The Story so far...
1970's- FM radio, Alternative Magazine & 1st US Indie Distributor of Euro Rock
1980's- D.I.Y. LP + Cassette & CD label
1990's- Distribution via the WWW
2010- Eurock.com ~ Multimedia Podcasting, Interviews & Reviews.
Label & Artist Submissions Accepted
for Review...
Webzine
Exclusive Post
Millennium Interviews
w/ Musicians &
Producers
Pioneers of Euro
Electronic
Space,
Progressive, Experimental Music
Past ~ Present ~ Future!
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A Special New Feature!
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Latest New Releases
MP4 Excerpts
Interviews w/ CON, Cluster,
Damo, Mani & More...
Download from:
Eurock.com
or
Apple iTunes
M ikhail
Chekalin
Gallery
Interview
Music
Art
|
Klassik Krautrock
Amon Duul 2
Ash Ra Tempel Live
Paris
Manuel Göttsching
Baumann & Roedelius
in Studio '78
Can
Embryo in Tangiers
Guru Mani
Klaus Dinger
Ralf & Florian - LIVE USA 1975
Bartos & Fleur - LIVE USA 1975
Mythos
Popol Vuh
Conny Viet
Tangerine Dream OHR
Era
Uli Trepte Spacebox
LIVE
CON
Wolfgang Sequenza
Wallenstein
Klaus Schulze
Floh de Cologne
Emtidi
Hoelderlin
Manuel & Rosi
Tangerine Dream Virgin Era
Witthuser & Westrupp
Starry Eyed Girl
Rolf Trostel
Rudiger Lorenz
Din A Testbild
Der Plan
Artistes Français
Lard Free
Urban Sax
Gilbert Artman
Art Zoyd
Univers Zero
Etron Fou Leloublan
Pascal Comelade
Armand Miralles
Eskaton
Annanka et Ivan -
Fondation
Thierry Muller -
Ilitch
Magma
Yochk'o Seffer
Richard Pinhas
Patrick Gauthier
Pulsar
Shub Niggurath
Pataphonie
Andre Baldeck - Decko
Déficit des Années
Antérieures
Didier Bocquet
Dominique Grimaud -
Video Aventures
Monique Alba - Video
Aventures
Patrick Vian - Red
Noise
Wapassou
Zazou et Racaille -
ZNR
Jean Pascal Boffo -
Troll
Surya
Bernard Szazner
Igor Wakhevitch
Xolotl
Robert Frances -
Sirenes Musique
Neuronium & Ashra
Neuronium & Vangelis
Michel Huygen -
Neuronium
Juan Crek & Victor
Nubla - Macromassa
Luis Perez
Carlos Alvarado - Via
Lactea
Decibel
|
|
The Eurock DOC Film
Following the 2016 publication
of the 4th Eurock book The Music of Gilbert Artman
& Urban Sax work began on the next project a Eurock
historical documentary film. With the cooperation of several
artists musically it will cover the wide diversity of
countries, music and history that Eurock has written about
and promoted over the past 49+ years. More Information
COMING Soon!
Eurock DOC
Official Trailer
https://vimeo.com/209545780
All
Region Dual Layer DVD 150 minutes (Not Rated)
Available Now ORDER
@
https://musicmillennium.com/UPC/755497187531
Bryan
Chandler KFJC FM, Eurock Interview 11-29-21
https://vimeo.com/506297646
Eurock - ARCHIVES
A New Collection of
'Artifacts' from the files of Eurock Magazine
(1970-2020)
Starting from Fresno in 1971 on FM radio Archie Patterson
and his DIY media magazine of the same name (beginning in
1973), became the crucial American node for otherwise
obscure continental European "Second Culture" music.
Relocating to Portland in 1976, after a few years spent in
Los Angeles, Calif., he moved back to Portland in 1984.
Archie has been in the vanguard discovering German, French,
East European, et. al. rock, electronic, space and
experimental music ever after. It was Archie who hooked
Tangerine Dream up in Hollywood with Michael Mann to do the
music of his first film "Thief". In 1981, he released and
distributed the "100 Points" recording by the imprisoned
Czech underground band Plastic People of the Universe.
Archie was the one American to get on every European
underground promotional list. "Archives" presents rare
images, letters, and communiqués to help complete the Eurock
portrait of that era that began with his earlier books…
~ Joe Carducci,
"Rock & the Pop Narcotic"
Bryan
Chandler KFJC FM, Eurock Interview 07/23/2020
https://www.podomatic.com/podcasts/eriewax/episodes/2020-07-24T09_40_23-07_00
Available @
https://www.amazon.com/author/archiepatterson
The Music of Gilbert Artman & Urban Sax
(Book)
It took a year after my trip to
Europe took me to France but the fourth Eurock
book is now available. It details what I experienced on my trip. Unlike
the previous books this one focuses primarily on a more
specific topic. "The Music of Gilbert Artman & Urban Sax"
documents the creative journey and music of one of our
generation’s greatest artists and musical innovators Gilbert
Artman.
The book is not intended to be
an academic history, but instead more like a listener's
guide exploring his diversity of artistic ideas and concepts
as well as chronicling the excellence of his work through
its various musical incarnations.
There are Reviews of all his
various music albums, Interviews about his past and future
projects, LOTS of original Urban Sax Photos & Art + actual
Urban Sax Music Scores. In addition, there is a Special
Features section filled with Reviews of the many albums I
was given by old and new French friends during the trip as
well as Interviews featuring LOTS of Photos & Art.
In my mind, this book certainly
offers ample evidence that Gilbert has been the catalyst for
some of the most incredible musical creativity in France, as
well as International contemporary music history.
In a sense this books also
serves as a personal diary chronicling my coming of age and
discovery of music+ my journey through the 45+ years of
creating Eurock and living a miraculous life.
The book comes in a Black &
White Photo Edition & beautiful Special Full Color Photo
Edition. You can order now from the links below...
Available Worldwide @ Amazon
Special Color
Photo Edition
Black & White Photo Edition
NEW
Review The Eurock Guide to URBAN SAX
Known for having founded the first California
radio program dedicated to European rock, Eurock,
in 1971, then a magazine of the same name (Eurock
Magazine, from 1973 to 1993) followed by a label and
distribution company of the same name (Eurock
Distribution). Archie Patterson has just published,
under the aegis of Eurock, a volume entitled
The Music of Gilbert Artman & Urban Sax.
It was conceived from numerous articles,
interviews (including the one published in the last issue of
TRAVERSES) and chronicles published over four
decades translated into English to make them available to an
international audience.
Rare photographs, pictorial works and scores
of URBAN SAX illustrate this copious volume, which
also contains various writings devoted to other French
creative artists (including an interview with Emmanuelle
Parrenin, among others), taking the form of 'A diary of
Archie Patterson's musical discoveries about rock' (in the
VERY broad sense) of Europe.
This volume of Eurock takes the form of a
listener's guide for all who are curious about what the
French experimental scene has spawned in terms of audacious
and legendary musical adventures. Two versions of the book
are available, one in black & white, the other with color
illustrations.
- Stephane Fougère
Reprinted From
Traverses Magazine @
Rythmes-Crioses.org France
45
Years of Eurock
Archie Patterson on Second Culture
45 years
ago, a young deejay named Archie Patterson who launched a radio
show in 1971 on KFIG FM in Fresno, California. Dubbed Eurock, the
weekly program was devoted to psychedelic music coming out
of Europe - Klaus Schulze, Amon Düül II, Can, Tangerine
Dream, Faust, Guru Guru, and more - spun by an enthusiastic
Patterson, who heard in the music a cosmic resonance.
Read an Abridged Transcription of the June 2016
Interview or
Listen
to the Full Audio Interview by Jason Woodbury
Eurock: Music & the Second
Culture Crash (Book)
by
Tony Rettman
The Wire DEC 2015
At the present moment,
it’s hard to believe we’ll ever be at a time again
in history where we could let a culture simmer at a
reasonable pace. Why let the description of a band
steer you into purchasing their actual album when
you can just download and dismiss it in the time it
takes to warm up your lunch? Why bother to sift
through dusty record bins, dig through basements
full of tattered music ephemera or speak with dodgy
used record store clerks in an attempt to connect
the dots organically when you can convince yourself
you learned the entire history of some obscure
regional sect of music within a single laptop
sitting?
When Archie Patterson
founded his fanzine Eurock in central California in
1973, such conveniences did not exist. By combing
the back pages of overseas rock mags for microscopic
adverts of mail-order fix, Patterson pieced together
something of his own musical universe while penning
mouthwatering reviews of progressive rock records
scarcely seen in the US at the time by bands such as
Germany’s Embryo, France’s Heldon, Japan’s Far East
Family Band and Finland’s Wigwam. Over time, in a
pre-punk underground, a small cult came to form
around the 'zine: both by the weirdo’s already hip
to these outlandish sounds and the ones whose
horizons were being broadened with every crudely
mimeographed issue.
In his third
self-published book of archive material, Patterson
and a group of past contributors to Eurock – as well
as musicians the magazine covered during its
existence deliberate on whether the fervor and sense
of discovery of these past days have been altogether
lost in our constantly, collectively downloading
consciousness.
In a chapter entitled
Music, Culture & Context, he recalls the days
where information about obscure albums by everyone
from France’s Magma to California’s Chrome travelled
down almost telepathic roads. Word was passed
along via a sort of underground wavelength that
existed as a fragment of people’s imaginations,
he states.
He also reckons it was in
the in-between time of typing up the fanzines, the
correspondence going back and forth via the mail
system and the records squeaking back and forth
between continents at their own pace where the magic
came in. In the elation, anticipation – and
sometimes frustration - of waiting for these albums
to come from the other side of the world, a mystique
was created.
MORE
INFO
Black & White Photo Edition
MORE
INFO
Special
Color
Photo Edition
Music & the Second Culture
Post Millennium (Book)
Archie Patterson may be a
journalist covering musicians, but he is worthy of the title
of Rock Star in his own right! Great book! Great subject!
Great insight! Let's don't lose this magic! Lisa/
Amazon
Available From Amazon Worldwide
Eurock
in the
Rock & Roll Hall of Fame
Happenstance & Serendipity
Here's the story I'll try to make it
short....
I turn 69 on Sunday, so a few years back
started facing up to the fact that I no longer I hope I
die before I get old. I am now old and don't have
another 25+ years, so now when I go, I hope I die quick.
