|
On eBay Now...
ELOY RARE ORIG. AUTOGRAPH POSTCARD PSYCH PROG KRAUTROCK SIGNED 70\'S For Sale
When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
ELOY RARE ORIG. AUTOGRAPH POSTCARD PSYCH PROG KRAUTROCK SIGNED 70\'S:
$579.69
ELOY ORIGINAL signed older autograph card from the 70\'sEloy is a German progressive rock band. Eloy\'s musical styles include symphonic and space rock--the latter tendency being more prevalent on earlier albums.When the Hanoverian guitarist Frank Bornemann founded ELOY in 1969, he named the band after a people from the novel \"The Time Machine\" by HG Wells. Own compositions should be played, a pretty self-confident thought at that time in Germany. After a few line-up changes, a first formation was found that wanted to go this way. From then on, singer and pianist Erich Schriever and guitarist Manfred Wieczorke were there . Wolfgang Stöcker on bass and Helmut Draht on the drums provided the rhythmic foundation. The group won a regional band competition and got the chance to make their first studio recordings. The result was then in 1970 the first joint single with the titles \"Walk Alone\" and \"Daybreak\" .ELOY got a first record deal with Philips in 1971 and recorded the first album in Hamburg with the sound engineer Conny Plank (at that time also »Kraftwerk«, »Scorpions«, »Jane«). The sometimes socially critical texts are reflected in the iconic rubbish bin flap cover. Frank Bornemann , on the first work in 2008: \"Despite often polarizing positions with regard to the artistic line, we still managed to put together an album that aptly reflects the zeitgeist of this epoch (...).\"Helmut Draht , who was unable to play for a long time after a serious car accident, was replaced by Fritz Randow . The consequent decision to give up all other activities and to devote himself exclusively to music with new ideas in the future was not followed by Erich Schriever and left the band. Frank Bornemann took over the singing and Manfred Wieczorke changed the instrument: An organ should expand the instrumental spectrum and fit better into the musical plans of the band. In this line-up, \"Inside\" was recorded and released in 1973 on the renowned label »Harvest« (including »Pink Floyd«, »Deep Purple«) of the major EMI. This change of direction proved to be successful, now a clear musical profile could be recognized. The typical ELOY sound, a synthesis of spherical sounds, pulsating rhythms, powerful guitars and complex concert arrangements was born and set out to inspire a steadily growing fan base.\"Inside\" was a serious success in terms of sales. \"Wherever there was a socket, we performed and played,\" says Frank Bornemann about the number of appearances at that time. The band grew together and after a single flop ( \"Daybreak\" ) they started on the next album. With the new bassist Luitjen Jansen was \"floating\" recorded an album, which stabilized the success. The rather rocky material was not seen by the band as a musical advance and they started on a larger topic. \"Power And The Passion\" is ELOY\'s first concept album. New synthesizers were used on the 75 album, the story translated into music allowed the band a great musical tension, which was given additional accents with the second guitarist Detlef Schwaar .Unfortunately, the influence of the then manager of ELOY, Jay Partridge, led to strong distortions in the band structure. The band finally disintegrated and in the end Frank Bornemann was left alone and without a fellow musician. But the record company EMI stuck to him, continued to trust his artistic abilities and offered him to rebuild the band with new members and to continue his career.
The search for new musicians was successful in a short time: First, Frank teamed up with the Hanoverian guitarist Detlev Schmidtchen . Like Manfred Wieczorke before, Detlev changed instruments and operated the keyboards for ELOY. With Klaus-Peter Matziol and Jürgen Rosenthal , a very creative new rhythm team came into the band, which enriched the sound. The music became even more orchestral, structurally multifaceted and atmospheric - Jürgen Rosenthals Texts went strongly into the mystical and strengthened the mood of the music. During rehearsals, the new quartet wrote the material for a first joint album, »Dawn« . Then orchestral elements were added to the recordings in Cologne through a string arrangement. That gave the music an unmistakable note, something special. The album hit stores in 1976 and immediately became ELOY\'s greatest success to date. With two subsequent tours, the band developed an ever-growing fan base.So the ground was prepared for the big hit - and this followed in 1977 with the album »Ocean« , ELOY\'s best-selling album to this day. An album which perfectly matched the spirit of the times with its synthesis of atmospheric electronics, orchestral rock structures and esothermic lyric and brought the band the breakthrough to the top of so-called progressive rock. The opening song \"Poseidon\'s Creation\" was even used as a film score for a crime scene with Hansjörg Felmy and the sensational, fold-out album cover with the surreal painting by Wojtek Siudmak received numerous awards. \"Ocean\" became a »cult album«, developed into a permanent seller and ultimately proved to be the best-selling progressive rock album by a German band to this day. In 1995 a \"Golden\" award was finally presented by the record company EMI - 25 years after the release, 250,000 albums had been sold in Germany alone. ELOY was at the top of the German charts in 1977, partly ahead of its British colleagues from \"Genesis\" and \"Pink Floyd\". The subsequent tour was lavishly staged with a laser show, and the streams of visitors grew. The live presentation was a triumphal procession, during which recordings were made that were released in 1978 as a double album \"Live\" came on the market. The fans were enthusiastic, but the criticism in many German media, especially in the relevant magazines of the music press, was shockingly negative, sometimes even denigrating and almost aggressively hostile. Never has a band polarized so strongly and split the position of the audience and the music journalle so sharply as ELOY did after the »Ocean« album.The musicians retreated to the French Atlantic coast to compose new songs. Strong tensions developed between the artists. Jürgen and Frank couldn\'t come up with a common denominator because of the lyrics, Frank was too destructively colored by Jürgen\'s content scenarios, who had been writing the band\'s lyrics since Dawn . To make matters worse, they were difficult to translate phonetically into melodies. Shortly afterwards, the recordings for \"Silent Cries And Mighty Echoes\" completed in Cologne. Musically, the band was able to implement \"their\" sound, but the conflicts among the musicians did not decrease. One of the points of contention was the construction of a separate recording studio in Hanover. For the last concerts of the album tour in France, the band took a second guitarist on tour with Hannes Arkona for the first time since “Power And The Passion” . Frank wanted to include him as a permanent member of the band in order to expand the musical and instrumental spectrum. Unfortunately, Hannes only saw the end of this very successful era of the band, Detlev Schmidtchen and Jürgen Rosenthal left ELOY shortly afterwards.1980 TO 1984
Frank Bornemann , Klaus-Peter Matziol and Hannes Arkona found new comrades in Hanover\'s lively music scene. Hannes Folberth had already made music together with Hannes Arkona , and with his technical skills on the keys he was able to add new facets to the music. Jim McGillivray (formerly \"Epitaph\") was again a lyricist on drums . In the band\'s own Horus Sound Studio, which has just opened, \"Colors\" recorded. The tracks became shorter and rockier and now even found the applause of earlier critics, but not the unreserved approval of some ELOY fans, who liked the predominantly atmospheric waves of the previous formation better. On the following tour, the new formation presented itself as a musical unit and offered a good mix of all epochs of the band\'s history live. Nevertheless it was noticeable that parts of the audience would rather hear the sound and the songs of the old band. In order to build a bridge for the fans in the future, but also for personal reasons, Frank started looking for ideas for another concept album, completely in the atmospheric sound of earlier works.With »Planets« and »Time To Turn« there was soon enough material for a double album. But under pressure from the record company they agreed on two albums to be released in quick succession. The music is a mixture between the new, tighter material and the older, floating sounds. For this, Hannes Arkona played both on stage and in the studio in addition to guitar and keyboards. During the studio recordings, an old friend came back to the band: drummer Fritz Randow. Unfortunately, ELOY lost ever larger parts of its audience: The taste of the time had changed. German singing and poppy new wave sounds were very much in vogue and replaced progressive rock. Unfortunately, this had an impact on the sales of the albums and the size of the concert halls. A consolation was a radio hit: \"Time To Turn\" managed the feat of establishing itself at the top of the radio hit lists and thus caused increased attention for the album of the same name, which was then placed in the official album sales charts for many weeks . In England, Heavy Metal Records was a label that released ELOY music for the first time on the island. \"Planets\" and \"Time To Turn\" were specially equipped with a cover by the British illustrator Rodney Matthews. The albums published there met with a great response in the English media and received very positive reviews.In times of falling sales and changing tastes, there were dissonances in the band structure. Frank Bornemann remembers: \"Between me and the other band members (...) a deep rift opened up with regard to the conception and handling of our artistic work.\" For the first time, Frank held back and it emerged with \" Performance\" a new album, on which the polarizing influences of the two parties are reflected and caused uncertainty among many ELOY fans. The artwork already represented a completely different image and signaled strong musical changes. Most ELOY fans could neither get used to the visual expression nor the musical content of the album, and so »Performance« was not a sales success.So the band remembered old virtues and in 1984 returned to atmospheric sounds with »Metromania« , paired with pulsating rhythms, strong riffing and grippingly arranged compositions. But the common ground that was regained did not last long and the tensions continued: While Frank Bornemann was taking care of the final mix of the exhausting production, the other ELOY musicians rushed to the film music project \"Codename: Wildgeese\" . »Metromania« was well received by the fans and led, among other things, to an invitation from the BBC to England. Two sold out concerts at the legendary Marquee Club in London, recorded by the BBC, gave the band excellent response from fans and the media and the opportunity to further establish themselves in England.But instead of emerging stronger and motivated from the performances in England and putting ELOY there on the road to success, the band broke up. Exhausted and burdened with the renewed debate about artistic positions, the similarities were used up. Everything that made ELOY special: The spirit, the magic, the charisma and the joy of playing had disappeared. So they parted amicably.
