Achim Reichel has been in the music business for six decades. In his autobiography "Ich hab das Paradies gesehen" the unrecognized superstar now tells of his eventful life between beat, psychedelic dream journeys and poetry set to music.
May 15, 2020 will go down in the long history of Pretty Things as a sad day: That Friday Phil May, who had been the singer and founding member of the band since 1963, passed away. Posthumously, "Bare As Bone, Bright As Blood" has now been released, a purely acoustic album of the Pretties. Guitarist Dick Taylor knows a lot about it.
eclipsed: Dick, do you see "Bare As Bone, Bright As Blood" as Phil's legacy?
Pete Way, founding member of UFO and influential bassist, unfortunately had other weaknesses besides music. In less than a year and a half, UFO's rockurge rocks recorded no less than three bereavements: On April 13, 2019, multi-instrumentalist Paul Raymond died of a heart attack during a tour break at the age of 73. Guitarist Paul Chapman passed away on June 9th of this year, his 66th birthday, and on August 14th, just one week after his birthday, UFO co-founder Peter Frederick Way died at the age of 69 from the late effects of a serious accident.
The English progressive rockers, active since 1985, have made good use of the time of deceleration due to Corona: With a fat 3-CD version of their album classic "Following Ghosts" (1998), the brand-new release "When The Battle Is Over" by the side project Galahad Electric Company and the current solo CD of their guitarist Lee Abraham, entitled "Harmony/Synchronicity", the British are mobilising against loneliness in times of social distancing.
Collins is the prime example of a cosmopolitan: Born in London, Phil Collins' oldest scion grew up in Vancouver and Switzerland, and with his label he then moved into offices in New York and London. For some time now, however, he has settled in Ireland. He calls the Emerald Isle "his home" in a chest-tone of conviction. But one can guess what "journey" the 44-year-old has literally completed.
The music sounds gloomy, the singing like a cry for help. But basically the songs of the Icelanders are very positive, they are about how crises can be overcome. Anyway, a conversation with frontman Aðalbjörn "Addi" Tryggvason is a pleasant encounter with an optimistic person. And this although Covid-19 completely threw his band's creative schedule overboard. "Normally we follow the rhythm 'writing songs, recording, releasing, touring and promoting the album'. This time things were different. At first it took us longer than usual.
In April, the four English Struts, who now all live in Los Angeles because the not unironic glam rockers are better received in the USA than at home, took up residence in the home studio of producer Jon Levine in order to record the third album "Strange Days" in ten days and under strict adherence to regular pool and beer breaks. We talked with bassist Jed Elliott.
eclipsed: Jed, for your new album to be called "Strange Days" and to be recorded in the first weeks of the Corona pandemic, it's really cheerful.
"Air" from 2009 was his last album release so far. After that it became quiet around the harpist, who - quite unusual for this instrument - even entered the US charts in the eighties. The Swiss nature lover with the angel hair never really could be classified. If you put him in the New Age range in the States, his incredibly positive, almost exclusively instrumental music always seemed too versatile and demanding for such a categorization and rather covers a range between world music, pop, jazz and neo-classic.
In the late 60s, Sandstorm Retreat was one of Los Angeles' best kept secrets: a swingers club for the rich and famous - well hidden in the mountainous hinterland of Santa Monica, the so-called Topanga Canyon. Today, the property where "partner-swapping for the liberation of society" was once practiced is the home of Hello Forever, an artists' collective that celebrates the late sixties less with free love than with an authentic psychedelic sound. "Of course we are a band, but first and foremost we are a collective," says community spokesman Samuel Joseph.