I have a ton of papers downstairs in
multi-metal cabinets + lots of CDs, some cool LPs (most sold
some time ago)lots of posters, letters, art, photos, etc
in the Eurock Archives.
In 2013, a German guy - Alexander Simmeth -
came to the USA to pick my brains like everyone else does
about a book on Krautrock he was doing to get a degree in
Krautrock (I said really?) He took some photos,
copies of Eurock magazine, etc.
It was a nice time, so I ask him where he was
going next? He said the RnR HoF and I said,
Really they don't won't have a clue about
Krautrock .Anyway, have a good time in the USA and send me a
copy of the book when it comes out.
So 6 months later, I got a letter from Jennie
Thomas the head archivist of the RnR HoF asking if I'd like
to donate my Archives to their Museum as they were
interested in Krautrock & Eurock. She said Alexander had
showed them some of my stuff.
I thought about it and decided WTF this isn't
a joke. So after I die it might be kinda cool that Eurock
will live on in the RnR Museum Archives. That still now
seems to me kind of like a joke, but nowadays I have to
laugh a lot to stay sane, so I sent off to them boxes of my
magazine, Eurock catalogs, books, etc. and more stuff will
follow.
I wrote to Alexander and told him thanks and
that he proved I don't know what they hell I'm saying
sometimes as they contacted me and asked me to donate all my
crap. That's a Big WOW right!? Here comes the Money Quote,
he told me:
You
won't believe it, but now all of the things you sent them
are being handled with surgical gloves and kept in nice
envelopes. You can make an appointment to see them and they
will get retrieve them from the Archives and you can look at
them.
The HoF Festivities & most Superstars (x-cept
Iggy) don't mean a lot to me, but Eurock is there. I keep
pestering Bryan Chandler who lives near CleveO to call and
see if he could arrange to see the stuff and go there...
He's too busy, so little chance of that. I may go back there
myself and see if this is all true.... Meanwhile, I know
they are collecting all kinds of other rock memorabilia and
I keep sending them my stuff and getting Acknowledgments
of my Donation documents, so that's kinda cool right?
Update: I just went
out and got a new printer/ scanner so next I'll be scanning
lots of my memorabilia 'til I go blind then send them my
next & last book to be titled, The Eurock Archives.
After that the Eurock DOC film hopefully, then I will be
ready to ascend...
Recently Eurock began collaborating
with two people involved with music in Germany doing very
innovative work. Both are involved in academic studies at
the prestigious University of Kassel in Germany, as well as
involved in various aspects of music production as well.
Roman
Beilharz is a Lecturer at the Institute of Music at the
University of Kassel, the owner of the UVASONAR Media Pool,
a musician, composer, engineer, educator, writer and
filmmaker. Roman’s company provides multi-media support for
new artistic talent to be recognized in their various fields
today.
Ulrich
Kutschera is a Professor of Biology at the University of
Kassel in Germany there, as well as a visiting Scientist at
Stanford, California. He is also a musician, his most recent
album San Francisco Bay, is highly popular in
Yoga Studios in the Palo Alto-area. Kutschera’s excellent
1983 album, First Incarnation, is soon to be
released in a revised, re-mastered extended, version.
http://www.uvasonar.de/
Excerpt from Krautrock
Transnational by Alexander Simmeth
Published 2016 by
Transcript Verlag, Bielefeld
Germany
Alexander Simmeth is
the Author of this encyclopedic work exploring all aspects
of the genre of music originally called "Krautrock " by the
UK Pop Music press. While a student at University in Germany
he paid me a visit doing research for his book. After his
visit he went to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame to visit their
Archives. While he was there he talked to them about his
book and my work doing Eurock for many years. As a result of
that visit they asked me to donate my Eurock publications to
their Museum Archives. In his book there is a passage in
reference to Eurock. The book is written in German, so that
passage about Eurock was kindly translated so you can read
it below.
"Eurock began in March
1973, the fanzine Eurock was published, initiated by
Radio-DJ and LP-importer Archie Patterson. The first issues
were published, assembled by hand and distributed in small
numbers. In the following years, Eurock magazine grew
enormously and was read primarily by importers, music
journalists and musicians alike. Until the end of 1975,
Eurock exclusively focused on Krautrock.
In addition
to reviews of LP’s and discographies, numerous reports and
interviews were published, wherein the history of German
music and background information of the pertinent Krautrock
groups were described. Between 1971 and 1974, Patterson
contributed significantly, as a Radio-DJ in central
California, to the promotion of progressive German pop
music. Incidentally, Patterson’s interest in Krautrock was
sparked by reading the British Music Weeklies, which he
received as a teenager from his grandfather.
Along with
print-media, Radio shows were a key factor in the promotion
of pop music during the 1970s in the USA - not TV. The
Radio-system was commercialized, by the way, not organized
as in Europe. State-sponsored institutions like in Germany
and Great Britain were not established. … The promotion of
German progressive music in the US was facilitated via
different music personages, such as Archie Patterson
importer, Radio-DJ and producer of a Fanzine, Ira
Blacker a manager in the music industry, or the British
music manager Richard Branson, who initiated Virgin Records
that was interested in experimental music."
[Translation to English by
Ulrich Kutschera]
Distribution & the
Cassette Culture
In the beginning 1971-1973, the music
Eurock played on the radio and chronicled as a fanzine was
in its embryonic phase. My mission was a journey of
discovery and exploration, the goal was to turn people on to
the amazing music I uncovered. In addition to offer insight
into the people and the evolution of their creativity as
well as effect it had on those who listened and the culture
as a whole.
Today with
Eurock I reflect back a lot, write, and share personal
stories about what happened along the way. One of the more
interesting stories involves Kraftwerk. They had financed
their very first USA tour themselves partially by selling
the rights for their first three albums and Autobahn
to Phonogram for the ridiculous amount of $2,000.
In 1975,
they were playing Live at the small Keystone Club in
Berkeley, so I drove up and stayed with a friend to see
them. The place was half-empty and we had our choice of
seats so we sat mid-center. I placed my small portable
Panasonic cassette player on the table, plugged in a small
Mic and preceded to record 2 Ampex C-60 tapes of music.
Some years
later, another friend who had access to state of art audio
equipment in a studio digitized the music for me and dubbed
each of us DBL CD copies. A bit later, I had the original
photos scanned to make covers.
For its time
the sound is excellent. The Kraftwerk Live @ the Keystone
Club Berkeley taping done on 5/11/75 may have
planted the seed for me and those original 2-tapes could be
the rarest cassettes in the world perhaps? I guess I could
say that’s when and where my adventures in the creation of
cassette culture began.
My entry
point into the music business was Intergalactic Trading
Company in Portland, OR. ITC was as an adjunct to the record
store Music Millennium. At the outset the focus was on UK
imports via Caroline Records UK and sporadic importing of
German rock via Juliana Hopp GMBH out of Germany.
They had
heard about Eurock and in September 1976 owner Don MacLeod
hired me to run their mail-order and we soon began importing
music from everywhere else. Due to my Eurock contacts over
the span of the next aprox. 3/4 years the floodgates were
opened to France, Sweden, Finland, Italy, Spain, Japan,
Australia, etc. We did limited local wholesale and a couple
stores in the Northwest, but unlike Jem it was only me and
one other person doing everything.
Interestingly the bonanza sell-off you mentioned may
partly be related to Eurock as I knew one of the head import
buyers at Jem East at the time, Phillip Page, who subscribed
to the magazine. When I did the Kosmische Musik Issue
#3 in early 1975 he contacted me about the Comic Couriers
& OHR records, labels which had been the focus of
that issue. The first two issues had featured Krautrock
extensively.
Those led to
Jem importing some of those titles as well as opened the
door to many other German labels to some extent. They even
reprinted the full-page promotional layout from Eurock Issue
#3 and used it as part of their promotion for those albums
and a tie in to the other German music titles they began to
license and offer.
The first
Distribution advert in Eurock Magazine was included in Issue
#13 at the beginning of 1979. What had happened at ITC was
Music Millennium began doing parallel importing,
which later became the big thing in the music import music
business that led to a more adventurous period in music
importation & Jem's ultimate failure.
In ITC's
case they began bringing in import pressings from Japan of
The Eagles, Steely Dan, etc. due to their superior
pressings. As a result, my budget became limited for
importing and selling fewer odd experimental music
titles from Europe. The result was I began offering my own
parallel small selection of things offered via Eurock
Distribution.
That early
Eurock Distribution direct sale adverts
featured books from France, US LPs by Chrome, The Decayes
and 1st Univers Zero album + EP's by Pascal Comelade and
Spain's Macromassa In addition the first original Palace of
Lights cassettes as well as initial cassette release by
other US artists like Steve Roach, Don Slepian, Galen Herod,
Anode, Don Slepian, Ken Moore, Zazen Zafaun and WOZ cassette
plus a VHS tape called Matching Face & Nightie by a
local Portland filmmaker friend who was promoting the
Residents. From the outset ED was multi-format, eclectic and
unique.
Recently the
great Vinyl on Demand German reissue label released a
fantastic triple box set titled American Cassette
Culture documenting the US artists Eurock promoted
in the early cassette culture scene.
Due to this
ITC financial situation and budget constraints I continued
doing the multi-layered approach until one day I got a phone
call from LA in late 1979 from people who were starting a
new import music company named Greenworld. I flew down there
and part of their business plan was to have a direct
retail arm of the company. They wanted me to come down and
set it up. That was called Paradox Music Mailorder.
I continued
having ED adverts in the magazine through Issues #17 selling
only foreign EP's, books and magazines. After that point I
simply reviewed all the Indie cassettes and other EPs adding
my personal contact at the end so people could write to me
and buy things from me directly outside of the Greenworld
business structure. A prime
example of this occurred in 1980 with the discovery of experimental music down
in Mexico where there was a small but very active and creative
group of musicians who discovered Eurock
Ironically,
once again there was a rapid expansion of
parallel importation of mainstream music from Japan. My work
began to be affected due to the same dynamic of cash flow
imbalance, it was deja vu for me. In 1981, I quit working for anyone else
and began doing Eurock Distribution full time while living
in LA. Its main focus was the exploding cassette music scene
as well as well as the various many other releases on
cassette, fanzines, Indie LPs, EPs, etc.