1985 TO TODAY
For a long time it was quiet about ELOY. After the dissolution, no one expected any more signs of life. But the creative spark was not extinguished. Together with keyboardist Michael Gerlach from Berlin, Frank wrote the first songs for a new album. »Ra« was launched in 1988 and, to the surprise of everyone involved, hit the German charts. After the painful experience with the last formation, Frank left it with a duo for the time being, supported by various guest musicians during the recordings.Professional obligations did not allow ELOY to continue immediately. It wasn\'t until 1992 that there was another sign of life: \"Destination\" was published. The keyboards take a back seat in this production, the arrangements are very guitar-heavy. In this way, intentionally or unintentionally, the successful, but not necessarily ELOY-compliant artistic direction of Frank\'s renowned Hard\'n\'Heavy production forge Horus Sound Studios is reflected. \"Every step we humans take depends on our personal fate, from which we cannot escape.\" According to Frank, that is the core message of the album.1993 is a special year in the band\'s history: The 25th anniversary of ELOY is to be celebrated in the following year. With the ambitious »Chronicles« project, two CDs with the best ELOY songs, some newly recorded with the original line-up, some remixed or remastered! It also takes Klaus-Peter Matziol part and so the ELOY duo becomes a trio. Inspired by the old songs, you immediately start producing a new album that should contain a lot of the old spirit. \"The Tides Return Forever\" will be released in autumn and there will be a tour for the first time since the 80s. Reinforced by the drummer Bodo Schopf, guitarist and keyboardist Steve Mann (both previously with the McAuley Schenker Group) and the two background singers Susanne Schätzle and Tina Lux, the quarter of a century is celebrated extensively, to the delight of many fans.In 1995 there was a second part of the tour due to high demand, and the second part of »Chronicles« was also released . \"What else should come next?\" Asks Frank Bornemann ? The answer: \"Ocean 2\"! This ambitious project is also started because of the fan club that was founded especially for the 94 tour, at this point in time you simply cannot end ELOY. The songwriting and recording took a long time, but in 1998 the 16th studio album saw the light of day. Positive response from far and wide send the band on the road again. But unfortunately this tour is for a long time the last sign of life of the most successful German progressive rock band ...In 2003 EMI released \"Timeless Passages\" , the ultimate song collection, on two CDs. The product is refined with an elaborate cover that is reminiscent of old brilliant deeds. Shortly afterwards the last remastered old EMI studio albums appear. The back catalog is selling in attractive numbers, the interest of the fans has still not died down. And so one thinks about how to do justice to the label Artist Station , newly founded by Frank and operated together with Martin Kleemann . In 2009 ELOY can celebrate its 40th anniversary: The DVDs \"The Legacy Box\" show a documentary about the history of the band, enriched with video clips, concert recordings and TV appearances by the band. Many of the former and current musicians have their say. Current? Yes, new ELOY music will also be written and recorded for this occasion. With »Visionary« a new album is being created, which will remind of the best times of the band. Frank brought the musicians together again and inspired them to perform at their best. ELOY comes together again!However, since live activities were still not on the agenda, it was often assumed that this album was only produced as a one-off gesture with which the band wanted to thank them for their loyalty over the decades. The DVD title \"The Legacy Box\" also contributed to the fact that this designation was often understood as the final \"legacy document\" for a completed career.However, there was a real reunion of the band, which was unable to avoid the demand for further concert activities, especially since in 2011 an invitation from the USA was added to headline the legendary Nearfest Festival. This concert could not take place because Frank Bornemann ended up in hospital with a serious accident on the scheduled date, but in autumn of the same year the band headlined two big festivals in Germany (\"Herzberg Festival\" and \"Night Of The Prog\" on the Loreley), as well a \"Warming Up\" gig in Switzerland, performed live for the first time after a break of 13 years. For the first time in their long career, ELOY was on stage with six musicians (plus three guest singers), all of whom were current or former original members of the band. The enormous response to these performances as well as the constant demand from fans for more concerts meant that the band went on tour again in the same line-up in 2012 and 2013. \"Reincarnation on Stage\" on the market and immediately landed in the top 40 of the official German album charts.Mastermind Frank Bornemann then withdrew from composing and writing texts in order to devote himself to a long-planned project, a two-hour rock opera opus that is about the legendary French heroine of the Middle Ages, Jeanne d\'Arc. The most elaborate work in Eloy\'s history to date, to which all long-term members of the band made their contribution in the studio, took up almost five years (!) To be produced and was released under the title \"The Vision, The Sword And The Pyre\" as a band version in 2017 and 2019 on two albums in a row. Both albums reached high chart positions, received top marks from numerous reviewers and also received a lot of attention on a cultural level.It\'s been a long time since we\'ve been longing to introduce Eloy to you , and not just because some of our editorial staff fell into this cauldron of \'space-prog\' from a young age ... No, this article is timely. everything to rehabilitate the Hanover group. Rehabilitate? The term may sound a little strong but the idea would certainly come to few people (in any case, it is not really natural) to place the latter on the same level as the English dinosaurs of the 70s ... And yet, In our opinion, Eloy has what it takes to claim a place at the top of the progressive hierarchy, all periods combined ...
Its main fault is certainly to have appeared in Germany, a nation known and recognized for having generated Krautrock or soaring rock, musical styles of which the group from across the Rhine is only a distant relative. Progressive rock stricto sensu, this country is certainly not entitled to claim the same authorship as England. It is therefore very difficult to apprehend a formation freeing itself from its musical-culture to drape itself in that of one of its neighbors, while retaining certain national specificities ... This hybrid character, but completely new, is not certainly not a source of consensus, however soft ... EloyIt is thus to the land of Goethe, what PFM or Banco are for example to Italy: giants whose international recognition suffers from their geographical origin, that is to say from their birth outside the founding ground of the progressive movement. .. We will nevertheless recognize the Italian tenors cited the advantage of having been the masters of a style in its own right, which is not really the case of Eloy.... And this even if we know him some disciples: Werwolf, Epidaurus, Faithful Breath ... However, the latter has, among his progressive classmates, a characteristic specific to objectively singling out his long career: that of having given birth to the most large number of studio albums in a constantly (or almost, that is to say with one or two exceptions ... We will come back to this of course later) progressive, 16 to be exact ... This distinctive sign is obviously not enough to jump to the ceiling and make Eloy his favorite group, but admit that this title imposes ... This longevity, we owe it to Franck Bornemann, the man with the beret who orchestrates the destiny of Eloy since 1969, date of its creation.
In this long interval, Eloy has of course not escaped the vagaries of success and the fluctuations in human relations between its members (and therefore changes in training), but in any case never parted with his tireless leader. So 30 years that Bornemann has been leading his boat without worrying about the prevailing currents. And when he announced, in 1996, a return to a progressive vein, without any concession, we hasten to spread the news because it can only be reliable: Eloy is back!
This rebirth in a purely progressive form is of course made to delight us. But to be fully aware of it, it is advisable to situate the new album in relation to the style honored by the group since its beginnings. Without encroaching on the following chronicles, we must remember that Eloy is the cantor of what is commonly called \'space-prog\'. The good deal, do you have to think ... Another barbaric term to mask a lack of imagination or culture ... In fact, this name really flows from the source as soon as we put an ear on the music of the group German ... It is therefore important to illuminate its outlines ...
