Top News
On June 7, 2023 Cube-Tec International conducted an interview with EROC in which he talks about his career, his work and his experiences of more than 20 years with the mastering tools of this company. The documentation is in English, German subtitles are available:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6Sbj8pg_3I
On February 25, 2023, EROC received the Schallwelle Honorary Award for his life's work. This prize is awarded annually to personalities of the electronic scene. The laudation was held by Winfried Trenkler, former presenter at WDR. On this occasion there was a small video with pictures from his creative phases:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RtfPc2554II
A short compilation can bee seen here:
Joachim H. Ehrig ("Eroc") was born on November 15, 1951 in Weimar / Thuringia. At the end of 1955 he moved with his parents to Oberhausen, 1961 to Hagen in Westphalia. There he founded his school band The Crew in 1966, which made the area in and around Hagen unsafe in the following years. From this wild, scandalous gang, which can confidently be called the first Punk band, Grobschnitt was formed in 1971, where Eroc served (not only) the drums until 1983.
At the same time, he pushed his penchant for electronic equipment and sound recording, which would later become very important for the crew and Grobschnitt and lead to his solo career in 1975, making entire productions entirely in playback. Until 1986, he produced five albums, which were released by Metronome / Brain on vinyl and later on CD.
From his third LP "Eroc 3" (1979) comes his best-known hit, the instrumental piece Wolkenreise, which can be heard millions of times released on radio and television to this day and sounds in the ears of almost everyone (not only) in Germany.
Listen here:
Die Wolkenreise von Eroc... (Link muss noch angepasst werden)
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.
Released by Universal on May 25th, 2012
Digital remastered for ultimate sound quality:
Eroc - Wolkenreise II
Tracklist:
01 Wolkenreise 04:32
02 Sonntagsfahrt 03:33
03 Wolkenreise’88 03:50
04 Changing Skies 04:32
05 Wolkenreise’98 04:27
06 Space Shuffle 04:10
07 Wolkenträume 03:43
08 Nachtfahrt 04:18
09 Vogelfrei 03:54
10 Fantastico 03:50
11 Zimperlein 03:39
12 La Stampa 03:44
13 Seitenwind 02:58
14 Javea 04:30
15 Hundertwasser 02:31
16 Zauberwald 03:45
Bonustracks:
17 Radio Puschkino Reloaded 04:36
18 The Sugar Pie Soundtrack 04:18
19 Wolkenreise’98 / Radio Edit 03:40
20 Wolkenreise / Radio Edit 03:40
Total Time: 79:10
Check out trailer for the album here: Video Wolkenreise (Link muss angepasst werden)
For MP-3 examples from all CDs check out: Sounds
From the Hagen newspaper, issue 2005-12-17:
Radio:
2010 - Wolkenreise hits the SWR charts "Top 1000 Of The Year 2010" at number 678.
2011 - Wolkenreise steps up in "Top 1000" 205 spots to number 473.
2012 - Wolkenreise jumps up 308 spots to hit number 165.
2013 - Wolkenreise again in first third, this time on 275.
Here's the link to the complete charts of 2012: SWR Top 1000 (2012)
Radio:
Eroc was on FEB 24th, 2009 guest in the WDR show "Musicclub". Topic: the art of mastering and remastering.
Here a complete recording of the (German) show: WDR 2 - Musikclub 2009-02-24