A bit
earlier in late 1979, early 1980, I began my own Eurock
cassette label. The first release was a tape smuggled out of
Czechoslovakia via Canada recorded by the illegal
band Plastic People of the Universe whose leader was then in
jail. It was called the Hundred Points. That
was the first release on the label released which was followed by a series of original recordings by
various other international artists from France, USA, etc.
In 1984, I
moved from LA back up to Portland, OR and Eurock expanded
organically into many different areas. One involved
cassettes. I lectured for classes, grades 7-12, for 5-years,
in a Portland K-12 Public School. I offered a Listeners
Guide to Experimental Music. I recorded special mix
cassettes each week to use as musical background
accompanying stories about my experiences in music overall.
I ended up ultimately releasing them as a cassette series of
taped music and lectures chronicling my personal adventures
in the 1960's along with the creation Eurock.
At this
point a few other small import specialists like Aeon began
to spring up that may have been influenced by those two
companies. That connection also perhaps goes back to the
Mnemonists, an art/ music group out of Colorado.
During that
time I was in touch with Bill Sharp and Torger Houghen
helping promote and market their work and first releases. I
think they had a cassette only release as well as an LP
titled The Mnemonist Orchestra (later shortened).
Ultimately they changed their name to Biota, if memory
severs me right. I used a lot of the Mnemonist art as
illustration and covers for Eurock Magazine. I just used a
small impressionist piece for illustration in the new Eurock
book, The Music of Gilbert Artman & Urban Sax.
While
running ED I always dealt directly with artists directly as
well as small Indie labels. I never did wholesale of the
cassettes as the retail price/ cost were so low, or very
high in the case of very special packaging. More
importantly, cassettes at first were mostly all done in VERY
LTD Editions. I'm sure it's hard to imagine a time now when
everything wasn't ever present and mass marketed, available
free as a download, or sold at ridiculously high prices.
Most LPs
were sold for around $7:00 via ITC or Paradox, with most
cassettes I sold being $6.00. As strange as it seems music
back then was done for the love of creation by the artists.
Eurock & ED were motivated by my desire to share it with
people and form a personal link with other like-minded music
lovers. In retrospect, I was blissfully naive. Today it's
all about capitalizing on and cashing in on everything, be
it music or any other form of art, or product being
marketed. Not Art for Arts sake...
It's
impossible in this day and age to do artistically what
labels like DDAA, Bain Total, Ptose Productions (France),
TRAX, ADN, MB (Italy), Marquee Moon, Vanity Records, YLEM,
LLE (Japan), Mirage, YHR (UK), Via Lactea, Oxomaxoma,
Voldarepet (Mexico) and Agjtasjon (Norway) did musically or
conceptually. DIY was completely unique and unprecedented
back then, produced as LTD ED cassette releases.
Eurock
certainly was one of the very few, if not only seller of
most these labels outside of direct personal sales by
artists and small labels in their own areas. Two examples of
this single minded creative ethos and process stand out in
my mind.
DD Records
in Japan was perhaps the most incredible label of all. T.
Kamada was the guy who did the label at the time. He was a
Med School student (later becoming a genetic research
genius). He released some 220+ tapes and would send me a
sample copy of each tape, then duplicate copies for me in
the amount I ordered. Each DDR tape came with a 5" x 7"
Xerox libretto. I sold them for $6.00 as my cost was very
low and he paid the postage... The diversity of musical
style and passion embodied in DDR releases musically was
astounding.
As for the
Eurock label itself, aside from the extraordinary
circumstances of the PPU debut release, the 6-cassette set
by Cyrille Verdeaux (of Clearlight fame) Kundalini
Opera production process is a paradigm example of the
Indie process in action.
Those 6
individual tapes were all duped by Pat Baum, drummer for the
legendary Portland all girl punk trio The Neo Boys. She
lived in a big old run down building on Russell Street that
was serving as a series of ramshackle lofts at that time
(now gentrified of course). Pat had 6 or 8 cassette
recorders lined up on a couple shelves so she could dupe all
the tapes in real time. I had a friend print the
multi-colored J-cards + color libretto then gave them to her
for assembly and she'd tell me; pick the order up next
week. It was totally cool and she got to know my #1 son
as I brought him along to her place sometimes to drop off or
pick up the order. You can't make this stuff up...
Those were
the days of wine and roses for musicians and also in terms
of being a wildly adventurous entrepreneur. One of the great
things about DIY cassettes was that it liberated artist's
creativity from the shackles of professional distribution
companies and minimum order restrictions. They could be
experimental, imaginative using simple equipment and tape
recorders within the confines of their bedrooms or garages
and sometimes the results were truly amazing.
That window
of time was open for a while then closed as technology
always continues its inexorable progression. The whole
process of making music, influencing culture, the part
cassettes played in its evolution and technological
development is outlined very clearly in the last Eurock book
Music & the Second Culture Crash in a piece by
Doktor Bob titled How Tech Ate the Music Industry.
A firm dedication to the ethos of DIY, Culture & The
Music is the reason Eurock has been able to continue
evolving creatively all this time...
Mexican Cassette Culture Recordings 1977-1982
The new Vinyl on Demand Mexican Cassette Culture box
set offers a flashback to what was perhaps the greatest
musical era and some of the most original music produced in
the late 1970’s to mid 1980’s.
The musical door was opened to an incredible new chapter for
many people in the music-scene; the discovery of an
outstanding and amazing Experimental Music from Mexico in
1979 by Archie Patterson of Eurock.
In 1979, Archie started to distribute experimental music
primarily released on cassettes, which he had also covered
and written about in his magazine Eurock established in
1973.
At that time, visitors from south of the border came to LA
bringing Archie music cassettes and LPs, shortly after
coming to buy music and take it back to their record stores
in Mexico City. A musical link was created that still exists
today.
Listeners of Experimental & Electronic Music incl. VOD
itself would probably never have heard about such true
hidden treasures released on this Box without Eurock and its
protagonistic networking, distribution and promotion back
then.
This Box covers many of those experimental artists from
Mexico such as Aristeo, Via Lactea & Carlos Alvarado,
Hilozoizmo, Decibel, Oxomaxoma with Arturo Romo & Jose
Alvarez & Miguel A. Ruiz and Voldarepet with Arturo Meza,
Juan Wolfang Cruz and Marco A. Godinez.
Today there still is nothing that sounds like what you'll
hear when listening to the sounds on these long lost
cassette artifacts. In fact, the music never sounded better
after to the excellent sonic restoration done by Jos
Smolders of Earlabs.
The Mexican
Cassette Culture
box set offers indisputable proof that music is the one art
form that transcends time as well as all cultures and
geographical boundaries…
Eurock Book Events
France 2015
My trip to France was more than I could
have ever imagined. The book events at Souffle Continu
Records and Les Frigos were a great experience in
sharing Eurock’s history and my personal stories with
both music lovers and some of the best French
experimental musicians over the past 20-30 years. Theo
and Bernard at Souffle were fantastic hosts. There I
also met Alain Lebon (of the great Soleil Zeuhl label)
and Marc Rozenberg of Eskaton (who are releasing a new
album soon).
After that I had dinner at
the house of my long time friend/ musician Luc Marianni
along with Jacques Jeangerard (his latest collaborator)
on the fantastic album Numeralogique (Between Light &
Sound Waves/ 2), plus Andre Viaud (guitarist of
Pataphonie). It was great to sit around the table and
have a conversation about music (and other things
happening in the world today). Luc's wife Marie, a
teacher of English, was translating for hours late into
the evening.
The next day was
The Les Frigos event which took place in
the Urban Sax studio space, which was otherworldly.
Attending were a host of French musicians, labels, music
fans and people from afar coming to listen, meet and
talk. Quad Sax played an amazing, surreal music set,
Benoit Garel screened his documentary film Reims 1974….
and my wonderful new friend Marie Marianni helped as
translator, helping me to share my Eurock stories with
everyone who attended. I also did a fascinating
interview with Gilbert Artman. Benoit filmed everything
professionally, including both the Souffle Continue and
Les Frigos events.
Following
that I
visited Yochk’o Seffer again, after our meeting our at
Giorgio Gomelsky's ZU Manifestival (1978) in NYC. Seeing
his homemade instruments, hearing a preview of his soon
to be released newly recorded album, sharing a great
Moroccan dinner and filming a multilingual interview
aided by Jean-Jacques Leca translation. It was a
fantastic evening.
I was fortunate as well to meet up with
and film an interview with Ilitch (aka, Thierry Muller)
who was one of the original Eurock cassette label
artists in 1980. We talked about music extensively and
did a short interview where we talked about his musical
history and how the music scene has changed today.
Following Paris, my oldest friends in
France Robert & Anny Frances who exported to me the
first French album in 1976 for US distribution (and
today run the major French concert promotion company FM
Productions) were fantastic hosts in the South of
France. Anny was a tour guide/ translator extraordinaire
and Robert acted as my agent at the 2015
Perpignan Book & Disque Fair. There, he introduced me to
the town mayor, as well as arranged interviews for me in
the local newspaper and to film an interview with one of
my favorite original French artists Pascal Comelade.
After that, it was off to Barcelona where
I had dinner with Victor Nubla (of Macromassa) and Eli
Gras (of the La Olla Express label). I also visited the
amazing Wah Wah Records where mainman Jordi Segura and I
discussed music and future collaborations.
My
biggest, most wonderful surprise was meeting Emmanuelle
Parrenin. After a brief encounter in Paris by
happenstance at the Eurock Souffle Continu event, she came
by happenstance to Barcelona at
the same time I did to rehearse with Pierre Bastien who
she now performs with live. We shared a great dinner,
filmed a short interview and she agreed as well to do a
written interview after I returned to the USA.
In the late 1970’s she disappeared from
the French scene for over 20 years after recording the
adventurous classic French folk album Maison Rose.
Here, I have the great pleasure of presenting that
written interview to you. Emmanuelle herself, her music
and her story are an example of the power music has to
convey magic as well as withstand the test of time and
create a deep emotional connection, which has the ability to heal both
the body and soul.
In the
future, the French trip will be documented
in a Eurock film and a New Eurock book will be published
devoted to Urban Sax. Details will be forthcoming as the
projects unfold. Stay tuned to this website as well as
my personal Facebook page for more information.