Let us take, to do this, a side road ... The progressive music lover is often revealed by the examination of his literary tastes: science fiction, fantastic, heroic-fantasy, comics, thriller ... We are indeed numerous to have read the works of Asimov, Matheson, Ellroy, Bilal, and other Tolkien ... These genres, frequent representations of dream worlds, correspond to a certain vision of the world that must in turn illustrate progressive rock ... is there a cliché in the air? Anyway, this brings us to remember the advice of Cosey, author of comics and in particular father of the series \"Jonathan\", who invited the reader of his illustrated works to associate listening to a musical work. ... Nice idea, isn\'t it? This dear Cosey, times oblige (we were in the 70s), thus advised some progressive pancakes (Mike Oldfield, Tangerine Dream, Pink Floyd ...). An association that sheds light on an artistic convergence that it is indeed easier to explain a posteriori ... In line with this attractive approach, it is thus very tempting to make music byEloy the perfect illustration of what science fiction has spawned more innovative: the space-opera. This way of bringing us to unsuspected places, virgin of all landmarks, therefore incapable of attenuating this vertigo of the unknown that inhabits us, indeed characterizes the progressive art of the Germans ... Here we are then led to plagiarize Cosey , and to recommend that you read some good books (Asimov, Herbert, Simack ...) while listening to Eloy , because one transcends the other and vice versa ... Behind this really captivating \'space-prog\' is hidden therefore a current of which Eloyis at the same time the initiator, the mentor and the master. Few formations finally followed him on this path (as we specified previously), so much does he appear as an inaccessible guide. The musical form described has of course taken different and uneven forms over the three decades of Eloy\'s existence . This \'space-prog\', of which we know the basic ingredients (velvety of keyboards and its procession of choirs and weightless guitar) will be widely described to you throughout the following pages ... We have thus divided the career by Eloyin four segments: 1969-1975: prehistory and the beginnings of history; 1976-1979: the golden age; 1980-1984: the silver age; 1988-1998: the return, first laborious then winning. These time segments, it should be noted, are defined as much by the musical link between the albums referring to them as by the line-up movements encountered. Here is a fact to underline: Bornemann has always succeeded in surrounding himself with musicians who know at the same time to blend into the existing style and to be the actors of a constant renewal.In this sense, the progressive rock of the Germans knew how to renew its point to experience an improbable longevity, capable of offering it, even today, a place of choice among the current tenors of our movement ... But now is the time. to immerse yourself in the mysteries of Eloy \'s long existence . Because no one will be satisfied with these allegories to really know the German formation and want to become acquainted with it. Bornemann and his family certainly deserve better than the status they have today, that of an aging group. Certainly, in recent years, Eloy was no longer quite fit to play the role of great organizer of the progressive Germanic current. The master was getting old, as they say ... Nevertheless, the answer to our doubts has arrived in the form of this wonderful new album, a sublime echo of past artistic successes ...
Yes, we repeat it to you, but be convinced now: Eloy is really back !!!
“1971-1975: Prehistory”The least we can say is that Eloy\'s desire (expressed in his choice of surname) to breathe new life into the German rock scene did not immediately find convincing musical expression. Still crushed under the weight of his influences (Frank Bornemann retrospectively quotes those of Colosseum, Deep Purple, Jethro Tull, Jimi Hendrix and Led Zeppelin), Eloy struggles to give birth to an original and emancipated speech. It is only at the end of this first period, with Power And The Passion , that he will finally succeed. Not without having known in the meantime some memorable moments ...
The very first album, eponymous, released by Philips in 1971, is certainly not among them. Its content is actually so far removed from the Eloy that we know of that it is almost irrelevant to talk about it. Main reason: the role, completely secondary, then played by Bornemann, who is satisfied with a role of guitarist and co-author of certain titles. The vocals and the rare keyboard parts are the work of Erich Schriever, de facto leader (until the design of the very dated \'gimmick-cover\', with its trash can whose lid can be lifted to discover a very little burger. appetizing, symbol of a consumer society to fight ...). The music is a kind of committed hard-rock, enhanced by psychedelic guitarist surges, with erratic developments,Eloy then in the \'krautrock\' movement then in vogue across the Rhine. The term prehistory (of Eloy , and of the German progressive as a whole) is essential: an album not to be discovered - and still ... - after having explored the rest of the group\'s work!
Two years later, Inside came out with EMI . We discover a metamorphosed Eloy . Frank Bornemann now combines the roles of guitarist and singer, Manfred Wieczorke often abandons the guitar for the organ: these two musicians are now alone in charge of the composition (the texts being the work of the resigned Schriever); co-founder Helmut Draht has given way to a very promising young drummer, Fritz Randow. This new quartet displays significantly increased skills; if he expresses in the text of \"Up And Down\" a laudable modesty as for the way remaining to be covered, his progress is real. With the 17 minutes of \"Land Of No Body\", Eloytakes his first steps in science fiction (admittedly allegorical, but isn\'t all science fiction?), and his music gets in tune: the bewitching tones of the organ, the effects used on the guitar , obsessive rhythmic patterns ... are all means for Eloyto tend towards abstraction. But this is by no means a gratuitous wandering; it stands out from psychedelia by a solidly structured writing (not yet enough, however) and by a desire to vary the moods within the same piece, thanks to the succession of outbursts and appeasements. It\'s hard not to think here of Pink Floyd (that of the live part of Ummagumma, in particular), whose intro of \"Astronomy Domine\" is moreover blithely plagiarized in the first seconds of the album; but also to a less obvious influence, that of Jethro Tull: not only for the sometimes strangely \'Andersonian\' song of Bornemann (cf. \"Future City\"), but also and above all for the rhythmic profusion and the sound of
After this considerable step forward, Floating (1974) could appear as a stagnation. It is true that he is the twin brother of his predecessor, with a few details. First of all, the ease of musicians is growing. Assisted by a new, more efficient bassist, Randow literally unleashes himself on his drums (\"Castle In The Air\", the title which most prefigures the Eloyof the great era), but also knows how to serve the search for soaring atmospheres; Wieczorke shows an increased mastery of the sonic possibilities of the organ, in the absence of mad virtuosity; as for Bornemann, he polishes his guitar playing, which sometimes takes on accents close to that of Steve Hillage (cf. the long solo which concludes the 14 minutes largely instrumental of \"The Light From Deep Darkness\", or the equally successful one of \"Plastic Girl\"). As for his singing, the object of many criticisms because of its lack of expressiveness and its imperfect English diction, it is clear that beyond a few clumsiness (such as those strident cries à la Lan Gillan which will disappear after the next album), it has in fact changed little, for better or for worse, over the years. And especially,Eloy ...
Despite the group\'s increased maturity after these first three albums, let\'s agree that Eloy\'s sound and musical approach on them have taken a hell of a beating, especially when compared to what they were doing at the same. period British groups. From this point of view, Power And The Passion (1975) will mark an important turning point, and constitutes in many ways the birth certificate of Eloy modern. The sound, first of all: Manfred Wieczorke has definitely abandoned the guitar (a newcomer, Detlef Schwaar, second Bornemann) and significantly developed his range of keyboards, which in addition to the organ now includes acoustic and electric pianos, mellotron and moog . On a good half of the album (roughly, the first quarter of an hour, dominated by the long \"Love Over Six Centuries\", and the final six minutes of \"The Bells Of Notre-Dame\"), we find the group at its best, freed from the antediluvian sounds of previous opus and finally able to suggest through its music the spatio-temporal journeys told in its texts.
The concept-album formula is not, however, for Eloy an infallible recipe, and sometimes plays tricks on him: stuck in the obligation to illustrate musically a literary subject not always of the highest interest (a journey through time, some of which stages, obligatory passages of the genre, are reminiscent of our outspoken \"Visitors\"), the group makes us undergo, during the second third, a serious slump where it seems to abandon the achievements of the rest of the album. No doubt the passion evoked by the title is understood here in the biblical sense of the term ... The grandiose finale happily dispels this mixed impression, recalling that despite its fluctuating inspiration, Power And The Passion remains a pivotal work of the career of: nothing less than his passport to the era of full maturity ... The harbinger of the latter being the first appearance of the legendary Eloy logo , the one you logically find at the opening of this article ...
“1976-1979: The Golden Age\"O hear ye heed, we enter a period in every way remarkable view. Not only does she see Eloy leave the opaque mists of adolescence, but above all she allows him, and in a somewhat unexpected way, to give birth to a remarkably accomplished art. An art whose quintessence will never really be achieved afterwards ... A survey of you, dear readers, would also certainly be very enlightening. Because, it is a safe bet that most of you place your favorite studio album of the group among the three listed between 1976 and 1979. As for those who do not yet know Eloy (if this is not perhaps through their literary culture), there is no doubt that they will soon follow the same path ... But, let\'s not skip the steps, and let\'s rather focus on presenting the discographic milestones of this fabulous time...
The foundations of Maison Eloy were therefore dug in previous years. And if Power And The Passion partly represents the laying of the first stone, its successors will prove to be much more successful builders ... And yet, the beginnings are not very engaging. Bornemann has just separated from all of his acolytes, and in particular from the faithful Manfred Wieczorke. Impossible not to fear the worst of this upheaval ... No sooner has Eloy indeed started to find his marks, than he has to let go of his spine ... But to all misfortune, something is good, because these departures will make us aware of a fact, until then not so obvious: Bornemann is the soul of Eloy, and ultimately has nothing to do with these modifications which would have decimated so many other formations ...
As incredible as it may seem, barely a year after Power And The Passion and the momentary separation of the group, Dawn is thus born with three new musicians to support the man with the beret. And the most incredible is that this new incarnation of Eloy will immediately operate at full speed, the instrumentalists proving to be in perfect osmosis (on the artistic level at least, because humanly it will be a whole different story, that the biography tells you. -after). Around Bornemann, we now count Klaus-Peter Matziol (bass), Dettev Schmidtchen (keyboards) and Jùrgen Rosenthal (drums) ...
