When bassist Peter Giles responded in June 1968 to an ad in "Melody Maker" in which former Fairport Convention singer Judy Dyble was looking for fellow musicians, he could not have imagined that this would be the birth of one of the most important English rock bands. Giles had recorded the unsuccessful album "The Cheerful Insanity Of Giles, Giles & Fripp" with his brother Michael on drums and guitarist Robert Fripp a few months earlier. At the same time Dyble wrote songs with her friend, the multi-instrumentalist Ian McDonald, and the poet Peter Sinfield, for whose recording they were looking for comrades-in-arms.

Born in 1944 in Todmorden, the Englishman was the only child of a middle-class family. For a decade he was to be the rock keyboardist par excellence. Keith Emerson freed the organist from the corset of the sitting bureaucrat, who stoically pressed chords on a nut-brown box. The "King of Keyboards" took organ playing to a new level of sex, violence and ecstasy. In private rather shy, Emerson on stage turned into an aggressor who shook his Hammond like a stubborn lover, maltreated her with his elbows, stood on her and performed a wild ride. With this fascinating and disturbing performance, the dandy type early became the "Hendrix of keyboard instruments". However, he had not copied his wild stage show from the guitarist of the century, but from Don Shinn, whom he had seen at the Marquee Club in the autumn of 1966: "In the middle of one piece he began to shake his organ and poking around with a screwdriver. I was so impressed, I had a lot of ideas in my head afterwards."

Constant change and experimentation have always been important constants in Haken's career. With their albums "Aquarius" (2010) and "Visions" (2011), the Londoners documented their amazing stylistic diversity at an early stage and developed into a real insider tip in a very short time. Three great gigs at the "Night Of The Prog" did the rest to put the band on the radar of German prog fans again and again. Already on "Visions" the sextet sounded mature and determined, but with "The Mountain" (2013) it delivered its masterpiece. Hook combine the technical aplomb of Dream Theater, characteristics of Yes, Genesis, Camel, King Crimson and Gentle Giant, the toughness of bands like Meshuggah or Textures as well as elements of the soundtracks of John Williams, Hans Zimmer and Howard Shore. All this has brought the group together to create a unique sound and outstanding songs.

When on the night of August 16th 1980 in Castle Donnington in central England a fireworks display after Rainbow's headliner gig ended the first "Monsters Of Rock" festival, a great event concept had passed its baptism of fire. Crowned by the performance of one of the best hardrock live bands in the world. At the same time it was the end of the short Bonnet era. When the ex-Marbels singer ("Only One Woman") joined the band in 1979, he had no experience as a hard rock shouter. With him Blackmore wanted to dare the balancing act of producing not only epic hard rock but also melodic rock with pop appeal in order to get into the charts.

Progressive Rock is certainly first associated with a metropolis like London, but even a dreamy small town like Canterbury could develop into a haven for prog, even though it was a long time ago. But Münster of all places? The name Münster also stands for departure from convention, but the time of the Anabaptists dates back half a millennium. It's hard to believe that a band like Long Distance Calling is making similar waves, but at least the band from Münster is changing the German music scene and a bit of Europe's progressive music scene.

Okta Logue never moved anywhere else. The band's own workspace in Griesheim near Darmstadt in southern Hesse serves reliably as a creative laboratory for a pleasantly modern reading of psychedelic rock. In the office of their Berlin label, singer Benno Herz and guitarist Philip Meloi talk in a good mood about the creation of their third album "Diamonds And Despair".

eclipsed: When you hear your music, you think of waves, surfing, West Coast feeling. Only a few people would bet on a band from Hessen...

Benno Herz: A beautiful association, we definitely like California, sixties surf sound and the lifestyle associated with it - which is admittedly far from our life in Frankfurt or Darmstadt.

eclipsed: You already know America quite well, you were there twice on tour. This is still very unusual for German bands.

He is the man with the baseball cap and the multi-necked guitars: Rick Nielsen founded Cheap Trick in 1973 in Rockford, Illinois. The following year he had his regular formation with Robin Zander, bassist Tom Petersson and drummer Bun E. Carlos. From the beginning the band fascinated with their energetic concerts. Even the makers of the "WDR Rockpalast" couldn't get past the group any more and invited them to one of their legendary rock nights in the Grugahalle in Essen in 1983.

The news comes unexpectedly - and has something of a drumbeat: At the beginning of March Graham Nash announces the end of his friendship with David Crosby and the end of Crosby, Stills & Nash (and sometimes Young). After forty-eight years, fourteen albums and seventy million sold records, the great old men of folk rock have finally quarreled. What Nash, whom eclipsed meets shortly afterwards in Berlin, does not actually want to discuss, but does. His first solo album in fourteen years finally dealt with a further separation. He can hardly avoid the subject.

eclipsed: "This Path Tonight" is about your divorce from Susan Sennett. Since you have written ten pieces about it, it seems to take you quite a bit..