La
Musique et la
Magic de
Emmanuelle Parrenin
On my recent trip to France promoting
the new Eurock book and meeting many of my long time
French friends I've been in contact with for
decades, one of the most amazing moments of
happenstance in my life occurred – I met Emmanuelle
Parrenin in Paris. Her Maison Rose was one of my
favorite albums from the French music scene during
the 1970's, but I'd not heard anything about here
since that time and often wondered what had
happened. Later due to another quirk of fate at the
end of the trip, we were again able to meet up again in
Barcelona and film a short interview.
Once
I was back in the USA, I sent her some more
extensive questions. I think you will find her story is not only a magical story about her
personally and music, but also a true-life example of how
music has power that can transform and enlighten
peoples lives and heal you.
What was your first exposure to
music?
I could say I was born into music. I listened to a
lot of music at home- my father was a musician- and
the first artist I listened to was Bella Bartok. My
preschool teacher asked us hey kids, what is your
favorite song or artist? and was a bit surprised
when I said Bella Bartok! I used to reproduce
what I had heard from my father's rehearsals - Quatour
by Debussy or Ravel- with two fingers on the piano.
The first records I bought were What I Say by Ray
Charles and Porgy and Bess by Miles Davis.
In addition, at 14 years old I had chance to follow
the Yardbirds on tour. I was an exchange student in
London and the daughter of my hosting family was
Keith Relf's girlfriend. Eric Clapton chatted me
up, but I was still wearing bobby socks and I was
far from all that.
Why did you decide to make a career
in music?
I never thought I would make a career in music.
When I was a kid, I was singing all the time and was
teaching songs to everyone. My learning was
instinctive and secret. As a teenager, I had learnt
guitar and I often went to American Church & Center
where they sometimes held Hootenannies. That's where
I saw a hurdy-gurdy and other traditional
instruments for the first time. They me hypnotized right
away and I felt like an unfolding mystery was
beginning.
You made a few collaboration
albums in the beginning, was there one of those
albums you feel was your most interesting early
work?
I often went to another place, I can't remember the
name, at Saint Germain des Prés, where some folk
musicians used to play. That's where I met Philippe
Fromont who was playing violin and Gabriel Yacoub
(founder of Malicorne), Youra Marcus who was playing
banjo, and Bill Deraime, among many others. I
started to work with Philippe Fromont on an album
which became Chateau dans les Nuages, along
with Claude Lefebvre who was playing acoustic bass
and guitar. It's interesting to remember, and was
interesting to live, because I think it is my first
non-traditional work. We were getting out of
traditional music to create our own universe.
What was the inspiration for your
fascinating solo album Maison Rose?
I started to work on Maison
Rose when I was in Burgundy with a dear
friend, Christian Leroi-Gourhan, who was ill. I
started to compose on his 2-track Revox, playing the
music that I was hearing deep inside me. I was
playing dulcimer all day long, we were living in a
small house, with my little kid, and I think, more
than a person or an event, it was this entire
atmosphere, which inspired me in the making of this
album.
How/ Where did you record that album?
I met Bruno Menny, who was a sound engineer, at
Acousti Studio. My music inspired him and we decided
to work together. We went to settle in the
countryside, in Normandy, at Studio Frémontel. He
was working there, recording artists came there
to record from all over the
world. When there were no other recording sessions, we
both used this place to begin our musical adventure and
that's when Maison Rose was born.
I believe after that you also got
involved with contemporary dance how did that come
about?
After the release of Maison Rose
Carolyn Carlson's dancers contacted me and asked me
to make music for their ballets. This was sort
of an act serendipity because when I was a kid, I
passed a dancing contest and was chosen by Serge
Lifar to enter the Paris Opera and become a ballet
student, but my mother didn't allow me to. So when
this company, years after, contacted me to make the
music, I said OK, but also asked to dance with
them in the ballet. I started to practice my dancing 12
hours a day, and played live and recorded a sound
track. I loved these years of dancing,
when dance and music was my life and I had the
chance to work with people who felt the same way.
Then there was a long silence from
you musically, what happened?
Silence yes, total silence! I had lost my hearing as
a consequence of an assault. I went to the Alps
and lived in a little chalet to cure myself, by
myself, with only my voice and my instruments.
Doctors said I would never recover, but I never
believed that was true. I played my music and sung
along with it all day for a very long time. Slowly
I could feel the music enter my
body, then after some time my hearing did come back
to me. So I left my chalet and I found a little house along le Lac du
Bourget where I settled. It was weird, but this
old-fashioned house was exactly the same as the one
drawn in Maison Rose cover. Then I worked
for 10-years in hospitals, mainly with kids, using
the music that had cured me, to help them. I created a solo
show for kids, called Belle et Lurette, which I
played in many places and settings, in casinos and
schoolyards.
In 2011, you recorded a new album
Maison Cube, how did you come up with that
title?
The Internet did a brilliant job while I was in the
mountains. And, while for me Maison Rose
was part of the past, it was listened to by
young Parisian musicians, including Francisco Lopez
(Flop) the co-founder of the label Les Disques Bien.
He heard
this album at a dinner at Vincent Segal's place and
asked him if I was still active. Vincent knew my son
Matthieu, who is playing blues music as Mr. Bo Weavil. I
was feeling like making an album, I had some music,
but didn't feel like writing lyrics so I looked for
a lyricist. I was invited by Flop to a concert, and
that's how the story began. After 5 days of
working, we went to a house in forest de Fontainebleau,
who was an architectural place from the 1960's.
Every room of this house was a cube dropped off in
place by a
crane. This house had been vandalized and I, along with
some other friends had formed a chain to make it
live again.
How was the music on that album
different from Maison Rose?
Thirty-four years had gone by, and I was not the
same person. I really felt like building something
new, I like progressing like I am walking on a high
wire and I had met this young musical troop, Vincent
Mougel (aka, KidsareDead), Etienne Jaumet (Zombie
Zombie). They gave me new inspiration, I played live
with Etienne at his concerts (he plays analog
synths), I was playing hurdy-gurdy and that sounded
like drone music. With Vincent and drummer Cristian
Sotomayor, the sound was more like rock music. In addition, at that
time I was also playing pure acoustic concerts. I
guess all those tone colors and influences can be felt
in the music of Maison
Cube.
Since that album, you collaborated
live with another French experimental musician Pierre
Bastien, have you played on any of his albums?
After the release of Maison Cube, I
collaborated live with some musicians like Jandek,
French singer Bertrand Belin, harpist Serafina
Steer, Irish singer Declan De Barra, musicians from
different horizons. I was introduced to Pierre's
music by a friend and I really loved having an
adventure in his universe, I kept that in my mind.
This friend knew Pierre and proposed that we meet.
What was said was done. Pierre came to see me and
discovered all my traditional instruments, and he
felt like home. He had brought some machines with
him and I looked for my instruments that would fit with
his
musically. After that I went to his place for a rehearsal
session and my instruments blended with his
electronic machine and
instruments. That's how our project MOTUS began to
develop its own life and sound. We haven't recorded
anything yet because it is still a work in the process
of creation. A
recording is something etched in time, and we both
feel like exploring the sound further before
engraving something and creating a physical object.
It has been 4 years since Maison
Cube; do you have plans to record a new album?
The next album, Maison Vide is ready;
it is again a story of a Maison. The idea would be
to release the trilogy on vinyl, with a booklet
(where you could write something Archie!). I know
it may sound utopian when you look at the music
marketplace today, but I really would love to release this
trilogy. Before that, my first album Maison
Rose will be reissued next spring by Souffle
Continu Records, re-mastered beautifully from the
original master tapes.
Will it be similar in style to the
other albums or a new sound?
Maison Vide
was created with the same instrumentation as
Maison Rose and Maison Cube. I
began to create this music while I was still in the
house already mentioned in forest de Fontainebleau. My
life and inspiration changed less in the last four
years than it did in thirty-four. This album will be
more instrumental and the atmosphere, from that
point of view, will make people think of Maison Rose.
However, I'm glad to say that I think we succeeded
in creating music previously unheard on either of my
previous two
albums, it's like a new color.
Do you have any idea when it will be
released, or what label will release it yet?
I really have a lot of affection for Disques Bien
Troop, the label that released Maison Cube.
To release and to sell an album today sounds utopian for everyone, artists, labels, shops. The
album is not mastered and pressed yet; I guess we
will see when it's done, which label wants to take a
chance.
Preview
eBook
Edition
&
Preview Book Edition
[Compatible App for
all
eBook
Platforms]
European Rock & the Second Culture
Patterson, Archie
[ISBN: 978-0-9723098-0-6]
EUROCK
- European Rock & the Second Culture
is my current reading, a huge 700-page
collection of every article and review that appeared
in Archie Patterson's Eurock 'zine, starting with
1973. Eurock was an early essential guide to
progressive rock, Krautrock, experimental music, and
underground sound art; and it was important because
it always placed the music in a cultural-political
context: It was
about revolt, about
Opposition to the Mainstream, about change in
consciousness. The music it covered was more than
entertainment, more than a distraction. Eurock is
important to me personally because in the early
1980s Rick Karcasheff and David Mattingly
introduced Debbie Jaffe
and me to so much great music that was charted and
outlined in Eurock. That music inspired us to create
our own music. Yesterday I read great in-depth
articles on Amon Duul I & II, Tangerine Dream, Can,
Kraftwerk, Neu!, Faust, Guru Guru, Popol Vuh. For
those of you who read e-books, there is a generous
sample from the book - about 50 pages - available
from Amazon Kindle. This morning I started reading
an article on Ash Ra Tempel, and it has this great
sentence: Klaus Schulze had a drum technique that
might be described as Maureen Tucker with ambition.
Hal McGee Review
04/06/2015
In this thick anthology of rock history, Patterson
compiles every feature article and interview
published by Eurock magazine.
Described in the foreword as a documentation of a
time in history when “the limits of imagination and
what was possible sonically were stretched beyond
the norm,” the anthology is organized by year,
starting with 1973 and ending with 2002. Fans of
European rock and electronic music will value the
variety of content, from interviews with Holger
Czukay to collections of mini-essays by Robert-Jan
Stips. Without commentary or sidebars, the reprinted
musings, essays and articles about and by musicians
speak for themselves. And there’s a lot of rich
information to mine; the reader may discover Klaus
Dinger of the German rock scene or Heinz Strobl,
also known as Gandalf, and might learn a few things
about the underlying philosophies and theories that
contributed to new waves of sound and sonic
technology. Here, composers discuss the way they
probe into their inner “soulscapes” for a truer,
more authentic expression of sound, and reviewers
rave about the new albums and LPs of the ’80s and
’90s. One artist, Mark Shreeve, describes music as
an “undemocratic art” where many solo electronic
musicians are more satisfied by developing their own
ideas than by collaborating with one another. The
interviews dig deep into the inspirations and
motivations behind different movements, albums and
periods of creation. If anything, the nostalgic
experience of reading through these artifacts helps
one appreciate the combination of moments,
innovations and risks that created each new step of
a growing musical force across a continent. For
those readers interested in particular research, an
index in the book’s final pages organizes all
artists, bands and record labels mentioned. It makes
for a fascinating aerial view of a music scene spanning
three decades.