Dawn : what a judicious title in view of what has just been said! This sun piercing the horizon above a sea of oil illustrates both the cover of the album and the inauguration of the artistic successes of the next three years ... Many fans of Eloy consider this work as the most successful of its discography, although it still shows some shortcomings. Subjectivity inherent in being a fan? Not necessarily, because Dawn is indeed a crackle of ideas, typical of the creative madness of the 70s, which may at first glance look like a somewhat misshapen tote. But from this disparity, an improbable homogeneity emerges which makes listening to the
Eloy indeed succeeds in making logical the sequence of symphonic and spirited sequences (close to a certain form of sophisticated hard-prog à la Deep Purple ...). This link between pieces with divergent styles, we certainly owe it to the presence of a symphony orchestra. This indeed punctuates with his grandiose interventions often sour landscapes, and makes the album a dazzling series of colorful moments ... This desire to resort to the orchestration of a part of the album, vector essential to his success, however, follows an initially rather worrying observation: Detlev Schmidtchen, a trained guitarist who only recently took to keyboards, fears that he will not live up to the expectations of his colleagues. This orchestra, more than the fruit ofEloy of 1976 cannot yet come to terms with any perfectly defined rule. Time is lacking, and Bornemann simply makes his music the result of the material contingencies which presided over its creation. And then this is in no way harmful, because Eloy then experiences a state of grace which will lead him to the top of the progressive hierarchy ...
Can we indeed resist the diaphanous beauty of these sublime orchestral flights, which certain sound effects (storm rain wind ...) and the electric surges amplify?!? ... The ethereal side of progressive rock of Eloy knows with Dawn an almost definitive incarnation, that his successors will only revisit with more conventional means (but enjoyable, that is to say an array of keyboards unparalleled in the progressive movement).
This first album from the golden age therefore offers a \'space-prog\' which can finally be heard in its deepest sense. Brilliant illustration of galactic adventures, Dawn , propelled by the low thermodynamics of Matziol, thus brings Eloy fully into the history of our movement. It is really from this work that the German group shows the vitality of its talent. The shell is done, now it\'s time for the finishing work ...
We take the same ones and start over ... The quartet having proven its worth on Dawn reunites a year later, and gives birth to what will become the centerpiece of Eloy \'s discography . Ocean is not only a huge artistic success (downright a cornerstone of the progressive heritage!), But above all one of the greatest commercial successes of the group ... Why has this album made such an impact on people\'s minds?
The answer, obvious to anyone who has looked into the Eloy case and seen its juvenile imperfections as mere temporal conjunctures, does indeed shed light on a simple coming of age. All the vicissitudes of the green years of formation could only lead to such a work. A bit as if the God of the progressive had programmed Eloy as early as 1969 to bring his \'space-rock\' to take the ultimate form that Ocean makes us discover in the fall of 1977 ... If Big Bang had existed at the time, no one doubt that we would have made it the album of the year ... Four long compositions (12, 8, 8 and 15 minutes) are offered to us to take full advantage of the windfall, and to examine how a band works. full throttle ...
The doubts concerning Detlev Schmidtchen quickly fade in front of the superb flights of keyboards which Ocean abounds. Each of the four musicians is indeed at the peak of his art, but above all enjoys a major advantage, that of expressing himself at the heart of a concept conducive to the most ardent instrumental games. So telling us about the creation and then the engulfment of Atlantis, Bornemann manages to draw from his hoarse Germanic throat his most correct English accent, but above all offers the group a limitless field of expression ...
The music therefore takes on an essentially majestic and solemn appearance here, where Dawn allowed herself a few more \'earthy\' escapades, in particular on the side of a certain form of hard-prog stamped \'seventies\' ... Ocean effectively breaks with inclinations more crude than its author still sported a few months before ... The beginning of the album is notably fabulously inspired. The work on the atmospheres is quite simply perfect, and transports us to the heart of ecstatic landscapes. The keyboards, divinely propelled by Bornemann\'s space guitar, quickly emerge as the founding element of Eloy\'s so original progressive rock.. One does not dare to imagine what that would have given, if Schmidtchen had been an accomplished musician ... \"Poseidon\'s Creation\", the opening title, would thus deserve to be exposed in an improbable musical museum to enlighten the future generations on this that was the most successful form of \'space-progressive ... And even if the somewhat pontificant and introductory speech of the last piece may seem slightly long, we must recognize that the music of Ocean is the fruit of constant inspiration , taking Eloy to the heights of progressive art ... Everything is said, or almost, and one then wonders if there is still a reason for being in Eloy ...
No immediate answer to this question, the next step in Eloy \'s career is indeed the publication of an album recorded in public in March 1978. Sporting a cover for once rather ordinary, Live (such is its sober title) focuses its repertoire on the last two studio albums (six titles out of the eight listed), the rest coming from Power And The Passion and Inside ... In fact, following technical problems relating to the sound (due to interference caused by the lighting management system), the band could not use all the songs recorded that evening. This is how \"Decay Of Logos\", third part of the conceptual Ocean, was ousted from the final version of the album ...
Apart from this anecdote, nothing really special is to report about the discovered versions, except that they show how much Eloy is concerned with reproducing his art in a form quite close to the original. In that sense, Live can be a great way to get to know the German band under their most famous incarnation. On the other hand, those who seek extravagance or fantasy will be on their side: Eloy is certainly not Grobschnitt, capable of making each concert a real show, of which Solar Music Live is the ultimate extension ...
In the wake of this triumphant tour, Eloy publishes a new album which will unfortunately be the last to appear under his most famous formation ... Silent Cries And Mighty Echoes is again a great commercial success, but knows from a point of view artistic another destiny.
This work, which should have been that of the supreme consecration, is in fact that of controversy ... Although the 5 compositions (9, 15, 7, 5 and 7 minutes) listed are a formidable result, some go to see it as a shameful plagiarism. Quite simply because two sequences, clearly determined and moreover superb, evoke the splendours of Pink Floyd of Wish You Were Here ... For our part, Eloy conveys influences here that are too crudely marked not to be considered as simple and tasty winks ... The German group has never hidden the stylistic affinities that could exist between the two formations, and displays them here as one shows deference to a recognized talent ... Somewhat annoyed by the extent of this controversy, Bornemann responded a few years later in the form of irony and in a relevant way: \"We were indeed able to generate atmospheres close to what Pink Floyd did at a precise moment in his career, but on the other hand I am sure that Pink Floyd will never be able to create music like ours ... \". So do not miss this album, because in certain eyes, it can be considered as the
The atmospheres, moving as possible, are organized in a mosaics of silky tones, which the keyboards (frenzied moog in the lead) weave in the form of multiform and multicolored canvases. In the latter, like fluttering insects happily killing each other, Bornemann\'s sumptuous guitar solos run aground, and help to make certain sequences perfect examples of this \'space-rock\' which we have been telling you about since. a few paragraphs ...
And to end once and for all with the group of Gilmour and Waters, let\'s make a new analogy between Silent Cries And Mighty Echoes and Wish You Were Here to say that the first is certainly the progressive extension of the second ... outcome, but let\'s leave it to everyone to judge ... Anyway, the spatial and almost mystical side is indeed here almost palpable as the musicians invest themselves in the exploration of the most fruitful aerial themes ... The small weakness of this album certainly lies in its somewhat wobbly arrangement, since it begins with the three most successful songs. It is clear that the listening becomes a little less intense at the end ... But it doesn\'t matter.Silent Cries And Mighty Echoes is finally to be considered as the complement and the equal of Ocean whose reputation is however much more flattering. May these few lines allow his successor to make up, in your mind at least, the delay in esteem that he still gives him today ...“1980-1984: The Silver Age\"The story is an eternal. Bornemann indeed undergoes the departure of his acolytes, only Matziol remaining faithful to him. Rosenthal and Schmidtchen therefore leave Eloy , both for personal reasons (the understanding is no longer perfect between the musicians) and for musical reasons. At the dawn of the 80s, the two survivors must therefore form another group, and we really wonder if the death knell is not ringing for Eloy ...
Not at all. Like an unexpected phoenix, the German group is once again reborn from its ashes, and enlists three new members: Hannes Arkona (guitars), Hannes Folberth (keyboards) and Jim McGillivray (drums).
And business does not take long to pick up. As incredible as it may seem, a new album was released in 1980, barely a year after Silent Cries And Mighty Echoes ... A change of decade means a change in musical sensibility for Eloy.. Oh, don\'t worry, there is no revolution to fear, just do we have to note that the musicians are now orienting the music towards a more muscular style, more marked in fact by the urgency that the 80s will symbolize thereafter. The first sign of this evolution concerns the duration of the 8 pieces: none of them in fact exceeds seven minutes ... Are we now going to have to do without these instrumental games that were still spread over long minutes for a few months? before? ... Not really in fact, because this new album, although more compact, has parts of a rare intensity, which shed light on a new way of playing progressive rock. So much so that Colors quickly turns out (and still remains today) one of the best albums of the German group ... At the moment when the progressive movement falls into disuse, Eloy reinvents his style, and offers us a modernized version of his\' space -rock \'legendary. The keyboards of Folberth (certainly the best instrumentalist in this position that the group has known ...) therefore still occupy the front of the stage, but are part of less symphonic sequences than in the near past. The moog, king among kings, is now more talkative, inviting us to discover less stripped-down landscapes. The thematic action becomes more lively, and leaves less time for the listener to get used to the developed themes.
