By 1973, Emerson, Lake & Palmer had become established superstars. The three respected musicians had earned their first spurs at a very young age with The Nice, King Crimson and Atomic Rooster. As a band their star had risen three years earlier at the Isle-Of-Wight-Festival. From then on, ELPs, which were preceded by their reputation as the first supergroup, were really hyped, even if they were extremely polarized. While they celebrated some as innovative pioneers, reconciling rock with jazz and classical music, others accused them of megalomania, blown pathos and exuberant bombardment. The debut album with the truly unrepresentative hit "Lucky Man", the records "Trilogy" and "Tarkus" as well as the daring and famous Mussorgski adaptation "Pictures At An Exhibition" were bulky, but all successful. They had increased the fame of the group, which in their own words was more a community of interests than a band.

Guitarist/vocalist Kavus Torabi has played a big part in the success of the new gong record. He is now the bandleader and also feels very comfortable in this role. He is one of the most sought-after guitarists of the English music scene. In 2014 he joined Gong, where he initially replaced Daevid Allen, who had cancer, on tour. But the musician with Persian roots could not have dreamed that he would lead the band soon afterwards. The re-strengthened gong line-up can be heard on "Rejoice! I'm Dead! in impressive form - a work of which Torabi can be justifiably proud.

eclipsed: The past two years have been quite exhausting for Gong and her followers: Daevid Allen passed away in March 2015, and last August band co-founder Gilli Smyth followed. What role did they play in your musical development?

Grinning, Steve Hillage sits on the sofa in the office of his London label Snapper. Today, the guitarist, famous for decades for his radical innovative frenzy, doesn't want to conjure anything new out of his hat. His face is sunbathed in the triumphant satisfaction of the last day of summer, which is nevertheless like the zenith of midsummer. That's how the guitarist feels. In front of him lies a thick black monolith with the inscription "Searching For The Spark". A treasure chest with 22 CDs, many of them unpublished, two books, two small brochures and lots of bonus material.

Whenever and wherever the name Brand X is mentioned, the name Phil Collins comes first. This is not surprising, because the Genesis drummer and later adult popper was the most prominent member of the band, which was at the same time antithesis to all his other activities and fully emphasized his qualities as a drummer. But Collins' time in the formation, which was subject to permanent changes of instrumentation, should be relatively short. He was only on "Unorthodox Behaviour" (1976) and "Moroccan Roll" (1977), the first two of eight records so far, but they were the basis of the sound and reputation of the band.

Mariusz Duda is no longer the same person that he was on Easter Monday 2014 though. How could he? One of his best friends passed away. At 44. Asleep. The sensitive artist dealt with the loss among other things with the ballad "Towards The Blue Horizon", for which his band Riverside recently won a prog award. Last February, Piotr Grudzińskis's death shook the group to its foundations, and in May Duda also lost his father. Excerpts from a very personal conversation.

eclipsed: Mariusz, you've had an extremely difficult time. I find it very courageous that you have already agreed to interviews again.

Tim Smith and his son Kurtis Smith have been working on bass and drums for eleven years, providing the rhythmic basis for frontman Jason Barwick to really let off steam. They manage to do this live at almost every concert, so that Brew novices stagger happily out of the club and are happy to have discovered a contemporary blues rock-soaked band. A band that has created something very lively on the sound basis of Cream, Jimi Hendrix, The Who and Led Zeppelin. Less euphoric is the view of their results in the studio. Apart from a few song pearls, the band only managed to score with "A Million Dead Stars" (2010) over the years. Can the new recording "Shake The Tree" keep up with that...?

Tim Smith: That's no way for you as a musician to approach a new record! You sit down, look at your song ideas, and when it feels really good for a new album, you take a break from the stage and try to capture the songs in the best possible way.

How far can a band take risks? How much of her brand core can she reveal when she reinvents herself? Questions that come to mind when you hear the current record from archives. "The False Foundation is a new beginning that polarizes the archival community. It works like a complete reset. While in recent years the band has focused on extreme contrasts between individual songs on an album, the new CD seems like a single long track without significant ups and downs. The album itself is the song. Archive mastermind Darius Keeler grins from ear to ear.

Also with her twelfth studio album "Fire On The Floor" Beth Hart lives up to her reputation as the high priestess of white blues. The 44-year-old US-American is simply an emotional elemental force, a never extinguishing volcano. She howls, moans and screams as if every song is about her life, which seems to consist solely of pain, unbridled lust and longing. The Hart has a powerful, irresistible voice, in the tradition of a Bessie Smith or Janis Joplin. With this she pulls the listener unprotected and suddenly into her spell. In the conversation, the Californian also takes no account of anything or anyone. Least of all yourself.

eclipsed: The term "home" plays a central role in many of your songs. How do you define your home?