Kirkus Indie Review
02/06/2013
|
|
Mikhail Chekalin Mahavox Symphony 1 (CD)
Mikhail Chekalin Mahavox Symphony 2 (CD)
In late 2015, Mikhail Chekalin composed &
performed the music for these two albums on an exclusive
prototype model of the MAHAVOX synthesizer (an original
Russian patent).
The prototype of the synthesizer was
configured not to have a traditional keyboard comprised of
black and white keys. Instead, the keys are replaced by
slender strips of aluminum, which act as a triggering
mechanism making a non-temporal connection when touched by
warm human fingertips.
The second album was recorded on a finished
model with a standard keyboard. The sound is quite different
from the traditional musical scale. The new Mahavox
synthesizer produces a unique and unconventional combination
of scales within a highly diverse frequency range.
The music on these two new albums harkens
back to the golden age of electronic exploration when space
age analog sound waves created new sonic vistas. Chekalin’s
extensive symphonic background is embedded into a dark
ambient sound, creating a Doombient atmospheric
amalgam. The musical result is Post Symphonic Ambient Music.
Both albums embody the essence of an unlimited cosmic
consciousness embodied in a composer who is steeped in the
full range of earthly musical structures. Chekalin is able
to create music of the Id, which also resonates deeply
within you that can warm the heart and enchant the mind as
well. Mahavox Symphony 1 & 2 musically offer
over 2-hours of unique electronic music that is emotionally
powerful listening as well.
Mikhail Chekalin Kidnapping Europe (CD)
Following the release of Mikhail Chekalin’s
last two albums Mahavox Symphony 1 & 2 in
2015, he has kept busy creatively producing more music to
augment his already extensive catalog.
His first release in 2016 was the stunning
Kidnapping Europe featuring orchestral music for
small chamber ensemble as well as full orchestra.
The album features various long
interconnecting compositions his major works Music for
Bandoneon, Viola, Clarinet and Piano, Concerto for
Viola and String Orchestra and Three Minor Quartets,
clearly establish him as one of the world's leading creators
of Post Symphonic Modern Music.
Mikhail Chekalin
Neo-Ambient Post Meditative (CD)
Are We
Here, Are We Long Gone?
To close 2016, Mikhail Chekalin just released
his 49th album containing perhaps the most powerful and
heartfelt music he has made to date.
It features two major compositions
Neo-Ambient (Post-Symphony #15) and Post-Meditative (Post-Symphony
#16) followed by Epilogue. It also includes the
album title track Are We Here, Are We Long Gone?
along with two short tracks with impressionistic voice
Postsong-1 & Postsong-2.
As
Chekalin describes it, the album sounds like an echo of the
seventies when I made my start, which is why the musical
timbres I use reflect that epoch creating the feeling and
spirit of my early meditative compositions. The two short
melodic Post-Song harmonics are reminiscent of the English
rock songs I listened to at that time. In a sense this album
contains music offering listeners my feelings about that
magnificent age of great expectations; we still of course
had anxieties, but also had hopes that all the problems and
discord we experienced could be alleviated by the more
wonderful and artistic expressions of music.
Having
been aware of Mikhail Chekalin's work, both musically and
artistically since the late 1970’s, I would have to say that
his musical diversity, creativity and stylistic range are
breathtaking. Perhaps no work, by a modern composer after
this long of a time making music has carried such a powerful
impact as his Neo-Ambient Post-Meditative album.
Musically, it’s a beautiful homage to
Chekalin's past as well as a deeply emotional listening
experience by someone who very clearly is a master musician
and artist who can still conjure up his muse after all these
years. In addition, it's a powerful cultural document of
Post Soviet Realist Art & Music by one of Russia's long time
great artists.
Mikhail Chekalin Post Symphonic
Music
More INFO @
Mikhail Chekalin
In 2005, MIR Records began releasing the
music of Russian composer Mikhail Chekalin in the USA. This
month the release of four new Chekalin albums brings his
catalog to 43 CDs and 4 DVDs, which highlight the incredible
range of one of Russia’s most adventurous modern musician/
composers in the post symphonic and electronic music idioms.
In little under a decade, Chekalin and his music have gone
from virtual obscurity to being available now worldwide via
Amazon.com.
Over the past several years, the full range
of Chekalin’s talent has also gained some measure of acclaim
in his homeland as well as outside of Russia. In 2008, he
had a showing of his paintings at the prestigious Vincent
Art Gallery in Moscow. In 2009, his modernist opera
What is Po? premiered in Moscow. Most recently, on
October 25, 2014, the Württemberg Chamber Orchestra
featuring American wunderkind Scott Voyles conducting
performed Chekalin’s Last Seasons symphony in
Germany.
The first of the four new albums,
Requiem pays homage to his Russian artist friends
who have recently passed away and his wife Natalya Vlassova,
who died on May 27, 2104, Chekalin’s 55th birthday. The
title track Requiem for Unofficial Artist is
dedicated to the late Moscow painter Alexander Kurkin whose
painting serves as cover illustration for the CD. The
composition is a powerful 26+ minute extended piece of
impressionistic symphonic electronica the likes of which are
seldom heard in today’s push-button sampled synthetic scene.
The arrangements are a shape-shifting mix of ambient
soundscapes, industrial, rock and symphonic passages.
Alternatively, the music is warmly symphonic and overloaded
with synthetic power surges propelled by high-energy
rhythms.
The track culminates with a collage of field
recordings featuring the famous Soviet dissident writer and
sociologist Alexander Zinoviev. He fled the country during
the Soviet era, but returned in the early 1990s to become an
outspoken critic of not only the Soviet regime, but also
Western democratic imperial pursuits and modern politics as
practiced by the current government in Russia as well.
The other major work on the album Post
Symphony #12 is a 3-part, 40+ minute piece dedicated to
his wife, who was a renowned Russian actress. Descriptions
of the music are impossible. Suffice to say it is one of the
most sophisticated, adventurous and emotionally loaded
electronic music works I have ever heard. The interplay
between effects, melodies and thematic ideas developed are
dizzying, at times breathtaking. The final musical segment
Part 3 is dedicated to Chekalin’s former creative
collaborator Moscow art designer Sergey Dorokhin.
All the music on Requiem
composed, performed, recorded and mixed by Chekalin himself
simply must be heard to be believed.
The centerpiece of Chekalin’s
second new album entitled MonoOpera - What is Po?
is a performance piece entitled Frother – The Dew of
Death, a modernist reinterpretation of an avant-garde
work
by Alexander Ivanovich Vvedensky. All of the albums
recitations are based on the avant-garde poetry of three
Russian-Soviet poets from the 1920s-30s
Vvedensky,
Daniil Kharms & Igor Bakhterev who were part of
the short-lived
underground avant-garde group OBERIU (an acronym for the union for real
art)
which existed for a short time during the Soviet era.
Alexander Vvedensky was born in St. Petersburg, Russia
in 1904 and
grew up in the
midst of war and revolution,
reaching artistic maturity at the time
Stalin consolidated control over Russia.
He became
a major figure in the OBERIU
and had
formidable influence in Unofficial and avant-garde
art circles during
the time of the Soviet Union.
In 1931,
arrested for alleged
counterrevolutionary literary
activities, he was interrogated and
sentenced to
three years of internal exile. He was detained again in 1941
and on February
2 of that year
died on a prison train.
Much of his
work has been lost, what remains has established him as one
of the most influential Russian poets of the twentieth
century.
For the recording and performance of the
MonoOpera Chekalin worked with his wife Natalya
to create a multimedia experience that made full use of her
dynamic talents. The prestigious premiere held in 2009 at
the Moscow Theater Na Passionate was a powerful
audio/visual experience. Her
stunning visage and powerful delivery serving as a vivid
focal point set against a tapestry of post symphonic
electronic music and kaleidoscopic visuals. On this album,
the combination of her
dramatic interpretations and Chekalin’s striking musical
accompaniments result in an epic modern operatic tone poem.
There are many who attempt such experiments,
but few are able to pull it off successfully. The marriage
of Chekalin’s music with Natalya’s flesh and blood
incantations embodies the creative essence of true
avant-gardism.
Natalya will be remembered fondly by many people in Russia
for her other performances on stage as well as the many
voiceovers she did for American actors in Russian versions
of US major motion pictures like Dead Man Walking,
The Thorn Birds and The Last Emperor. Children
knew her as well for doing the voices of many cartoons,
Disney characters in like
Scrooge from Duck Tales, plus Casper (The Friendly
Ghost) and others.
Her memory however will live on now in an entirely unique
way for the stunning performance she gives on the album
The MonoOpera - What is Po? that reincarnates a
masterful work of literature from the Russian past.
The remaining two releases Symphony #13
& PostAmbient Symphony offer perhaps
Chekalin’s ultimate distillation of the dynamic synthesis
between symphonic music and contemporary electronic music
done to date.
Few artists have such an extensive catalog
exploring the full stylistic spectrum of music as Chekalin.
His solo piano works demonstrate a firm grasp of both jazz
and classical technique. Electronically his techno
experiments are not simply derivations of BPM automation,
his cosmic explorations don't simply meander and whatever
the style his music makes provocative use of melody and
theme in highly diverse ways. Even more impressive perhaps,
he composes, performs, records and mixes the albums himself.
Post-Symphonic music is his forte, several of
his compositions having been performed live by orchestras
both inside Russia and outside, in Germany. A prime example
is his recent release Symphony #13, a dynamic
composition and recording, which illustrates what sets his
music apart from more orthodox symphonic music. While the
sound does indeed contain rich melodic arrangements and
strong thematic developments, at times it veers off-course
transforming into a unique hybrid of free-form expressionist
sound sculpture that mirrors creatively today's lifestyle
that has become precariously out of balance, filled with
chaos and disorientation.