Eloy has therefore adapted his words to the times, and this is particularly successful for him. The last track of the album, the instrumental and aptly named \"Sunset\", is worth mentioning because its melodic purity, nourished by 12-string guitar and a silky down of keyboards as possible, makes it a major success for a convincing conclusion ... Bornemann therefore surrounded himself with the musicians he needed to avoid any repetition, and to continue to make him speak well ... The ties with Pink Floyd are thus completely untied, and Eloy begins his most recent period. personal, if not the most remarkable ...
All of Colors\' promises are confirmed with the release of its successor, the following year as it should be according to the metronomic regularity of the German group. The same team is in charge, and the osmosis between the musicians seems to take even more assertive forms. On the other hand, risk-taking quickly appears almost non-existent, the group seeming eager to build their music calmly on the certified bases of Colors . Nevertheless, Planets immediately made an impression with the regularity of its inspiration, which quite simply made it the peak of this period. The 8 tracks, chained most of the time, indeed illustrate the ultimate form that Eloy\'s space-prog could take. adorned with its modern dressing. Keyboards in superimposed layers, magnificent orchestrations on \"At The Gates Of Dawn\" and \"Carried By Cosmic Winds\", guitar riffs and rhythm section in fusion to structure the whole, these are the ingredients united between them under the benevolent gaze of the great conductor Bornemann , three Michelin stars for prog ... Some may see in the despotism of keyboards a limit to what Planets is talking about , but it\'s a safe bet that the majority of prog fans will find there, on the contrary, a good reason to turn to this album, the first part of a concept that Time To Turn will close, \"a year later, of course\" the song would say ...
Time To Turn sees the return of drummer Fritz Randow, in place of Jim McGillivray. Musically, the group continues its synthetic approach, while depriving it somewhat of its evocative force. Do we owe this development to a relative decline in inspiration or to a desire to boost the group\'s purpose a little? Still, this tenth album reflects a slight weakening of the progressive ambition of its authors. The music, more square and rigid in its developments, sometimes escapes recent splendours. Fortunately, the grandiose \"End Of An Odyssey\", a long piece of over 9 minutes, comes in handy to increase the average value of the 7 compositions. Its heady crescendo, like Sébastian Hardie\'s \"Openings\" but here based on keyboards,Time To Turn among Eloy\'s success stories . This song in fact justifies the acquisition of this album, the last to legitimize the title (\"Silver Age\") of the present period ...
His successor indeed marks a stop in Eloy\'s career , and carries with him the seeds of the separation of the group two years later ... Performance , although still under the yoke of the keyboards, becomes much more conventional, and offers for once some very pale compositions. Eloy now performs a certain form of vitaminized synthetic rock, with sometimes a little coarse features ... This \"space-metal\" visibly escapes the control of Bornemann who will make of it moreover a few years later \"the worst album that Eloyhas never recorded \"... The group therefore suffers from an identity crisis, and seems to suffer within itself from divergent forces leading it to shirk rather than assume this new constraint. This time, no song to put in the foreground, or in any case to be presented as the savior of the album. Nevertheless, it would be dishonest not to extract \"Pools\" and \"Shadow Of Light\" from this mess, because they still evoke the splendours of Colors and Planets . the other compositions, structure proves too common, and inspiration far too little to prevent their author to toe the line. EloyHaving become a formation like the others, we believed the thing to be impossible since the coming of age in the mid-1970s ... And yet, the observation is there, raw and almost sordid: Eloy is no more than a shadow of him even...
Metromania will therefore be Bornemann\'s last attempt to try to preserve Eloy\'s original soul . A compromise seems to have been found between the musicians, and the content of this new album is well and truly discovered with a positive feeling. Serenity rediscovered, in a way ... We are nevertheless very far from the Eloy of the great era, and it is rather the pleasure of rediscovering Eloy in life that will dominate in our positive appreciation of Metromania . Because its content is broadly similar to that of its predecessor, and even ends up resembling a German version of the neo-progressive which appears simultaneously in Great Britain. This is perhaps the progressive history revisited, to makeEloy, the cantor of a current whose authorship is generally attributed to Marillion ... Boutade that this, because the success of the German group is decreasing while that of Fish and his friends does not cease to intensify ... As always, Metromania identifies pieces that stand out, and prevent listening from becoming boring. Here they are titled \"Follow The Light\" (9:37), the longest play in five years, and \"Metromania\" (6:10), and confirm that the talent never really left Bornemann and his people. ... The lesson to be drawn from the last two albums of this period is therefore the following: the shaping of ideas is as (or even more ...) important than the ideas themselves ... But calm does not is that apparent and bodes in fact of a storm from which the group will not emerge unscathed. For the third time since the beginning of its existence, Eloy is dissolved, without our thinking this time that it could one day be reborn from its ashes ... It is once again the end of an era, and we are surprised to congratulate ourselves so much on group has lost its luster. We will therefore have to keep the image of the flamboyant Eloy of Colors and Planets , otherwise we will be downright depressed ...
“1988-1994: The return (laborious, then winning ...)\"Q UATRE years have passed. Eloy reappears, to everyone\'s surprise, as a duo made up of the immovable Bornemann and a newcomer, keyboardist Michael Gerlach. The two men met in 1986 in Berlin, and had been entertaining the idea of recreating Eloy for many months. The realization of this project therefore takes the form of Ra in the spring of 1988.
Although many musicians came to lend a hand to the duo during the recording, it immediately appears that this new album suffers from a lack of cohesion. The 6 compositions (from 4:46 to 8:51) indeed suffer from the absence of this creative breath that inevitably generates a group in adequacy (or better, in osmosis) ... We find overall the Eloy that the we left with Metromania, except that the keyboards have ceased to be the melodic initiators and that the structure of the pieces is henceforth less predictable ... The music, more climatic than frankly dynamic, nevertheless retains a sort of \'space dressing\' -metal \', which is perfectly suited to the era in which it was born. The black point concerns the rhythm section, and in particular the drums. This, programmed by Gerlach, gives Ra a slight artificial touch , but above all clearly breaks the upward momentum of the keyboards. The album, although symbolizing a respectable rebirth, therefore suffers from this discrepancy between an \'earthly\' rhythm as possible and space flights like Eloylove them ... We will also note the care taken in most of the introductions, which can for their part evoke some of the best moments of the Golden Age ... But, you have understood, it remains very difficult to get enthusiastic about this somewhat sluggish work which recreates, more than it concretizes it, the hope of one day seeing Eloy regain his real level of inspiration, therefore the verve of his green years ...
Bornemann and Gerlach will have taken a long time to follow up on Ra , making us undergo again four long years of silence ... The discovery of Destination is fortunately most engaging: what a cover !!! If the ramage resembles plumage, there is no doubt that we will discover the worthy heir to Eloy\'s most beautiful hours... All false ! This fourteenth studio album is on the contrary a cruel disappointment. The Inspiration Soldiers wreaked incredible havoc, and one can only see the destruction of much of the legendary \'space-prog\' ... What can we say without being too cruel? ... once again, the drums are at the heart of this failure ... Played this time by a drummer of flesh and blood, the weighty Nico Barretta, she invites, a little in spite of herself, the music of Destination to be wrapped in a coat of lead ... Needless to say then that the 8 compositions (from 4:26 to 7:55) remain desperately nailed to the ground. Not to mention that they have to deal with insipid melodies, which Bornemann moreover conveys through a sweet song whose vocal skills hardly adapt ... We are frankly close to the fiasco, and it is not not the punctual return of Klaus-Peter Matziol on two titles which can save anything ... In the light of Destination , there is no doubt that we are led to regret the criticisms addressed previously to Performance and Metromania ...
Eloy is at the bottom of the abyss, and we can at least rejoice in one thing: he will not go any lower ... The end of a myth, quite simply ...
Here, Eloy is back ... It is with a slight detachment that we learn two years later the release of The Tides Return Forever ... What do you expect, \"scalded cat fears cold water\" ... And yet, the shock! This new album is poles apart from its predecessor. Without finding the Eloy from the late 70s or the one from the start of the next decade, it\'s pretty amazing to find him in a young premier form. The ardor and the impetuosity of a rediscovered youth indeed inhabit the seven (from 3:59 to 9:44) present compositions ... And there are signs which do not deceive on the desire of Bornemann to reconnect with the more spontaneous verve of its green years: the resumption of the logo of the best albums (abandoned afterPerformance ) and the return of Matziol as an official member ... Of course, everything is far from perfect, let\'s agree, starting with the presence of Nico Barretta whose game is despite everything a little less lead than on Destination. In the meantime, the Italian drummer is obviously not fond of finesse, and this is still sometimes felt during certain flights which would have deserved a more subtle rhythmic treatment ... In addition, Bornemann\'s song is constantly built on the mode of the \'verse-refrain\', which of course slows down the development of the many instrumental sequences ... But, despite everything, success is at the end of the road. We owe this first of all to the great care given to melodic themes; then, we should be delighted with the return to a space-rock worthy of the name, that is to say whose keyboards are the first craftsmen. Gerlach has thus left his habit of stooges, and seems inclined to take up his responsibilities in the new incarnation of Eloy.... Because it has become known that Bornemann, if he is indeed essential, needs talented and concerned acolytes to create a truly successful art ...
