, his myth not only overlays the narrow work of the British postpunk band, which decided to continue under a different name after Curtis' death on 18 May 1980. He also inspired numerous artists. But who was this man whose desperation became legend?

Weiterlesen

EMERSON, LAKE & PALMER - Welcome back in black

Greg Lake is an outstanding figure in the history of progressive rock: the singer, bassist, guitarist, songwriter and producer from Poole in the South of England joined The Gods in the late 60s, then King Crimson, and finally Keith Emerson and Carl Palmer brought Emerson, Lake & Palmer to life. In his rare interviews he now gives the executor of the ELP inheritance. The 68-year-old tries to explain why the unique sounds of his old band are still relevant. Why the suicide of his creative partner deeply shocked him.

Weiterlesen