AERA -MECHELWIND   DCD ( D  LIVE 1972 / 1973 )

new and sealed DCD !

The “Musikgruppe Aera” was launched by Muck Groh (g) (ex-“Ihre Kinder”) in early September 1972. At that time, the band with the characteristic name “Name” consisted of six musicians from three countries:

Muck Groh: founder & guitarist – Germany, Hein Schmitt: guitar – Germany, Davy Crocket: bass – England, Steve Robinson: organ – Germany (real name: Rainer Geyer, before with 2066 And Then), Martin Roscoe: drums – England (before with 2066 And Then and Nine Days Wonder), Ditch Cassidy: vocals – Ireland.

In this line-up they toured Ireland for one month in October 1972. At the end of the tour, Ditch Cassidy left the band and stayed behind in his home country. Shortly after, Davy Crocket also left, appeared on the LP of Midnight Circus and joined the sect “Jesus People”. This happened at the end of 1972.

There followed a period of frequent change of musicians, with Peter Malinowski, bass, Carsten Bohn (Frumpy), drums, Karl Mutschlechner (Nine Days Wonder) from Austria, bass, Sidhatta “Dada” Gautama Schwitzki from Indonesia, drums, Paolo Grobben from Holland, bass and Dieter Bauer (2066 And Then), bass, just to mention a few.

Then Steve Robinson came up with a new band name, suggested it to Muck Groh, and Aera was born.

In 1973 Klaus Kreuzeder (sax, fl) joined the band, coming from “Ex Ovo Pro”. The band moved into an old stately home in Mechelwind near Erlangen, because they realized, that the human element was just as important as the musical one. A commune was formed, which became Aera’s hard core.

In November 1973 Sidhatta and Paolo had a serious car accident in Höchstadt. Paolo was severely injured and in hospital for four months. This was the moment that Dieter Bauer decided to join Aera on a permanent basis. In December 1973 Dada and Steve Robinson left Aera for Nine Days Wonder. Then Wolfgang Teske answered an advertisement the band had placed in Sounds and Riebe’s journal and joined the band. In December 1974 Aera bought their legendary bus from the Nuremberg Symphonic Orchestra.

Just how important the human element was for the musicians was expressed in the title of the first LP, which the group produced themselves on 8., 9. and 10. November 1974 in the recording studio Hiltpoltstein: “Aera Humanum Est”. At that time, apart from Groh and Kreuzeder, the group consisted of Wolfgang Teske (dr.), Dieter Bauer (b) and occasionally Peter Malinowsky (b). After the next shake-up, the second LP “Hand und Fuß” was recorded from 14. to 18. September 1976, with Groh, Kreuzeder, Malinowski (now spelt with a final “i”), Christoph Krieger (vio) and Lucky Schmidt (dr) from the Erlangen based band “Wind”, again in the studio Hiltpoltstein. Uncle Latzi appeared as a guest musician, playing baritone-sax and oboe.

Success came after a renewed reshuffle, from which the constellation with three (!) drummers emerged. In November 1978 Aera was awarded the German Phono-Academy award in the competition for young musicians in Munich , category jazz, where some 80 groups had entered, in the line-up Lutz Oldemeier, dr. etc. (formerly Missus Beastly), Freddy Setz, dr. etc., Helmut Meier-Limberg, perc., Matz Steinke,bg and Klaus Kreuzeder, sax., Lyrikon. That very year they produced their third record “Türkis” in the same line-up with Muck Groh