The purpose of Eloy seems clear: revive symphonic music that made it successful in the past, and on the path of renewed artistic integrity. Because the best is indeed yet to come with Ocean 2 . But we do not know it yet ... The four years which separate 1994 from 1998 will then prove to be long, very long, and nourished by a feeling mixing in a contradictory way pleasure and fear ... Eh, yes. Eloy has not given birth to a really excellent album since 1981 (an eternity, on a prog scale!): Is he just still capable of it? ...
Although Eloy is an essential formation, of which we are now coming to the end of the presentation, this article proves all the more legitimate as the new album of the German group is a burning success. No need to procrastinate, the following chronicle (the fruit of a broad consultation and reflection, and not of a blinding passion) is formal as to the luminous character of the work which is the object ... Ocean 2 does not go perhaps not to make you see Eloy in a completely new light, but has every chance nevertheless to make you relativize the criticisms which you had been able to address to him (or to read about him) until today. Either way, it\'s now or never to really get to know him ...
The pleasure experienced from the first listening of this album is therefore certainly not nostalgic even if it is already very exciting to find the quality of the best past albums. In fact, Ocean 2 transcends the hopes that the project had raised. Thus, and perhaps for the first time in his career, Eloy is able to achieve unanimity and from this point of view, the new opus appears as much as a summit as a new beginning.
If it is more consensual, if certain excesses (which some people revel in it should not be forgotten) have been blurred, the options retained in no way contradict those which made the reputation of the group: believe it or not, none of the past qualities are not really lacking !!! We are thus witnessing a parade of the most striking characteristics of German art. Ocean 2 is indeed a real catalog of the best ideas that Eloy has had throughout his career: majestic keyboards and initiators of most of the themes encountered, spatial and voluptuous guitar (but somewhat too rare in his soloist interventions ...), grandiloquent choirs, flute snippet, all at the service of a flamboyant space-prog ... Unexpected, this observation? It is indeed in this that one is tempted to make Ocean 2 the best album of the discography of Eloy . \"And the song?\", The most skeptical will point out to us ... This one, without having become brilliant, does not really lend itself to dispute. Bomemann seems to have wanted to play it low profile, in order to let the music fly away according to the melodic patterns put in place ...
We are also immediately struck by the quality of the production, the result of technological progress, but also by the instrumental richness, the consequence of a more precise artistic concern. Even the riskiest effects (such as the use of female or male choirs) keep their balance in an ensemble that can admittedly be described as grandiloquent but no longer excessively pompous. For many beaches, it is even appropriate to speak of finesse and great refinement!
As for the visceral detractors of Eloy , those whom no musical argument can no longer convince, they will find as in the good old days enough to assimilate the group to a sub-Pink Floyd. A little as if the musicians had wished to maintain or revive their ardor, in the title-introduction \"Between Future And Past\" (2:43) they indeed take up some characteristic features (clock, evocative melody and above all identical replica of the opening sound of Wish You Were Here ) by the famous English group. However, let\'s stay serious, apart from this obvious wink and maybe \"Waves Of Intuition\" (4:56) which would not have disturbed The Division Bell , the music of Eloy undeniably has its own characteristics. Now to come back to the sound borrowing, if it is also identifiable it is because there is a reserved domain, even an abandonment. Sounds like that of the violin and the piano have been used for several centuries by a multitude of musicians without anyone finding fault with them. It is completely unjustifiable that certain sounds (and all the more so if they are good) remain reserved for a single group or musician, or even for a single album! In short, if there are criticisms to be made against Eloy , they can hardly be formal any more.
The success is therefore as constant as the work proves to be coherent. Each piece is constructed as if it were meant to honor a part of Eloy\'s career . The feminine, throbbing and suave vocalizations of the magnificent \"Ro Setau\" (7:09), concluded by a superb solo by Hannes Folberth (invited for the occasion to remind us of his talent), the long poignant solo of Bornemann on \"Paralyzed Civilization\" (9:28), or even the grandiose interventions of the Prague Philharmonic Choir on \"The Answer\" (11:19) are some of the moments of bravery of this new album free from any weakness whatsoever. .. In this regard, the very great cohesion existing between the musicians is immediately striking.Eloy is today emblematic. Thus, the replacement of Nico Baretta by Bodo Schopf is a weighty element in this osmosis because his playing is much lighter, therefore more able to allow the music to really take off ... Bodo the clown therefore forms with the august \'Matze\' a perfectly matched duo that creates elegant and perfect rhythmic patterns to welcome Bornemann and Gerlach\'s aerial flights (very present and impeccable from start to finish!) ...
It remains for Eloy to maintain this ambitious course in the future, and therefore continue to remind the young and talented generation of the rich heritage they enjoy today ...
Past and present have thus been brought together at the heart of Ocean 2 to allow Eloy to contemplate the future with serenity, and to make it perhaps the place of his greatest successes ...
PS: Twenty-one years after the first part, it was necessary to confirm the continuity also on the iconographic level. Thus the excellent Wojtek Siudmak has been put to use. The superb cover (superior in our opinion to the first), ideally completes a luxurious booklet in which the painter also intervenes twice. The talent of this artist and his perfect fit with the musical genre should encourage the extension of this collaboration ...
To also consult, as an extension of this file:
ELOY - \"Visionary\" (2009)Eloy is a German progressive rock band. Eloy\'s musical styles include symphonic and space rock--the latter tendency being more prevalent on earlier albums. The band has much more in common with English progressive rock and symphonic rock groups such as Pink Floyd, King Crimson, Yes, and Camel.[1] and is not generally considered Krautrock.Contents1 History2 Discography2.1 Studio albums2.2 Compilation / remix albums / box sets2.3 Live albums3 Band members3.1 Timeline4 References5 External linksHistoryEloy was founded in 1969 by guitarist Frank Bornemann and has endured several line-up changes-- with Bornemann being the only consistent member of the group.[1] Bornemann pursued a more commercial direction after a series of major splits in the group in the 1980s. Former members of the band later re-joined and released the album Ocean 2 in 1998-- a return to the classic symphonic progressive rock genre for which the band was well known. Despite attracting a large following in Germany the band never gained popularity in the United States.
The name Eloy is based on the futurist race of humans from the book The Time Machine by H. G. Wells. Bornemann described the origin of the name of the band: \"Wells describes in his book the situation of mankind about 800,000 years later, and \'Eloy\' is a human race in his story. The Eloy in Wells\' story made a new start with the help of the time traveler. In a way, it was a new beginning for the human race. German rock bands in the late 1960s played mainly covers from other bands instead of playing their own compositions. Record deals for German bands were absolutely rare and German bands generally were considered to be second class bands in their own country. At that time it was a strong effort for a German band to come out with only their own compositions. It was a start into an unknown future, and from this point of view, comparable to the human race in Wells\' story. That is why I got the idea to name the band \'Eloy\'.\"[2]
Bornemann reunited Eloy for its 40th anniversary in 2009. After an eleven-year-break the band released a new album called Visionary-- aiming to recapture the spirit of the early years. A double DVD The Legacy Box was released in December 2010 and contains a number of videos and television recordings from all periods of the band, as well as a documentary of the band\'s history.[3]
The band played at festivals in Germany and Switzerland in July 2011 with largely the same personnel as those on the 1994–1995 tour.[4] Eloy was booked to headline the North East Art Rock Festival in June 2012[5] – its first North American concert – but had to cancel after Bornemann was injured in road accident in March, 2017.
In 2019 Eloy released two new CDs based on the legend of Jeanne d\'Arc.
