Eroc english

	Last update: 2006-06-15
	Topics: Finally: All of Eroc’s albums on CD… Remixes of Wolkenreise The lawsuit and the results	Page updates: 2006-08-25 Finally: All albums on CD 2006-09-20 New sound-samples

	Finally: All of Eroc’s albums on CD…
	Newsbreak: On FEB 24th 2009 EROC was to be heard on WDR 2 (German radio for NRW) in the Show "Musikclub". Topic: the art of mastering und remastering... The whole show can be heard here: WDR 2 - Musikclub 2009-02-24 EROC – the former drummer of Grobschnitt and solo-artist 1975 - 1976 - 1979 - 1982 - 1986 When will Eroc’s solo-productions be released perfectly remastered on CD? – This question reached us again and again for so many years. Apart from illegal bootlegs by e.g. Germanophon, which were sloppy copied from crackling vinyl, most of Eroc’s own creativity was taboo for the friends of the digital super-sound. This lead into the abnormal situation that critics like e.g. the outstanding review of Eroc 1 by Julian Cope from October 20th, 2002, to be found on his website www.headheritage.co.uk/unsung/reviews/index.php?review_id=630 had to originate from such weird sources, which the reviewer himself regrets a lot, wishing from his heart to get the music in better quality. His wish and those of thousands of other fans became reality during 2005 and 2006: Finally all of Eroc’s solo-albums now are available on CD: Each CD is carefully remastered from the original tapes, contains a bilingual booklet (English / German) and is available hand signed by the artist only here: www.grobschnittstory.de For MP-3 examples from all CDs check out Sounds From the Hagen newspaper, issue 2005-12-17:
	Remixes of Wolkenreise
	From than 20 existing remixes of „Wolkenreise“ the CD EROC 3 contains these tracks: Feuerwolken (Fiery Clouds) (4’41) – by Eroc himself, style: Dance Journey Of The Clouds (3:39) – by Ginko Garden aka Eddy F. Müller, style: Ambient Wolkenträume (Cloudy Dreams) (3:42) – by Yomano aka Volker „Mist“ Kahrs, former keyboardist of Grobschnitt, style: Trance Signs In The Sky (4:08) – by Bubi Hönig, guitarist of Extrabreit and Green, style: Fusion Rock Chilly Clouds (4:23) – by Charly McLion, electronic’s specialist from Aachen, style: Chill Out Bad Girl (2:46) – by Mario Gericke, former Dun Es Tak, today Potentia Animi, style: Thrash
	The lawsuit and the results
	Why were the Eroc albums not available on CD up to this day? For more than five years Eroc fought a lawsuit against Universal Music, the current owner of Metronome and Polydor. He challenged the position that the record company could release his LP’s on the new media of CD without first re-negotiating the original contracts – which had been drafted with specific restrictions to vinyl. In 1998 Universal, believing it could, went ahead and released CD’s from the old albums without even informing Eroc about that. Thus Eroc was forced to initiate a legal proceeding. Although Eroc won the first two instances at the Berlin Regional Court and the Berlin Court of Appeal, Universal pushed the case up to the German Federal High Court. Then, in an act without equal in the history of the justice system, the courts and music industry colluded to ‘retroactively’ change the law. In spite of it all, Eroc – in a battle resembling a modern day David vs. Goliath – stood tall against dark forces in a wicked game, and in April 2004 a final decision was announced: Eroc’s suit was rejected due to a “re-work” in the Author’s Law. The music industry string pullers had achieved their desired goal. Thus Universal was in the clear and Eroc also had now to fork up the cash for the whole endeavor(!). It was a complete departure from the law and truer to a banana republic proceeding than one in a modern German state: while a case is kept sleeping in a drawer somewhere in some judge’s filing cabinet at the High Court for two years, a scramble is taking place behind the scenes to change the crucial paragraph needed to expand the range of record industry rights to own an artist. When the dust finally settled the lawsuit no longer had any relevance. The dangerous precedents were successfully blocked. Precedents, which would have rocked the industry to its foundation: Eroc’s case would have opened the flood-gates for many other artists to come knocking. Simply stated: it would have been a coup de tat for artists and a nightmare for the music industry. Finally, neither the German Federal High Court - which on the one hand claimed to be „surprised“ about the law’s rework yet on the other hand justified its decision on the fiction that Eroc is not the author of his own works of art, nor the Berlin Court of Appeal - which rejected Eroc’s principal witness prior to issuing their final decision on the basis of being „too late“, nor the German Federal Constitutional Court - which wiped Eroc’s complaint off their desks with the tepid arguments „elapsed periods” and “no further public interest”, saw the justification for further action due to the unbelievable procedures described above. This shows one more time, how the German courts interpret the term “constitutional state” ad absurdum by means of lack of interest and incompetence.