Chekalin's combination of orchestra, solo
piano and synthesizer on this album intertwines in such a
dramatic way that at times you feel overcome by the sound
and swept away by the musical flow. This makes for an album
that is both entrancing as well as an ennervating listening
experience.
PostAmbient Symphony
is hardly ambient music, but does indeed cast a
different musical spell than most of his other works. It
features electronics prominently along with orchestrations;
together they create of a musical palate overflowing with
richly textured musical themes.
The album features five compositions that
segue seamlessly one into the other, beautifully bridged by
subtle surreal synthetic sequences, which change both the
tone and tenor of the musical flow. One dramatic difference
on this album is that Chekalin creates and employs a variety
of warmer synthetic tone colors and melodies than he has
before. The result is indeed a very different musical
ambiance that at times lives and breathes YIN vibrations, as
opposed to the YANG energy his music often exudes.
The albums final piece is a low-key double-tracked vocal
recitation of a poem by Alexander Vvedensky featuring his
late wife Natalya Vlassova. Underscored by a serene
electronic soundscape and simulated choir effects it makes
for a reverential conclusion to an album offering perhaps
some of Chekalin’s most engaging music.
Symphony #13 INFO
HERE
PostAmbient Symphony INFO
HERE
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Mikhail Chekalin Saturn
More INFO @
Mikhail Chekalin Music
Download:
Mikhail Chekalin PODCAST
Listen:
Saturn Part 1
It is hard to remember a time before
the Net permeated and controlled most every
aspect of our lives. Back then there was a country
called the Union of Socialist Soviet Republics;
remember the Beatles once sang a song about that
place. It was then, and there, that Mikhail Chekalin
began staging light and music performances as part
of second culture artistic gallery installations.
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Luis Perez Ixoneztli
Suspended Spheres
More INFO:
Ixoneztli Music
Download:
Luis Perez PODCAST
In 1981, the Eurock musical perspective expanded
exponentially with its introduction to the music
scene down in Mexico. I initially discovered a trio
of albums - Carlos Alvarado’s Via Lactea
(Milky Way) that pioneered an entirely new hybrid of
space music & Decibel, who created on their first
album, El Poeta Del Rudio (The Poetry
of Noise), free jazz rock that charted new
tonalities.
One album however stood out as something
unique, the likes of which I had never heard before,
En El Ombligo De La Luna (In the Navel of the Moon)
by Luis Perez. In the beginning, music of the global sphere
was wind, water and other elements of nature. During the
Pre-Columbia era, these were alchemized with ancient
instruments made from shells, bone, wood, clay and skins to
create ceremonial rituals by the indigenous people south of
the border. Luis incorporated that fusion of sounds,
transcending time and space into his album, adding modern
musical instruments and electronic embellishments.
Sometime later, I saw Luis in concert at
UCLA. Surrounded by a vast array of self-made replicas of
Pre-Columbian and electric instruments, he performed the
album live on stage. He bridged the time and space continuum
successfully during his performance that day.
Luis’ brand new 2014 release, Suspended
Spheres, is a 2-part concept work. Suspended
Spheres Part 1 is an incredible 26+ minute long organic
composition comprised of various movements revolving around
a shifting sonic palate of instruments and themes derived
from ancient spirits and modern musical impulses. The
multi-layered arrangements incorporate a host of elements.
From primal rhythms comprised of thundering percussion,
laced with exotic instrumental embellishments, thematic
developments evolve out of melodic moog tones, augmented by
ritual chants and an incredible array of flutes and wind
instruments. The piece culminates in a collage of natural
sounds and human voices, concluding with Luis’ final
recitation over a ceremonial musical backdrop.
The 13-minute+ track, Suspended Spheres
Part 2, is a musical meditation filled with infectious
rhythms and rich melodies. Dramatic themes are laced with
solo flute, guttural incantations, harmonic chants and
effectual sonic seasonings created by myriad pre-Columbian
instruments.
Suspended Spheres is certainly
Luis’ finest work to date. A living historical audio
document contained within a multi-dimensional listening
experience, it is also a powerful echo of ancient culture
created by a modern artist who is a master of his craft.
Selected Discography
EN EL OMBLIGIO DE LA LUNA (1981)
TALES OF ASTRAL TRAVELERS (1998)
SANCTUARIO DE MARIPOSAS (2012)
LA NEZA (2013)
IN SITU (2013)
SUSPENDED SPHERES (2014)
MARE NOSTRUM (2014) |
|
Luis Perez Ixoneztli
Mare Nostrum
More INFO:
Ixoneztli
Music
In 2014, Luis Perez
released two outstanding new download albums. I
reviewed the first, Suspended Spheres
earlier. It’s a masterpiece of Pre-Columbian ritual
music performed with authentic instruments enhanced
by electronic seasonings.
The other, Mare
Nostrum (Our Sea) is a double album that
demonstrates the incredible range of musical talents Luis
possesses. In fact, it contains two distinct albums that are
very different musically. He recorded the music of the first
album while living by the ocean down on the Southern
California coast.
Album 1
is primarily acoustic with guitar, hand drums and other
percussion instruments. Musically it’s a beautiful work
filled with rich melodies and intricate arrangements. Luis
also incorporates many exotic percussive and wind
instruments into the mix, which enhance the music perfectly.
Being familiar with Luis’ work since 1980, this album came
as a pleasant surprise. All tracks (except two) are
instrumental, the music falling into the category of folk
with a distinct south of the border feel. His ability to do
any style of music immaculately is incredible and his
command of such a vast array of modern as well as ancient
instruments is impressive.
There are 17 tracks in
total, many of them recorded for various stage performances
and documentary films produced in the USA and abroad, some
are highly personal about special times in his life.
The last two on the album
contain vocals “Amor Eterno” is a beautiful love
song. The other, album closer “Por La Libertad”, is
an incredibly powerful and strikingly arranged track. Luis
says about it: “I wanted to add a speech on the subject
of freedom, human virtues and the constant effort; political
and social systems are making in order to manipulate, lie,
punish, condition and ultimately kill those who dream and
fight for a better world.” It’s ethnic rap of a sort
with Luis reciting a rousing call for action with a choir
chanting the chorus, “Libertad”!
Album
2 is radically different
from the first and completely floored me. It features Luis’
original classical symphonic music compositions. His hope
was that someday he could record them with an orchestra. So
far, it hasn’t happened so he decided to release them now.
Many of the pieces were recorded using samples of symphonic
instruments; others use electronics, Luis then incorporates
ancient instruments into the mix. The result is WOW!
Several tracks were
recorded when he worked for the independent company
“Alpenglow Films”, which produced soundtracks for TV
documentaries. The company won awards for six films in 2
years before a corporation bought the network the company
worked for and fired everyone.
Imagine time tripping back
to Pre-Columbian times where you witness a symphony
orchestra performing as part of an ancient ceremonial ritual
– it might well sound like this. There are 14 tracks on the
album and Luis has programmed the running order to create a
conceptual continuum. The overall musical flow is symphonic
in style, enhanced by myriad special sounds and acoustic
instruments with colorful folkloric themes injected at
times. The album begins and ends with two superb tracks.
“Comac Taheoic, “La Gente de la Isla Tiburon” (7:37) is the opener, a
stunning fusion of symphonic music and Pre-Columbian
influences that was used in an “Alpenglow Films”
documentary. Beginning with birds, wind chimes and exotic
instruments, it transforms into folk melodies played on
flute and hand percussion, augmented perfectly by
counterpoint between orchestral strings, wind instrument
arrangements and tympani.
The album closer,
“Cetaceos” (6:07) was used by a New York company
“Gravity Films” in a documentary entitled “Xbalanque”.
It begins with a powerful string section introduction. Luis
then begins playing; multi-tracking dual acoustic guitar
melodies over hand percussion and shakers, all the while a
Pre-Columbian flute solo flutters different melodies
overhead the superb musical mix. The music is folk, strings
again add subtle enhancement to Luis melodic composition and
playing. The track serves as a perfect conclusion to an
album that overflows with authentic melodies and sympathetic
symphonic and electronic touches, which literally breathe
life into the ancient spirits inhabiting Luis’ ritual music
creation.
When listening to both
2014 releases by Luis, you immediately recognize that the
music he creates is a uniquely original fusion of styles
from completely different cultures and centuries. He
seamlessly integrates orchestra samples and synthesizer with
ancient acoustic instruments from an era when music was an
integral part of life and performance ritual, not written
down. I’m amazed that at this late date in my listening
experience that I could still hear something that reaches
down so deeply into both head and heart, and resonates so
strongly. Taken as a whole, both Mare Nostrum
and Suspended Spheres stand out as rare
musical creations by an artist whose talent seems to have no
boundaries offering proof that great music truly is
timeless.
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The Move
Live At The Fillmore West 1969
DBL LP
180g Red Vinyl Deluxe Gatefold Edition!
& DBL CD
More INFO @
The Move LIVE
I was a young Anglo-rock
radical back in the halcyon days of the late 1960’s
and took a road trip up to San Francisco to see The
Move in concert at the Fillmore West. The bill also
featured Joe Cocker & the Grease Band + Little
Richard. That weekend the free spirit of rock and
roll rattled the walls of the Fillmore with creative
innovation and electric energy.
Now through what seems
like some sort of divine intervention, in early
February, a brand new Move DBL CD, Live At The
Fillmore West 1969. Recorded direct from the
monitor desk, Carl Wayne kept the original tapes in
his personal archives in hopes they would someday
see a release. Now, more than 40 years later,
cleaned up using the latest technology, you can
relive raw and alive, The Move in concert circa
1969.
I was very familiar with
The Move’s music at that time as I had import
releases of all of their records. What I didn’t
expect, was that in addition to their great singles,
the band could rattle the walls live on stage. They
were an incredibly loose band, with high-voltage
guitar arrangements, and very LOUD!
The 100 minutes of
previously unreleased music you will hear on these
two CDs demonstrates just how powerful a band The
Move was Live. For their US tour, they had
consciously designed their set to be different from
what they normally played in the UK. They
diversified, playing heavier, more extended versions
with complicated arrangements of Shazam
tracks. In essence, they wanted to let their hair
down and go all out.
