Eurock

Eurock is a worldwide music promotion company founded by Archie Patterson in 1971. The name "Eurock" is short for "European Rock" although the scope of the company quickly expanded worldwide.
There are over 2,700 bands profiled in Eurock's index.
Manifestations
Radio Show
The original incarnation of Eurock was a two-hour radio show on the air from 1971-1974 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.
When Archie Patterson moved to Oregon, 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 played. Archie submitted several music samples to Mann who ultimately chose Tangerine Dream to do the score for the movie Thief.
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 Düül 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 also responsible for the first promotion of releases in the West by several underground Soviet-bloc bands, including Sven Grunberg and Plastic People of the Universe.
Articles for the magazine were written by experts from all over the world, including many of the musicians themselves including Richard Pinhas, Klaus Schulze, Uli Trepte, Chris Cutler, Harald Grosskopf, Jorge Reyes and others.
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 Pascal Comelade, Gandalf, Eddie Jobson, Jasun Martz, Dweller at the Theshold and others. Most notably, THE HUNDRED POINTS by Plastic People of the Universe, a recording by the band which indirectly led to the founding of Charter 77 by Václav Havel, eventual president of the independent Czech Republic.
Lectures
Between 1982 and 1987, Archie taught a well-received course in the history of European experimental and psychedelic music for students grades 7-12 in the Oregon public school system, then later at the private Reed College. This material was later made available on compact disc.
Album compilations
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.
In 1996 Patterson produced and annotated the 5-CD compilation boxed set of progressive rock for Rhino Records. It was called Supernatural Fairy Tales: The Progressive Rock Era.
CD-ROM
A multi-media hypertext 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. The Heretic music was issued again in 2010 as a CD entitled REQUIEM, augmented by additional historical recordings.
Books
The Eurock Book, originally published in 2002, is subtitled "European Rock & the Second Culture", and contains most of the articles from Eurock Magazine plus new articles and interviews to bring it up to date. The introductory essay is an unpublished article by well-known rock journalist Lester Bangs about Amon Düül II. The 709-page book is fully indexed with over 2700 bands listed.
A second book, Eurock: Music & The Second Culture Crash was published June 2015. The 326-page book consists of articles written since the first book was published, as well as some new material written especially for the book.
A third book, The Music of Gilbert Artman & Urban Sax was released November 14, 2016. In 280 pages it profiles the life and work of France's composer of progressive saxophone music, Gilbert Artman.
Electronic
Currently, Eurock operates as a website, podcast and blog on rocksbackpages.com.

Main Menu

See Also

Main Menu