February 2017

NADINE KHOURI - Dark songs, dark moods

15. February 2017

Nadine Khouri was seven years old when her parents fled Lebanon from the civil war. The family left their hometown of Beirut to live in London. At 18, Nadine went to New York to study, but returned to her adopted country to be closer to her family. "As a child, it was my dream to become a cartoonist," says Khouri. It didn't work out. Which is nothing bad, because in England's capital it seems to have found its true purpose: music. That was the end of the '0s. So she recorded a first 5-track EP, "A Song To The City", which was released on July 13, 2010.

1967 - The Magical Mystery Year

15. February 2017

1967 Hippies The Beatles

25. April 1967, Rhöndorf near Bonn, Waldfriedhof: It is the day on which the Federal Republic experiences the largest funeral in its history to date. Former Chancellor Konrad Adenauer, who blessed the temporal at the age of 91, is buried. But it is not only the deserving statesman who is said goodbye, in retrospect his funeral also symbolizes the end of an epoch - that of reconstruction, the economic miracle and a stuffy restorative social climate.

MIKE OLDFIELD - Born in pain: Return To Ommadawn

15. February 2017

Mike Oldfield

Mike Oldfield's reasons for returning to "Ommadawn" lie deeper than at first glance one might think. Even the continuation of his most famous record "Tubular Bells" in 1992 was by no means a purely economic calculation.

WE DID IT OUR WAY! - Interview with Carl Palmer on the legacy of ELP

15. February 2017

ELP Emerson Lake & Palmer

The 66-year-old drummer is still very agile. Carl Palmer wasn't only active with ELP either, but had already drummed with Atomic Rooster and The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown at the end of the sixties. He is currently flying between his own band Carl Palmer's ELP Legacy and Asia. Stuck in a traffic jam, the interview has to be postponed by a few days. Once on the phone, Palmer proves himself to be a British gentleman of the old school: he apologizes with impulsion, is polite and accommodating. And he's alive and kicking, his answers coming out of the gun.

JOHN WETTON - The Smile Has Left Your Eyes

15. February 2017

John Wetton Asia

Geoff Downes' sentences on the death of John Wetton, which do not conceal the difficult character of his friend, clearly show that the rock guild has not only lost a creative musician, but also a man with rough edges, who often did not mince his words. It is no coincidence that one of his solo albums is called "Battle Lines" (1994). When I talked to him about two years ago on the occasion of the last Asia album "Gravitas", he could hardly stop himself from commenting on the performances of the previous guitarist Steve Howe in the last Asia years after the reunion.

BLACK STAR RIDERS - Under heavy fire

15. February 2017

Black Star Riders

When the Black Star Riders emerged from Thin Lizzy in December 2012, skepticism was called for: Would the last Lizzy version - minus drummer Brian Downey and keyboarder Darren Wharton, but with original Lizzy Scott Gorham and songwriter team Damon Johnson/Ricky Warwick - exist as an independent band? "All Hell Breaks Loose" (2013) wiped away all concerns in May 2013. Not denying the band's origin, the riders created a hookline-saturated hard rock album. "The Killer Instinct" (2015) finally made it clear that they weren't a flash in the pan.

WILLE AND THE BANDITS - The Real Life

15. February 2017

Wille And The Bandits

The man is always on the move, but there is no whining, there is whining: Wille Edwards is a rough-and-ready singer à la John Mellencamp, guitarist in best Ry-Cooder manner and mastermind of the trio Wille And The Bandits founded in 2007. "I am an urban hippie despite my beloved wife and equally beloved two-year-old daughter," laughs the 33-year-old. "It's incredible fun for me to stand on a stage somewhere in the world every evening to confront myself with myself for two hours. That's a lot of work. And it is the most beautiful state I know of, packed with emotions, energy, ecstasy.

The gentle shaman - To the death of the "human rhythm machine" JAKI LIEBEZEIT

15. February 2017

Jaki Liebezeit Can

The prophet has no honor in his own country. When on Monday, January 23, the news of the death of Jaki Liebezeits the day before went through the media, many Germans heard this name for the first time. After all, now they've even heard him. The percussionist and drum philosopher Jaki Liebezeit was no less than one of the most influential German musicians of the 20th century.

WOLVESPIRIT have recorded an album full of love with "Blue Eyes

15. February 2017

Wolvespirit

WolveSpirit continue to live their dream of the rock commune. Guitarist Rio and his organ-playing brother Oliver Eberlein still live with their singer, the US-American Debby Craft, in a shared flat near Würzburg - short ways to try out ideas. Founded eight years ago, they first really caught the eye in 2013 with the record "Dreamcather". They captured the rock of the late sixties and early seventies here in an original way. With "Free" two years later, they were able to add another shovel to their repertoire and thus raised expectations for their new album "Blue Eyes".