DiscographyStudio albumsEloy (1971)Inside (1973)Floating (1974)Power and the Passion (1975)Dawn (1976)Ocean (1977)Silent Cries and Mighty Echoes (1979)Colours (1980)Planets (1981)Time to Turn (1982)Performance (1983)Metromania (1984)Code Name: Wild Geese (1984) (soundtrack)Ra (1988)Destination (1992)The Tides Return Forever (1994)Ocean 2: The Answer (1998)Visionary (2009)The Vision, the Sword and the Pyre – Part I (2017)The Vision, the Sword and the Pyre – Part II (2019)[6]Compilation / remix albums / box setsRarities (1991)Chronicles I (1993)Chronicles II (1994)The Best of Eloy Vol.I - The Early Days 1972-1975 (1994)The Best of Eloy Vol.II - The Prime 1976-1979 (1996)Timeless Passages (2003)The Legacy Box (2010)The Classic Years Trilogy (2019)Live albumsLive (1978)Live Impressions (DVD, 2013)Reincarnation on Stage (2014, CD and DVD)Band membersCurrent membersFrank Bornemann – guitar (1969–1984, 1988–present), lead vocals (1972–1984, 1988–present)Klaus-Peter Matziol – bass (1976–1984, 1988–present)Hannes Folberth – keyboards (1979–1984, 1992–present)Michael Gerlach – keyboards (1988–present)Stephan Emig – drums (2018–present)Former membersErich Schriever – lead vocals, keyboards (1969–1972)Helmuth Draht – drums (1969–1972; died 2003)[7]Wolfgang Stöcker – bass (1969–1973)Manfred Wieczorke – guitar, backing vocals (1969–1972, 1973–1974), keyboards (1973–1975)Fritz Randow – drums (1972–1975, 1981–1984)Luitjen Jansen – bass (1974–1975; died 2008)[8]Detlef \"Pitter\" Schwaar – guitar (1975)Detlev Schmidtchen – keyboards (1976–1979)Jürgen Rosenthal – drums (1976–1979)Jim McGillivray – drums (1979–1981)Hannes Arkona – guitar (1979–1984), keyboards (1981–1984)Bodo Schopf – drums (1998–2016)Kristof Hinz – drums (2016–2018)Timeline
Krautrock (also called kosmische Musik, German for \"cosmic music\"[9][10][11]) is a broad genre of experimental rock that developed in West Germany in the late 1960s and early 1970s[10] among artists who blended elements of psychedelic rock, electronic music, and avant-garde composition among other sources.[12] These artists moved away from the blues influences and song structure found in traditional Anglo-American rock music,[13] instead utilizing hypnotic rhythms, tape-music techniques, and early synthesizers.[14][12] Prominent groups associated with krautrock music included Can, Neu!, Amon Düül II, Faust, Harmonia, Ash Ra Tempel, Agitation Free, Guru Guru, early Kraftwerk, Tangerine Dream and Cluster.[5]
The term was popularized by British music journalists, who adopted the term \"Krautrock\" as a humorous umbrella-label for the diverse German scene,[15] though many so-labeled artists disliked the term.[16] The movement was partly born out of the radical student movements of 1968,[17] as German youth rebelled against their country\'s legacy in World War II and sought a popular music distinct from traditional German music and American pop.[10] The period contributed to the development of ambient music and techno,[8] and influenced subsequent genres such as post-punk, new-age music, and post-rock.[5][18]Contents1 History1.1 Origins and influences1.2 Etymology2 Musical elements2.1 Kosmische musik3 Legacy and influence4 See also5 References5.1 Citations5.2 Bibliography6 External linksHistoryOrigins and influencesSee also: Experimental rock and Rock music in Germany
A German student protest from 1968Krautrock is a broad label encompassing diverse sounds and artists that emerged in West Germany during the 1960s and early 1970s.[19] The music was partially inspired by broad cultural developments such as the revolutionary 1968 German student movement,[10][20] with many young people having both political and aesthetic concerns.[21] Youth rebelled against both dominant American influence and conservative German entertainment such as schlager music,[21] seeking to liberate themselves from Germany\'s Nazi legacy in World War II and create a new popular culture.[15] Dieter Moebius, of the bands Cluster and Harmonia, noted that \"we were a lot of the times on the streets instead of studying. As young people we were not very proud to be German [...] we were all tired of listening to bad German music and imitations of American music. Something had to happen.\"[21] The movement saw artists merge elements of varied genres such as psychedelic rock, avant-garde forms of electronic music, funk rhythm, jazz improvisation and \"ethnic\" music styles,[5] typically reflecting a \"genuine sense of awe and wonder.\"[19]
We were trying to put aside everything we had heard in rock \'n\' roll, the three-chord pattern, the lyrics. We had the urge of saying something completely different.—Jean-Hervé Peron of Faust.[13]Core influences on these German artists included avant-garde composers Karlheinz Stockhausen and Terry Riley, and bands such as the Mothers of Invention, the Velvet Underground, the Beatles,[22] and Pink Floyd.[10] A significant influence was the work of American minimalists such as Riley, Tony Conrad, and La Monte Young, as well as the late \'60s albums of jazz musician Miles Davis.[23] Some artists drew on ideas from 20th century classical music and musique concrète,[21] particularly composer Stockhausen (with whom, for example, Irmin Schmidt and Holger Czukay of Can had previously studied), and from the new experimental directions that emerged in jazz during the 1960s and 1970s (mainly the free jazz pieces by Ornette Coleman or Albert Ayler).[18] The Quietus noted the influence of Jimi Hendrix and James Brown on krautrock musicians.[24] Moving away from the patterns of song structure and melody of much rock music in America and Britain, some in the movement were drawn to a more mechanical and electronic sound.[18]
EtymologyUntil around 1973, the word \"Deutsch-Rock\" (\"German Rock\") was used to refer to the new groups from West Germany.[25] Various sources claim that \"Krautrock\" was originally a humorous term coined in the early 1970s either by British disc jockey John Peel[26] or by the UK music newspaper Melody Maker, in which experimental German bands found an early and enthusiastic following.[27] The first use of the term however, was found in a full page advertisement from Popo Music Management and Bacillus Records promoting German Rock in the UK, in April 1971.[28] The music emerging in Germany was first covered extensively in three concurrent issues of the UK music paper New Musical Express in the month of December, 1972, by journalist Ian MacDonald, who may have been the first to coin the term.[29] The term derives from the ethnic slur \"kraut\". \"Kraut\" in German can refer to herbs, weeds, and drugs.[30] Other names thrown around by the British music press were \"Teutonic rock\" and \"Götterdämmer rock\".[30] West Germany\'s music press initially used \"krautrock\" as a pejorative, but the term lost its stigma after the music gained success in Britain.[30]
Its musicians tended to reject the name \"krautrock\".[31][30] This was also the case for \"kosmische Musik\".[30] Musicologist Julian Cope, in his book Krautrocksampler, says \"Krautrock is a subjective British phenomenon\", based on the way the music was received in the UK rather than on the actual West German music scene out of which it grew.[32] For instance, while one of the main groups originally tagged as krautrock, Faust, recorded a seminal 12-minute track they titled \"Krautrock\", they would later distance themselves from the term, saying: \"When the English people started talking about Krautrock, we thought they were just taking the piss... and when you hear the so-called \'Krautrock renaissance\', it makes me think everything we did was for nothing.\"[13]
Musical elementsKrautrock has been described as a broad genre encompassing varied approaches,[10][19] though The Quietus noted that most music in the genre, \"diverse as it is, shares an interest in electronics, texture and repetition.\"[24] Shindig! summarized the style as \"avant-garde musical collages of electronic sounds, rock music, and psychedelia\" which typically featured \"improvisation and hypnotic, minimalistic rhythms\".[12] Los Angeles Magazine summarized the genre as \"where American psychedelica meets icy Germanic detachment\".[33] Critic Simon Reynolds described the style as \"where the over-reaching ambition and untethered freakitude of late \'60s acid rock is checked and galvanised by a proto-punk minimalism ... music of immense scale that miraculously avoided prog-rock\'s bombastics\".[5] AllMusic described it as expanding on the musical explorations associated with art rock and progressive rock, but diverging from American and British groups\' emphasis on jazz and classical elements in favor of \"a droning, pulsating sound that owed more to the avant garde than to rock & roll\".[14] According to The Line of Best Fit, some typical characteristics include \"steady 4/4 beats, hypnotic, droning rhythms, and shimmering keyboards\".[34] Artists used early synthesizers and experimented with tape music techniques.[14] Pitchfork stated that the genre \"in its platonic ideal should be basically instrumental; it should seamlessly meld electronics and rock instruments; it should favor long, drawn-over structures over short dynamic shifts, and steady-state rhythms over syncopation\".[35] Los Angeles Magazine describes it as a \"hypnotic, piston-pumping genre [...] where drummers pounded out tightly-wound beats, bassists thumped pulsing notes, and zoned out singers warbled over it all in an absurdist drone\".[33] The Stranger called krautrock an \"innovative reconstruction of rock and electronic music\".[36]
The \"Motorik\" beat is the 4/4 beat often used by drummers associated with krautrock,[37] characterised by a kick drum-heavy, pulsating groove, that created a forward-flowing feel.[37] The motorik beat was used by Can in the song \"Mother Sky\", and by Neu! on their debut album,[38] later being adopted by other krautrock bands. It has been widely used in many different styles of music beyond krautrock.[39] According to XLR8R, the term krautrock is often used by critics to signify the \"mesmerizing motorik rhythms pioneered by Can and Neu!\", but contested that \"they represent merely a tiny fraction of the music that emerged from Germany during Krautrock\'s Golden Age\".[15] Matt Bolton of The Guardian makes a similar point, arguing that \"Neu!\'s streamlined instrumentals [...] certainly have little in common with Can\'s eclectic experimentalism, Amon Düül II\'s improvisational space rock or Faust\'s cut-and-paste sound collages.[19]
