Legendary rock bands often prove to be extremely long-lived. This is also true for the German krautrock-prog-anarchist troupe Grobschnitt. Not only did they resurrect as a trio in 2019 under the name Grobschnitt Acoustic Party after their second breakup in 2012 - now they're also celebrating a whopping five decades of band history with a big exhibition in their hometown of Hagen and three birthday videos on their homepage.
On New Year's Eve 2020, French electronic pioneer Jean-Michel Jarre performed as an avatar in a virtual version of the world-famous Notre-Dame de Paris Cathedral - a VR experience that set the stage for a concert broadcast live from a studio. 75 million viewers watched the live broadcast of the multimedia event, which was unprecedented in this form. With the album "Live In Notre-Dame VR - Welcome To The Other Side", the spectacle can now be relived purely acoustically on CD or visually on Blu-ray
On the album "Hungarian Pictures" (2019) music producer Leslie Mandoki realized the original ideas of the two ex-Soulmates Jon Lord (Deep Purple) and Greg Lake (ELP) to create an ambitious fusion of Prog and Jazz after the classical example of the Hungarian Béla Bartók (instead of the Russian Modest Mussorgski - we remember ELP's "Pictures At An Exhibition" from 1971).
It's no wonder that the Abacus of 2021 sound musically different from those of the early 70s, when the band from Hamm in North Rhine-Westphalia gained a certain degree of popularity in the German rock scene. While the sound was once dominated by Kraut, Folk, Jazz and Rock, now the more opulent sounds in the style of Magnum and Kansas prevail. Responsible for this change in style is keyboardist Jürgen Wimpelberg, who joined the group in 1979. Even then, only bassist Klaus Kohlhase was still on board as the only founding member, who then struck sail at the beginning of the 80s.
With their vital post-punk, the Parquet Courts from Brooklyn are placeholders for that unmistakable New York sound associated with bands like The Velvet Underground, the Modern Lovers, Television, Talking Heads or Sonic Youth. Their new album "Sympathy For Life" is rebellion and party at the same time. A cheerfully biting commentary on the current situation, the disc at the same time makes you long for the sounds of the past. For the Parquet Courts, however, another influence came to bear on "Sympathy For Life".
The stop of all live concerts last year also affected the guitarist and songwriter of the US band Alter Bridge. Like many of his colleagues, however, he knew how to use it creatively. After "Walk The Sky" was released, a tour was actually scheduled. "But it had to be cancelled because of the pandemic. For a few months we were slowed down. It was a good time to work on a new Tremonti album." So bandmate Eric Friedman flew from the West Coast to join him in Florida to work together on demos for studio album No. 5.
They don't spill the beans here, but rather make a massive splash: The Bremen formation Parzival presents 23 songs on the double CD "David - The Hymn", 130 participants from 23 countries are on board. But who is Parzival anyway, many will rightly ask themselves. The band's career was short-lived, lasting just over two years between the end of 1970 and the beginning of 1973. Two "official" albums called "Legend" and "BaRock" were produced.
Yes, founded in 1968, are one of the longest serving bands in progressive rock, alongside King Crimson and Van der Graaf Generator. It is all the more astonishing that they are not only nostalgically wallowing in old successes, but with "The Quest" after seven years once again have a new work at the start.
At the age of 71, Steve Hackett is busier than ever. While his former Genesis companions Collins, Banks and Rutherford want to present their old songs again on the "The Last Domino?" tour soon, their former guitarist (who was not informed about the tour plans) constantly reinvents himself. So Hackett doesn't play it safe on "Surrender Of Silence" either, although there's definitely a risk in this approach, as he admits good-humoredly in the eclipsed interview.
eclipsed: Can a Steve Hackett actually sit quietly and do nothing?