Their set at the
Fillmore included songs by Todd Rundgren, “Open
My Eyes” & “Under the Ice”, along with
Gerry Goffin & Carole King’s “Goin' Back”,
Barry Mann & Cynthia Weil’s “Don’t Make My Baby
Blue”, Tom Paxton’s “Last Thing on My Mind”
and “Field’s of People”, originally done by
the US band Ars Nova. The Move versions are heavily
rhythmic and filled with harmonies. They
reinterpreted vintage songs and to make them their
own.
The Woody originals
reincarnated into full-blown rave-ups here are –
“Cherry Blossom Clinic Revisited”, “Hello Susie”
& “I Can See the Grass Grow”, all of which
are expanded on and turned into high voltage audio
mind candy.
The Move Live At
The Fillmore West 1969 magnum opus is “Field’s
of People”. The Fillmore LIVE version featuring
Roy’s instrumental arrangement and playing on that
track clearly illustrates his genius. The incredible
solo on the “Banjar’ when witnessed live, stage
dark, spotlight shining on Roy’s hands picking his
instrument, golden light reflecting around the
ballroom walls was jaw dropping.
As a special bonus,
included is a Bev Bevan’s audio track featuring his
colorful recollections of The Move’s 3-week tour and
road trip on Route 66 across the US in ’69. His
stories and details are funny and fascinating.
Topping the set off is a
10-page booklet filled with vintage Move photos from
the tour, recollections about the band and love of
the music, all of which kept this project alive over
decades until it could finally see the light of day
in 2011. Upstairs I know Carl is
smiling now, and most certainly listening to this
music via Translove Airwaves.
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First
Encounter
of
Experimental Music in Mexico
Read:
MusicaExperimentaldeMexico
Mexico has had one of the most creative experimental
& progressive rock scenes in Latin America since the
early 1980's. Some of the best music Eurock has
featured over the years has come from of Mexico.
Bands & artists like Carlos Alvarado & Via Lactea,
Decibel, Luis Perez, the late Jorge Reyes, Nazca,
Eblen Macari, La Tribu & Arturo Meza stand out as
truly unique in the annals of the International
music scene. There are other bands as well however
that have created music outside the structure of
progressive rock over that same period that have
remained relatively obscure. This article offers
artifacts & information by three of them, Oxomaxoma,
Hilozoizmo & Voldarepet, who have long explored the
fusion of avant-garde, electronics, ethnic music &
free jazz. I think you'll find this 2013 update on
Musica Experimental de Mexico fascinating. Enjoy!
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5.05.2013 Interview
@ AMBIcon
Interview:
Michel Huygen
CD Baby
INFO
Michel Huygen & I have been in
contact for over 30 years. I've been
reviewing and playing his music all along and the
Eurock files are filled with information, photos and
art work he has sent me. Just recently he and I
crossed paths, literally and unexpectedly, in the
same place at the same time. It was an incredible
case of happenstance leading to serendipity. I had
just gotten his new album, ExoSomnia,
and prepared a new radio program featuring music
from it, the incredible extended track entitled
"And Man Created Gods". It + the entire
Neuronium catalog in now distributed in the USA via
CD Baby. We had a great time hanging out at AMBIcon
& recorded an interview filled with incredible
stories about his history and long music career.
Take a Listen! It makes for fascinating listening
and is accompanied by many artifacts from the Eurock
Archives.
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The
Cosmic Couriers
Once Upon on Time in Germany
Read:
The Cosmic Couriers
Listen to:
Take Your Headphones
In 1970, there were no German record
companies interested in German music. We showed the
German people that they could trust their own music.
Rolf-Ulrich Kaiser (Mojo Magazine, April 2003)
In Germany, and around the world, a new
international consciousness came into being during
that era, the times they were a changing, and
forever altered in more ways than anyone could have
ever imagined. The story of The Cosmic Couriers’,
Rolf & Gille, was in many ways a paradigm example of
that. Little known now and ultimately written out of
the cultural lexicon, sometimes dreams die hard, old
memories simply fade away. Rolf & Gille are still
alive, now living out of touch with the world today
by choice. Their dreams live on only as words in the
ether.
This new article offers for the first time original
documents from the Eurock archives, translated from
German into English. You can also watch original
video from a German TV debate about the German music
industry. Kaiser debates Nikel Pallat manager of
Berlin agit-rock band Ton Stein Scherben, and the plug gets
pulled...
Read:
The Mythos of Rolf-Ulrich Kaiser
Watch:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sa0rpCgVLs4
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euroRock In Opposition
Read:
RIO
Rock in the beginning was a new form
of music in opposition to
mainstream culture.
The metamorphosis from (black) race music into white
rock ‘n’ roll shook the very foundations of society.
It was an ungodly amalgamation of the blues from the
plantation fields, jazz and poetry in bohemian
enclaves, injected with country folk. Ultimately, it
was all bastardized by white boys in US garages
making noise.
The mode of music became revolutionized, and
ultimately co-opted as corporate record labels began
signing anyone up who could play an instrument, or
not, and hyping it to make millions. The commercial
record business literally exploded and FM radio hit
the airwaves. Today’s music scene is a different
animal. There are still bands around the world
making creative music without purely commercial
intent. The internet both facilitates their
existence, and to a great degree consigns them to
needle-in-a-haystack oblivion. In the real world,
indie labels, music stores, a viable distribution
network and counter culture ethos are withering,
even major label record companies are dying on the
vine.
Technology dominates.
Marshall McLuhan predicted the
creation of mass media in his 1964 book, “The Medium
is the Message”, offering fair advanced warning. In
1966, he talked of the creation of the Internet and
its lifestyle changes, the concept of a global
village, later twitter & more, envisioning its
substance and impact: "All media work us over completely.
They are so pervasive in their personal, political,
economic, aesthetic, psychological, moral, ethical,
and social consequences that they leave no part of
us untouched, unaffected, unaltered. The Medium is
the Massage. Any understanding of social and
cultural change is impossible without a knowledge of
the way media work as environments. All media are
extensions of some human faculty--psychic or
physical."
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Art Zoyd Podcast
Download:
Art Zoyd PODCAST
To usher
in 2012 we bring you
the 22nd Eurock LIVE Podcast, a very
special multi-media program for you
featuring music and video by Art Zoyd from France.
Art Zoyd formed in the mid 1970’s. Their style
ushered in a new form of French fusion, which
combined influences of Magma, mixed with Zappa. They
sonically alchemized diverse elements into a stark,
skeletal and frenetic structure to create a new
hybrid of freewheeling “gypsy jazz” and neo-chamber
music
They
were one of the 8 original bands in the “Rock in
Opposition” music collective. The RIO philosophy
was that rock was a form of art and culture, opposed
to business as usual on all levels. Their ethos,
“making music record companies didn’t want to hear".
Later, the band began to evolve
musically even more with the addition of Patricia
Dallio on keyboards. The music became more
structured and composed. They wrote scores for dance
performances as well as multi-media installations.
The bands focus has turned to making music that
engages the intellect. Today Art Zoyd continues as a
collective of diverse artists and musicians who
continue doing numerous visual and stage
presentations, as well as recording projects.
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Electric Orange
Podcast
Download:
Electric Orange PODCAST
Dirk Jan Müller formed Electric Orange in 1992
and released the bands first self-titled album in
1993 on the independent German label, Manikin
Records.
The sound of the band often pays homage to early
period Pink Floyd, injected with a mega dose of
their unique modern cosmic krautrock vibe.
Müller’s dense layers of keyboard and
mellotron along with Dirk Bitner’s soaring space
guitar excursions characterize their sound that is
propelled by a dynamic rhythm section that mixes
heavy beats with exotic percussives. To date the
band has released 7 albums + a DVD. Electric Orange
makes some of the best space rock to come out of
Germany since the original golden era. The five
tracks featured on this podcast demonstrate that
well.
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Stomu
Yamasht'a
Podcast
More INFO
HERE
Download:
Stomu Yamash'ta PODCAST
Stomu Yamash'ta performed his first concert,
Percussion Concerto, with the Kyoto Philharmonic
Orchestra in 1963 at the age of 16. By age 17, he
had transplanted to NYC and entered Julliard. During
the 1970s, he became internationally renowned,
releasing a series of albums adapting his
adventurous style to creating a new fusion of
experimental jazz, symphonic, electronic and rock
music. He released 3 albums entitled Go,
featuring a cast of international superstar
musicians.
In the 1980s, he reached a spiritual impasse,
returning to live in Kyoto where he took up Buddhist
studies. Yamash’ta returned to music when in the
1990s he discovered the musical powers of Sanukit
stones which generate sound over an 8000 hertz
spectrum, creating an 88-tone range. Using these
stones, he created an entire line of instruments and
began exploring a new sound concept “sacred music of
the stones”.
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Hiro Kawahara
Heretic Interview & Podcast
Read
Interview
Download:
Heretic PODCAST
During the late 1970s and early 1980s, the
Japan experimental scene was in
its embryonic phase.
Fools Mate Magazine
was the main vehicle for
promotion and a handful of
groups were beginning to mutate
the sounds of pop, rock and
electronics into a new modern
fusion of styles and influences.
Hiro Kawahara was one of the
early pioneers of a new form of
Zen electronics, His early bands
Astral Temple, Dr. Jekyll & Mr.
Hyde, followed by Osiris combined
mystical and spiritual
influences with experimental
electronic rock. With the
formation of his longest running
band Heretic, his music
transcended time and space. His
guitar playing fused with
electronics became truly
transcendent. In this
Interview he talks about the
history of his music and release
of the new album Requiem
(see the Reviews
page).
In the recent past while Skyping
w/ Hiro Kawahara I learned that
the air, water, rice and meat
are approaching unsafe radiation
levels in Tokyo. While
mainstream media moves from one
sensational headline to the
next, it is important to always
know and understand the real
human story and consequences of
what happens. In many ways music
can tell that story, in the case
or Requiem
listening may will give you chills and
fill your heart with the deepest
of emotions for all the people
in Japan who are now going through the
aftermath of this disaster.
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AskaTemple
Podcast
Read:
John Ubel RIP
Download:
Aska Temple PODCAST
One of the most
provocative bands and musicians I have come across
in my years spent chronicling the world scene of
experimental and underground music is AskaTemple,
led by Muneharu Yuuba whose stage name was John
Ubel. The band name, derived from the small village
he lived, also makes reference to the spiritual &
shamanist mysticism of his music that also contains
strong influences from the psychedelic era.
