STEVEN WILSON - The Pop Intermezzo
The horror was great: In the run-up to his fifth solo album Steven Wilson announced that he no longer wanted to be the uncrowned king of prog, but, with almost fifty, to have real pop star ambitions. And indeed, "To The Bone" is the most commercial and radio-friendly work of his career to date. However, this is merely an intermezzo, an interlude, as the multi-talent reveals at the appointment at home in Hemel Hempstead.
FAIRPORT CONVENTION - Ten years of creative resistance
Fairport convention held out. Their reward: they celebrate their 50th anniversary in 2017. In the course of their long career, the folk rock pioneers have not only had great successes but also suffered a few setbacks. But they are still there and musically alive as in their early years. On the occasion of their anniversary, the opulent box "Come All Ye: The First 10 Years" has now been released, documenting the wedding of the group, the years 1967 to 1977.
ELOY - Swords, battles and pyre
Again and again artists were inspired by the figure Jeanne d'Arcs. Frank Bornemann is also fascinated by France's national saint. Eloys Strippenzieher wants to tell the whole truth about the Virgin of Orléans with the two-part work "The Vision, The Sword And The Pyre". eclipsed met with the musician and producer for a revealing history lesson.
THE DREAM SYNDICATE - New Start in Psychedelic Jazz
Who else remembers The Dream Syndicate? Right, the next reunion is coming up. But the US-American band around the charismatic master of provocative understatement, Steve Wynn, has set themselves something special on their new album "How Did I Find Myself Here?
THE TANGENT - Attack on the Ivory Tower
"The world has changed, but not the band" is the almost defiant motto with which The Tangent promote their new tenth studio album "The Slow Rust Of Forgotten Machinery". And because that is the case, the English have also remained true to their prog roots. But the content of the sextet around mastermind Andy Tillison expresses itself politically like never before.
BLIND GUARDIAN - Magic of Fantasy
When perfectionists like Blind Guardian release a new live album, it usually has little to do with a conventional concert recording. From more than sixty recordings the Krefelder have put together "Live Beyond The Spheres". A real tour de force.
ROCKPALAST - 40 Years of Rock Night
The rock nights broadcast from 1977 onwards and the accompanying parties became a cult throughout Europe. Performances by Rory Gallagher, ZZ Top, Mitch Ryder, Peter Gabriel or Grateful Dead are considered legendary. This chapter ended in 1986. The 90s brought the return, but the star shimmered paler and paler. After the change in responsibility from Peter Rüchel to Peter Sommer, the Rockpalast managed to survive as a cult brand in modern times with the self-organized series "Crossroads" and small mobile teams mainly at the summer festivals.
MARILLION - Childhood deluxe
It had been announced for a long time, but at the end of July it finally appeared: a 4CD/DVD box by the British neoprog pioneers Marillion, dedicated to its commercial climax "Misplaced Childhood". The remixed work is enriched with all kinds of studio outtakes, the audio recording of a complete concert and a specially filmed documentary. eclipsed spoke with Fish and Steve Rothery about the album and its special recognition as a deluxe edition.
Rich Robinson wants to step out of his hippie brother's shadow with THE MAGPIE SALUTE
Since 2015, The Black Crowes, the band that guitarist Rich Robinson founded in the mid-1980s as a singer with his brother Chris, two and a half years his senior, and which became one of the most important rock acts in the USA in the 1990s, have been history. While his brother with the band Brotherhood (new album: "Barefoot In The Head"; see reviews in this issue) became a big hit at some Jamrock festivals, especially in the States, Rich got into a bad way with his solo band and solo albums (the last one was "Flux", 2016). But now the 48-year-old is getting reinforcements from the Black Crowes past and is seriously taking off with The Magpie Salute.
Two basses are better than one - TRIGGERFINGER know why
African cult masks plus Belgian suit types are not exactly what one understands by a "natural symbiosis". But why strive for natural symbiosis when you can create your own?! And so on the cover of the new Triggerfinger album you can see a head sculpture inspired by African masks: "Colossus". Artist Victor Robyn formed them from clay, photographed them, then Photoshop came into play.
RITCHIE BLACKMORE ponders over two decades of Blackmore's Night
Ritchie Blackmore (72) is secretly delighted that after two decades he still gets off on his medieval pop band project Blackmore's Night. After all, nobody had expected that the Deep Purple and Rainbow guitarist would turn his back on hard, loud rock music and only return to it part-time in the autumn of his career (more about this in the second part of the interview in the next issue).