Kosmische musikKosmische musikStylistic origins Electronicpsychedeliaspace rockavant-gardetape musicCultural origins Early 1970s, West GermanyDerivative forms Ambientnew ageOther topicsSpace musicKosmische musik (\"cosmic music\") is a term which came into regular use before \"krautrock\" and was preferred by some German artists who disliked the English label;[16] today, it is often used synonymously with krautrock.[40] More specifically, it may describe 1970s German electronic music which uses synthesizers and incorporates themes related to space or otherworldliness;[40][41] it is also used as a German analogue to the English term \"space rock\".[42] The style was often instrumental and characterized by \"spacy\", ambient soundscapes.[41] Artists used synthesizers such as the EMS VCS 3 and Moog Modular, as well as sound processing effects and tape-based approaches.[40] They largely rejected rock music conventions, and instead drew on \"serious\" electronic compositions.[41]
The term \"kosmische Musik\" was coined either by Edgar Froese in the liner notes of Tangerine Dream\'s 1971 album Alpha Centauri[41] or by record producer Rolf-Ulrich Kaiser as a marketing name for bands such as Ash Ra Tempel, Tangerine Dream, and Klaus Schulze.[30] The following year, Rolf-Ulrich Kaiser\'s Ohr Records released the compilation Kosmische Musik (1972) featuring tracks by Tangerine Dream, Klaus Schulze, Ash Ra Tempel, and Popol Vuh.[40] Kaiser eventually began referring to the style as \"cosmic rock\" to signify that the music belonged in a rock idiom.[42] German producer Conny Plank was a central figure in the kosmische sound, emphasizing texture, effects processing, and tape-based editing techniques.[16] Plank oversaw kosmische recordings such as Kraftwerk\'s Autobahn, Neu!\'s Neu! 75, and Cluster\'s Zuckerzeit.[16]
Several of these artists would later distance themselves from the term.[40] Other proposed names for the style at the time were \"Berlin School\" and \"Dusseldorf School,\" though none remained definitive.[41] The style would later lead to the development of new-age music, with which it shared several characteristics.[41] It would also exert lasting influence on subsequent electronic music and avant-garde rock.[42]
Legacy and influence
This article may contain indiscriminate, excessive, or irrelevant examples. Please improve the article by adding more descriptive text and removing less pertinent examples. See Wikipedia\'s guide to writing better articles for further suggestions. (October 2016)Krautrock has proved to be highly influential on a succession of other musical styles and developments. Early contemporary enthusiasts outside Germany included Hawkwind and in particular Dave Brock who supposedly penned the sleeve notes for the British edition of Neu!\'s first album[43] Faust\'s budget release The Faust Tapes has been cited as a formative teenage influence by several musicians growing up in the early 1970s such as Julian Cope (who has always cited krautrock as an influence, and wrote the book Krautrocksampler on the subject). The genre also had a strong influence on David Bowie\'s Station to Station (1976) and the experimentation it inspired led to his \'Berlin Trilogy\'.[44][45]
Krautrock was also highly influential on the late-\'70s development of British new wave and post-punk, notably artists such as Siouxsie and the Banshees, Public Image Ltd., Cabaret Voltaire, The Fall, Gary Numan, Joy Division, Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, Simple Minds and This Heat. Kraftwerk in particular had a lot of influence on American electronic dance music of the 1980s: electro, house, techno and especially Goa trance. Ash Ra Tempel was strongly influential on the later development of 70s ambient as well as post-rock.[46]
See alsoSpace musicAmbient musicElectronic art musicElectronic musicExperimental musicKrautrocksamplerGerman rockKosmische KuriereRomantic Warriors IV: KrautrockSpace rock
Karthago were founded in Berlin by Joey Albrecht (guitar, vocals) and Gerald Luciano Hartwig (bass). In 1970, they engaged the Bolivian percussionist Thomas Goldschmitt (mainly hand percussion) and got a recording contract with BASF. Two additional members were added to their line-up: Ingo Bischof (keyboards) and Wolfgang Brock (drums). \"Karthago\" was recorded in October 1971 graced with excellent heavy guitar work and the funky, gutsy vocals of J. Albrecht, recalling the Jimi Hendrix Experience and the heavy progressive funk band Funkadelic.
More Santana-esque instrumental work was present on \"Second Step\", recorded in May 1973. W. Brock had left for The Rattles in February 1973 and was replaced by Norbert \'Panzer\' Lehmann on this album. Then Lehmann departed to the heavy progressive band \"Epitaph\", and he was replaced by Konstantin Bommarius (ex-2066 & Then, Abacus). Hartwig also left in the Summer of 1974. His replacement was something of a sensation at the time - Glenn Cornick (ex-Jethro Tull). They signed with Bacillus label and relocated to Oxford, England, in November 1974, where they recorded \"Rock\'n\'Roll Testament\".It marked a change of style towards a smooth, well-produced rock with some minor symphonic touches.
In January 1976 they recorded the double album \"Live At The Roxy\". As Glenn Cornick had quit the group, Gerald Hartwig was now back again. Albrecht, Bischof and Goldschmitt were also helped by Reinhard Bopp (guitar, vocals, ex-Hardcake Special) and Ringo Funk (drums, ex-Atlantis, ex-Jeronimo). This record literally became the \'Karthago testament\', as the group disbanded in the Spring of 1976.
However, Albrecht later assembled Ringo Funk and Chico de los Reyes (piano, vocals) in the studio in the Summer of 1977 for the forgettable \"Love Is A Cake\" - a commercial disco, pop-rock disaster!JOEY ALBRECHT
After his birth on January 15th, 1952, it took just 8 years until Joey Albrecht grabbed a string instrument for the first time. Early on, he was part of a mandolin orchestra. \"Little Joey\" was 10 years old when he founded his first band. \"The Almights\" gigged in countless clubs across the German state of Lower Saxony. Everybody was excited - with the exception of the headmaster of Joey\'s school. He wrote a letter to the Albrecht parents in which he demanded an end to what he called \"the wrong influences\" for their son. Joey never really followed that demand.
At age 13 Joey recorded his first record. He hit the stages of the famous \"Starclub\" in Hamburg (yes, the same club The Beatles had gigged in extensively years before).
When asked about his musical influences, Joey names Latin American guitarists as well as Jimi Hendrix, John Lee Hooker, John McLaughlin, Ray Charles and Chick Corea.
In 1969, Joey moved to Berlin. After performing as a solo artist for a few months, he founded his life project Karthago.
A busy and wild period started at this stage. As opposed to his fellow Karthago members, Joey already had a lot of experience with record releases. The guitarist, vocalist, producer and composer today: \"I had to teach everyone all the time. And my approach was different. So I put everyone under pressure. Back then, I was not interested in any political issues, but rather in success.\" The key to success was quality, which Joey stuck to eversince
After the preliminary end of Karthago in 1976, Joey invested a lot of energy into many projects. Those included \"Bad Boy\" as well as the \"Joey Albrecht Band\". In between, there were some temporary Karthago revivals with different line-ups. In addition, Joey worked as a pick-up musician.
\"When Ingo asked me to think about a full-blown Karthago revival a few years ago, I did not want to do it at first\", Joey says. But by now, he is glad and enjoys working on the DVD, which will be released soon, as well as on the next Karthago album. \"We are trying to stick to the approach we followed back then. The difference: We do not have those image neurosis problems we used to have. And there is no lack of discipline anymore.\"
Joey is very happy about today\'s Karthago line-up. This of course applies also to the new band members Rolo and Chris. \"Nowadays It is hard to find people like them\", Joey says.Ingo Bischof was born into a musical family on January 2nd, 1951. His mother had many classical records, which Ingo consumed early on. One day the Bischofs were invited over by friends. After their daughter played some piano pieces during the evening, Ingo said to himself \"I can do this too\".
While Ingo\'s older brother played Elvis Presley records 24 hours a day, the future Karthago member prefered the Rolling Stones or Steve Winwood. Later, Ingo also got into Fusion (Mahavishnu Orchestra, Wheather Report,...) and Jazz pianists (McCoy Tyner, Keith Jarreth,...).
At age 15 Ingo founded his first band \"Thud\" with Marvin Kemper and other fellow musicians. In 1969, the \"Modivations\" followed. A year later Ingo became a founding member of Karthago.
In 1975, he switched over to \"Kraan\", in 1978 Ingo became a member of \"Guru Guru\". Later on, he re-joined \"Kraan\" until 1984. At the same time he founded the group \"Bad Boy\" in another cooperation with Joey Albrecht before becoming a pick-up musician.
Today Ingo says: \"Being a musician for rent was something totally different. I\'m glad about not being a pick-up musician anymore because many colleagues did not manage to get back into what they really wanted to do. The creativity and the personal style suffers while playing with other bands a lot. And these are important aspects\".
In the 1990ies, Ingo became a music instructor in Hamburg. Today, he is both a Karthago and a \"Kraan\" member. In addition, he plays meditation sounds with Ramish Weeratunga (\"Flowing Power\").
Ingo on the Karthago revival: \"Today we are more professional, more effective and not as wild and crazy as we were in the 1970ies. But the musical intensity is still there\".
Vintage The Holly Family Nativity Candle Holder. J ELOY. Rare $29.99
RARE French chalkware polychrome MAdonna SAINT Eloy Figurine statue church $143.40
Antique french ceramic chalk saint eloy elooi rare white version $300.00
ELOY RARE ORIG. AUTOGRAPH POSTCARD PSYCH PROG KRAUTROCK SIGNED 70'S $579.69
Topps Bunt Rare Eloy Jimenez Award + Set (1+14Luminaries Signature 2020 Digital $10.81
1946 Real Photo PC:San Francisco Peaks Flagstaff AZ – RARE Eloy Arizona Postmark $9.95
CPA 63 SAINT ELOY LES MINES INTERIOR DE LA GARE (cpa rare with 2 trains $54.06
Rare Zippo Asobi Super Eloy Zippo Lighter $95.59
|
