Archives - already in the name of the band hides the everlasting. Now the collective is celebrating a quarter of a century of band history under the motto "25". Almost four hours of archive material in the rearview mirror, the headlights are nevertheless consistently directed forward.

A project like "25" has never existed before from the British Artrock/Trip-Hop-Formation Archive. On four CDs the ensemble around Darius Keeler draws from their own history. But there are so many new songs in the anniversary package that you could have made a complete album out of it. The message is simple: archives are what they were, and archives were what they are.

The Canadian exceptional musician Devin Townsend presents on his new solo album "Empath" a wicked mix of extreme metal, country, ambient/new age, orchestral and choral compositions and jazz, detached from all stylistic constraints. It is nothing less than a tour de force through the career of the 46-year-old synesthete who perceives "Empath" as an iridescent white album.

End of March. After a holiday in India, which Devin Townsend crowned with the first two shows of his acoustic tour in New Delhi and Mumbai, the first gig in Europe is coming up in a few hours. The Canadian is still sitting relaxed in a hotel room in Amsterdam before he will share the stage of the Effenaar in Eindhoven with the scene greats TesseracT, Haken, Leprous, Soen, The Gathering and Wheel at the debut of the "Prognosis Festival".

eclipsed: How was your trip to India?

The rock scene in Turkey is almost unknown in German-speaking countries. Since the late sixties, an independent variety of contemporary music has developed there, whose exotic, even psychedelic charm lies precisely in the mix of tradition and modernity. Bir sevgili uğruna, Sen de benim gibi yanma arkadaş", and later in the chorus: "O yaşlı gözlerine, o yalan sözlerine, Kanma arkadaş" - many sang these lines of text. The hard rocker Ogün Sanlısoy for example - his video has been clicked 1.5 million times on YouTube so far. Likewise Yıldız Tilbe, Turk of Kurdish descent, who has released 15 albums since the 90s and also attracted attention with drastic anti-Semitic remarks (3.7 million clicks). The same goes for Umut Kaya (2.2 million clicks) - they all covered the song "Anma Arkadaş" by Erkin Koray.

With their second work after the death of band founder Daevid Allen, the new Gong have to show their colours. Will the heirs manage to keep the Space Continuum, created in 1967, alive? Together with their frontman and guitarist Kavus Torabi we go on a little philosophical journey around the new trippy album "The Universe Also Collapses". To say it to Timothy Leary: Turn On! Tune In! Drop Out!

Gongs are cult. Already active since 1967 her journey went from Caterbury-Prog to Fusion to Space- and Jazzrock. And the Gong family is big. Tens of formations passed through the musical ether. Even after the death of Daevid Allen in 2015, a young incarnation floats through the room, because the soul of the band empowered Kavus Torabi to continue his vision of Gong in a last e-mail.

eclipsed: What's the deal with the album title "The Universe Also Collapses"?

A big hit for rough-cut fans: Original guitarist Lupo returns to German stages together with singer Willi Wildschwein and his son Nuki! For the first time, rough-cut classics will be heard in a purely acoustic version. After the "Last Party" tour in 1989, Lupo announced the end of Grobschnitt: "We disappear into the universe, but sometimes the universe releases something again." Now, rough-cut particles in non-electrified form.

Jordan Rudess also leads a life away from Dream Theater. The keyboard player is a real workhorse. When he's not in the Prog Metal pioneers' class, he tinkers with his own material and records it. If necessary also parallel to his obligations with the band. Now Rudess has released his 14th studio album "Wired For Madness", with which he again enters unknown territory.

Whitesnakes studio album number 13 will be released on May 10th. Originally it was announced for 2017/18. Problems with the studio as well as illnesses and OPs of David Coverdale led to the delay. But the waiting was worth it: "Flesh & Blood" should be an absolute listening pleasure for sworn fans of the band.

With the new album "Road Back To Ruin" Pristine's musical diversity has returned. After the somewhat too cool album "Ninja" (2017), recorded in just one day, the Norwegian retroro rockers continue here mainly as we had learned to appreciate them on "Reboot" (2016): with that warm-hearted, sweaty blues-soaked hard rock that makes Heidi Solheim and her boys one of the model bands of the genre.

There is something absurd about it when I arrange to meet Heidi Solheim for a "serious" interview for 30 minutes in the business room of a hotel in Tromsø, Pristine's hometown in the far north of Norway. What do you ask someone with whom you have spent two days into the late night just for questions that have not already been answered at the counter or dining table? Moreover, the room is also oversized: For both of us there are almost 30 chairs at an extra long table.

eclipsed: We should get as far apart as we can.