Eurock
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Eurock is a music company founded by Archie Patterson in 1971[1]. The name "Eurock" is short for "European Rock" although the scope of the company quickly expanded worldwide. The term has since passed into the general lexicon as a synonym for any music with exotic, non-mainstream characteristics.
There are over 2,700 bands profiled in Eurock's index.
Contents |
[edit] Manifestations
In over thirty-five years of operation, Eurock has taken many forms:
[edit] Radio Show
The original incarnation of Eurock was a two-hour radio show on KFIG-FM in Fresno, California, airing Wednesday nights 9:00 to 11:00 pm. It featured music by Amon Düül II, Klaus Schulze, Popol Vuh, Can, Tangerine Dream, Magma, Guru Guru, Faust, Embryo, Ange and many others. The radio show ran for three years, from 1971 to 1973.
When the host changed residences, the show ran an additional two years on Portland, Oregon's KINK-FM. Another move south led to a series of shows on Los Angeles radio station KPFK-FM. During one of these shows, movie director Michael Mann contacted the host to get more information on the music being played. Archie put him in contact with Tangerine Dream, leading to them being contracted to score the movie Thief.
[edit] Magazine
In the twenty years between 1973 and 1993, 45 regular issues (and two special issues) of Eurock Magazine were published. The first issue, in March 1973, covered the music of Tangerine Dream, Amon Duul II and Can. Later issues covered Krautrock, English progressive rock, the emerging scene in Japan, ethnic fusions from Spain to Finland, French native rock bands, South American fusion bands, and many others. Eurock was the first periodical to bring to light the underground rock movements in Eastern Europe. Eurock was responsible for the first releases in the West of several underground Soviet-bloc bands.
Articles for the magazine were written by experts (including many of the musicians themselves) from all over the world.
[edit] Label
Between 1980 and 1998, Eurock Distribution released twenty-two cassettes, one LP and sixteen CDs of music not otherwise available, by such artists as Plastic People of the Universe, Pascal Comelade, Gandalf, Eddie Jobson, Jasun Martz, Dweller at the Theshold and others.
[edit] Lectures
Between 1982 and 1987, a well-received 7-week course in the history of European rock music was taught in Oregon public school system and later at the private Reed College. This material was later made available on compact disc.
[edit] Album
In 1982 a record album was issued by Eurock Records entitled The American Music Compilation. It featured tracks by Eddie Jobson, Jasun Martz, John Luttrelle, Richard Bone, Doctor Wize (Dennis Weise) and Anode (Robert Carlberg). It was re-released on CD in 2008.
[edit] Supernatural Fairy Tales
In 1996 Patterson was approached to put together a 5-CD compilation boxed set of progressive rock for Rhino Records[2].
[edit] CD-ROM
A multi-media CD-ROM released in 2000 contains all of the articles written for Eurock Magazine (some 1,500+ pieces), over 350 band discographies, plus hundreds of photographs and several videos of the bands featured. It also contains 40 minutes of exclusive music by Heretic (Hiro Kawahara), a Japanese experimental musician.
[edit] Book
The book, published in 2002, is subtitled "European Rock & the Second Culture"[3], and contains most of the articles from Eurock Magazine plus new articles and interviews[4] to bring it up to date. The introduction is an unpublished article by well-known rock journalist Lester Bangs about Amon Duul II. The 709-page book is fully indexed.
[edit] Electronic
Currently, Eurock is centered around their mail order business, their website and podcast.
