Just a few days ago Jim Matheos returned home from Germany to the USA. The "Awaken The Guardian" anniversary show with ex-Fates warning singer John Arch at the "Keep It True" festival was a triumphal procession. Now it's time for the promotion tour of the new album. In conversation, the descendant of Greek immigrants proves once again that he belongs to the introverted representatives of his guild, yet this time the guitarist also reveals unusual facets of his personality.

eclipsed: Jim, first let's share your impressions of the Keep It True gig.

Jim Matheos: That was a real ox tour for us. We flew out here in the USA on Wednesday evening and arrived in Germany on Thursday afternoon, rehearsed one day, played the show on Saturday and went home again on Sunday. That was pretty exhausted, but the incredibly emotional reactions of the fans were worth it. I could enjoy the show and didn't have to think too much.

Greg Spawton and Andy Poole founded Big Big Train. Since then, they have been meticulously making sure that the band constantly expands their sound through regular reshuffles. On the most recent recording "Folklore" there are proud eight accomplices at work, which gives the whole a sporadic orchestral character. "When I joined the band in 2009," says singer, flutist, guitarist and keyboarder David Longdon (51), "Greg and Andy urged me to get as involved with the sound cosmos as possible That's what he did on "folklore" more than ever. In an interview with eclipsed he is happy that "our band is already another big step forward in their creative development".

eclipsed: You called your new album "Folklore", but there are too many folkloristic elements you can't hear. Why this title?

We don't talk to Michael Gira in an anonymous hotel room or a shabby backstage chamber of a club, but in the living room of guitarist Kristof Hahn, who since 1989 belongs to the illustrious circle of New York "Destructive Apostles" ("Der Tagesspiegel"). Gira looks like a living work of art: a tall, skinny cowboy hat wearer who smokes a chain, slurps black coffee, speaks good German ("as a teenager I worked in a sawmill in Solingen"), his counterpart is strictly fixed and has a lot to tell.

eclipsed: Michael, I hear "The Glowing Man" is your last album with the Swans. How do you know it's time for something new?

Michael Gira: Quite simply: When you're with the same five gentlemen 200 days a year - and that in the narrow tour bus and in the rehearsal room - at some point you know every molecule of them, and there are hardly any surprises left. So it's high time to throw in a Molotov cocktail and see what happens next.

The crucial day is a Friday. More precisely: September 23, 1966. 180 passengers gathered at the departure gate of New York's John F. Kennedy Airport, a few moments later they boarded a Boeing 707. Among the passengers were two young men: 27-year-old Englishman Brian James "Chas" Chandler and 23-year-old American James Marshall Hendrix, who will soon call himself Jimi. For them, Pan Am flight 102 to London is associated with the launch of a mission. They want to change the world of music.

Touchdown at the Thames

Hardly any song in rock history is so closely linked to the fate of its creator: Joy Divisions dark "Love Will Tear Us Apart" remains forever surrounded by the knowledge of the suicide of its frontman Ian Curtis at the age of 23. However, his myth not only overlays the narrow work of the British postpunk band, which decided to continue under a different name after Curtis' death on 18 May 1980. He also inspired numerous artists. But who was this man whose desperation became legend?

Greg Lake is an outstanding figure in the history of progressive rock: the singer, bassist, guitarist, songwriter and producer from Poole in the South of England joined The Gods in the late 60s, then King Crimson, and finally Keith Emerson and Carl Palmer brought Emerson, Lake & Palmer to life. In his rare interviews he now gives the executor of the ELP inheritance. The 68-year-old tries to explain why the unique sounds of his old band are still relevant. Why the suicide of his creative partner deeply shocked him. And why ELP, in whatever constellation, are not only history through the death of Emerson.

eclipsed: Are you happy or are you even proud that the complete ELP back catalogue is coming onto the market?

The new Radiohead album is out. It bears the title "A Moon Shaped Pool" and was once again accompanied by an online campaign, which is no longer a big surprise. At first the band's homepage gradually disintegrated until only a white area was visible, at the same time all entries disappeared from the band's social media accounts. Shortly afterwards the words "Burn The Witch" could be read on the page. A day later a mysterious video clip of a song of the same name and the announcement that something would happen next Sunday. Meanwhile it was clear even to the last one that it had to be the release of a new album, the completion of which Radiohead had already talked about on several occasions.

Changes of cast can be both a curse and a blessing. Risk and opportunity. The Dark Suns, founded in 1997, can sing a song about it. The Leipzig band has been one of the most exciting and changeable German progressive acts for years, but has also had to make changes to their constellation of musicians time and again. She has integrated a saxophonist and a trumpeter into her line-up and has installed Dominique Ehlert, who after "Orange" (2011) was initially hired as a tour drummer, permanently on the drum stool.