Rockpommel's Land
ARTIST: Grobschnitt
RELEASE: 1977
INTERVIEWEE: Joachim "Eroc" Ehrig
While most rock fans in the States didn't know about it, in the 1970s there was a thriving progressive rock scene in Germany. A key player in that movement was Grobschnitt, a band that released a string of intriguing albums beginning in 1972. The highpoint of Grobschnitt's body of work is Rockpommel's Land, a concept album that weds a fanciful story to ambitious musical ideas.
Keyboardist Volker "The Doktor" Mist came up with a fantasy story about a little boy called Ernie, a giant bird and an imaginary land. "He had these melodies in his head," Eroc says. The new work represented a major departure from the free-form work that had come before. "Every tone, every accent is strictly composed," Eroc says.