He passed away on
October 20 2012 and though he was a virtual unknown,
it's a loss to the world of music today in more ways than we
can know. In this age of media saturation, it is
rare that such intensity of emotion as evidenced in
the music of AskaTemple is conveyed. Be it his
guitar playing, synthesized guitar compositions or
the band recordings, his music was devotedly
non-commercial and filled with a depth of passion
that only an artist who lives and works outside the
realm of daily life as we know it today can create.
The
article
by
Nicolai Murahama, keyboardist for AskaTemple,
reflects
on his strange story and includes an insightful look
at his musical history and life history.
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Eurock Audio Archives #5
CON-Speaks 2008
Listen:
Con-Speak1MP3
Con-Speak2MP3
Con-Speak3MP3
Eurock Magazine had published
articles and run an early mini-interview with CON. In the summer of 2008,
I sent him some
questions for a new interview and he kindly obliged. He
even went a step further bringing his own special
form of creativity to the mix. He chose also to create a
recorded addendum that told his story, and conveyed the
essence of what he really wanted to say. He sent me
the answers to the questions and a recording, which
consisted of three
different treated versions of his monologue to use how I liked. CON
passed away August 4, 2011. Listening now to this
series of audio recordings I think serves as a
wonderful reminder of the man, His creative energy
knew no boundaries, and certainly in so many ways
played an integral part in the beginnings of the
German "Neumusik" revolution in Berlin back in the
late 1960s.
[All Rights Reserved. Audio Content NOT to be
Used Without Expressed Written Permission]
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Eurock
Audio
Archives #4
2008 Interview w/
Cluster
Listen:
ClusterINT08MP3
This is a
Summer of 2008 Interview with Dieter Moebius &
Joachim Roedelius w/ Tim Story done just before
their USA Tour.
Joachim Roedelius and Dieter Moebius made music
together for over 40 years before finally going
there own ways in 2010.
Their final concert was
on December 5th of that year.
After several releases
done with Kluster and Conrad Schnitzler,
the duo
were joined by Conny Plank
on their
self-titled
debut album released in
1971 on the Philips Record label in Germany. In
1996 Cluster toured the US for the first time and we
met in Portland. Their concert was a revelation and
our pancake breakfast the morning after was
legendary. Almast12 years later they returned to the US and
toured again. Sadly the didn't play in Portland
however. While in the States they spent time
with their good friend and old pal of mine Tim Story who did this
interview for Eurock.
Tim is a renowned, pioneering US artist in his own
right. He and Joachim have also done several
excellent music collaborations together. Tim
also produced what turned out to be the final Cluster
album, QUA, released in 2009 by the
Nepenthe US label. Nepenthe also released in 2009
the legendary Human Being recordings LIVE AT
THE ZODIAC -BERLIN 1968 done at the Zodiac
Club. So take a listen to & enjoy the famed duo and
Tim having fun and talking music back then...
[All Rights Reserved. Audio
Content NOT to be Used Without Expressed Written
Permission]
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|
Eurock
Audio
Archives #3
Expo 1986 Gilbert Artman Interview
Listen:
GilbertINTMP3
For More INFO:
Urban
Sax
In 1986, I witnessed the spectacle of Urban Sax LIVE at
Midnight during the World EXPO in Vancouver, BC.
It began with barges floating across the river
amidst a shroud of fog while colored flood lights
panned the water.
The group was accompanied by a Native American drum
circle and climbers rappelling overhead amidst the
domed metal webbing constructed over top the open
pavilion, as well as up and down the building
walls. Urban Sax, attired in silver mesh and plastic
tubing serenaded the packed outdoor arena for over
an hour. Earlier in the day I interviewed Gilbert
Artman, aided by his kind manager Gilles Yepremian
serving as translator. We had a nice 25-minute
conversation with Gilbert talking about his musical
history and Urban Sax philosophy. The quality is
quite good,
so it makes for a very interesting listen with
most of the information not dated at all. Again
adjust your volume as needed & Enjoy!
[All Rights Reserved. Audio Content NOT to be
Used Without Expressed Written Permission]
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|
Eurock
Audio
Archives #2
1980 Conversation w/ Malcolm Mooney
Listen:
MalcolmINT1MP3
MalcolmINT2MP3
For More INFO:
Malcolm Mooney
I was living in LA at the beginning of the 1980s when I
met Malcolm Mooney former lead singer of Can.
At that point Eurock Magazine was at its high point in terms
of distribution entering the 7th year. Malcolm
called and said he'd heard of my work in promoting Euro rock
and suggested we meet up. He invited me to his home and
there we had a free ranging chat about his time with Can, music, his teaching,
music and art. It was recorded on a small Panasonic portable
recorder. What was recorded
of that conversation is not bad quality and has not been
tweaked or edited for the most part. Adjust your volume as
needed. Malcolm was a great cat and is still active today in
art and music. You can check out his web site to catch his
latest projects.
[All Rights Reserved. Audio
Content NOT to be Used Without Expressed Written
Permission]
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|
Eurock
Audio
Archives #1
1977
Uli Trepte
Interview
Listen:
UliINTMP3
In the late 1970's I was up in Portland running ITC and
importing Euro music as well as well as co-programming a
weekly radio program. In addition, Eurock Magazine was
gaining traction in Europe and making many new
contacts. One hilarious highlight of that era was
the magazine being featured on the record store set
of Robin Williams then popular TV program Mork &
Mindy. Right next to the cash register in full
display were visible several copies of the mag each time a
counter scene was shot on the store set. In 1977,
Uli Trepte of Guru Guru, Spacebox and later
Move Groove came to the US and stayed in LA with one
of my original Euro musical guru's Dana Madore who
ran a now legendary record store named Moby Disc at
that time. A real high point for me early on doing
Eurock was
having a
couple long conversations with him that led us to being
life long friends.
At one point we recorded and interview that was aired
on KINK FM in 1977. In retrospect he recounts his
personal history nicely I think. The unfamiliarity
with the technology involved only add a touch of humanity
to process. The recording quality is not bad. Adjust
your volume accordingly. My old pal Dana
supplies the humor at the outset when he answers the
phone. Uli passed away May 21,
2009, and I'd like to think he's still playing music
up in the ether. This recording lets you hear him
"in the flesh", perhaps for the first time, and for
me in some way keeps his spirit alive.
[All Rights Reserved. Audio
Content NOT to be Used Without Expressed Written
Permission]
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Gentle Giant
Derek Shulman Interview
Listen:
Derek Shulman Interview
In the annals of "Prog-Rock" there
were a couple English bands that didn't fall prey to
the pomp & circumstance that led most others to the
dinosaur bone yard, Gentle Giant was one of them.
The Shulman brothers and their mates made
intelligent rock laced with jazz, a quick breath of
the classics at time and a bit of pop perhaps. It
all combined into their own eccentric concoction
that not surprisingly doesn't sound today like an
old fossil from the past.
In 1997,
they released a retrospective box set of rarities
that was full of quark, strangeness & musical charm.
In 2009, they lovingly re-mastered the Gentle Giant
catalog and did a series of special reissues that
also offered up a fair share of great music and
memories of the glorious music from their past. It
was at that time I had the chance to chat with Derek
Shulman. He talked about the bands past and his
present activities. I even got him to confess a
secret he has never shared before as the
conversation wandered a bit far from the point.
Curious aren't you... So give a listen...
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Elliott Murphy Interview
Listen:
Elliott Murphy Interview
I remember the 1970's all too well. Post college,
the reign of Reagan in California as Governor, the
60's dead end dream
with it's fractionalization
followed by the ascendency of the
"me" generation"
that
led us to today's "new world order". One of the best
things of that time was a new rock-poet who spoke of
that malaise, strummed his guitar and had the voice
of a choir boy pleading to the Lord for salvation.
That was Elliott Murphy who recorded during that era
4 of the great rock-poet albums ever done -
Aquashow, Lost Generation, Night
Lights & Just A Story From America. A
critics favorite, the masses were well past
introspection and salvation even then, so sales
dwindled. What's a poor rock 'n' roller to do, eh?
The answer
was... Move to France where he could become a
respected artist and have a long career.
He met his mate there as well. Many years later when
doing a 30-day US road trip he passed thru' PDX and
I met the man, had his wife and son over to the
house and shared a great family Vietnamese dinner at
a place down the street. He was older and wiser, yet
still had the gift, which he shared with a few fans
at a local club that night. More time passed and in
2009 we hooked up again via the Transatlantic
airwaves and did this Interview in. It's was real
nice chat and he tells a good story, take a
listen...
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Plastic People of the Universe
Read
Article
When modes of music change, the fundamental
laws of the state always change with them. -Plato
The Plastic People of the Universe were a band who made
music as an act of creation for a less material second
culture, not centered on marketing and selling. In the
process, the Czech government banned them and various
members were thrown in jail.
The government informed them they had to
obtain a license to perform or quit playing. They then went
underground and played secretly...
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Gerhard Augustin
The Godfather of
Deutsch Rock Interview
Read
Interview
Before there was Krautrock, there was
"Schlager". Then along came the "Beat Club",
Germany's answer to "American Bandstand" and the
foundation was laid for a change in the mode of the music
which would shake the walls of Berlin and ultimately all of
Germany. Gerhard Augustin was the original co-host and
creator of the Beat Club" and a prime instigators
of the new German scene. As A&R man at Liberty/ UA in
Germany he signed Can, Amon Duul & Popol Vuh to the first
major label contracts on the Krautrock scene. This in depth Interview with him
makes for fascinating reading.
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Giorgio Gomelsky
Video Interviews
Watch
1st
London Blues Festival +
Crawdaddy Club Video INTERVIEW
Watch
Birth of British Blues
Read
Eurock Interview
Giorgio Gomelsky is one of the true
pioneers of experimental rock music. In these excerpts from Joly MacFie's
Punkcast he talks about his original Crawdaddy Club which was the first venue the Rolling Stones
played. In addition to that he also produced the first
recordings of the Yardbirds, Gong and Vangelis. He left the
UK and went to France to produce Magma and they went on to create
la scène souterrain musicale
Français.
Today Giorgio lives in NYC and still keeps attuned to
exciting new musical and technological innovations.
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More
Artist Features
HERE
Manuel
Goettsching ~ Damo Suzuki ~ Attila Grandpierre
Luis Paniagua ~ Kraftwerk ~ Ian Boddy
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