"Westend", that's the name of the promising debut of Tausend Augen. With their mix of postpunk and krautrock, the trio from Saarland is currently attracting attention. Also with us: Their track "Mana Mana" celebrated its exclusive premiere on the eclipsed website in mid-January. Time to find out a bit more about the band.
eclipsed: First of all: Who is behind the Thousand Eyes?
In 1980, Tangerine Dream became the first West German rock band to perform in the GDR. That it came about was also thanks to East German composer, pianist and singer Reinhard Lakomy. As a result, he was even offered the chance to join the group. This did not happen, but there was a West-East transfer of a Moog synthesizer that had once belonged to Mick Jagger. For East German rock music fans it was a sensation in 1980, for the West German "Spiegel" editors a marginal note: "Tangerine Dream on a GDR trip".
Bon Scott is certainly one of the most individual and style-defining rock singers of the 20th century - even though his time with AC/DC only lasted a little more than half a decade. However, the hard rock shouter had already left his musical mark before joining the now legendary Australian outfit: After the breakup of The Valentines, he became the lead singer of the band Fraternity in 1971. The box set "Seasons Of Change - The Complete Recordings 1970-1974" now makes all their material available on three CDs for the first time.
"Under A Mediterranean Sky" is the now seventh acoustic work of the ex-Genesis guitarist. This time he pours the experiences he and his wife Jo Lehmann-Hackett made on extensive travels through the Mediterranean region, which is characterized by different cultures, into colorful musical images. In Corona-Lockdown times, the album title also awakens the longing for destinations that are unreachable for the time being
Zoom calls are in and in Corona times one of the technical possibilities, so that you at least know what the other person looks like: Pablo van de Poel and his brother Luka, along with fellow Corona member Robin Piso, lounge on a sofa in their studio in Utrecht, Holland, looking a little pale, but the three, between their mid-20s and early 30s, rarely give their answers without a smug grin flitting across their faces. "We take the bizarre Corona circumstances as they are," they say in unison.
The collective around Stuart A. Staples is always good for surprises - be it with cover versions, soundtracks, solo and side projects or bold stylistic lunges. This is also the case on their 13th album "Distractions", on which the Brits try their hand at pieces by Neil Young, the Television Personalities and Dory Previn, but also at French chansons and a concentrated load of Krautrock. Why, why, why - eclipsed asked.
eclipsed: Is "Distractions" what the title implies: a little pastime during the lockdown?
If Ian Anderson established the flute in rock, the same could apply to Volker Kuinke's recorder on Syrinx Call's albums. Their new, now third work goes one step further. More prog than before, less world music and new age. With no less than three musicians from the Eloy camp, including mastermind Frank Bornemann himself, they are also musically prepared for a highly sophisticated work about the evolutionary step of an artificial intelligence towards human empathy.
Two flute solos simultaneously, one from the right, one from the left stereo channel - this is how the 48-minute track "Huchen 55", spread over LP sides 3 and 4, begins on Out Of Focus' third album "Four Letters Monday Afternoon" (1972, released on the Kuckuck label). As I said, 48 minutes and 1972. That's a minute longer and a year earlier than Mike Oldfield's "Tubular Bells"!
Whenever Neal Morse, Mike Portnoy, Roine Stolt and Pete Trewavas get together for Transatlantic, you're quick to use superlatives. This time, however, the prog supergroup has taken it to the extreme once again. Because "The Absolute Universe" is nothing less than the wet dream of every prog fan: a concept album in three different versions
