Eroc is the pseudonym of Joachim Heinz Ehrig (born 15/11/1951), best known as the madcap drummer with classic Grobschnitt. Eroc has never been just a drummer however, he has been an innovative sound explorer since the mid-1960's, and a really talented multi-instrumentalist, as documented on a series of solo albums.
As early as 1967 Eroc had developed his own methods of multi-tracking and phasing effects, with voices and instruments. He said, that like Udo Lindenberg or Klaus Schulze, he wasn't satisfied with just being a drummer, so he explored other creative types of music. In 1970 he recorded the revolutionary echo vocal collage work "Horrorgoll", very much like a piece of Dadaist sound-poetry (yet with a rock aesthetic), it can be found on his debut solo LP along with early synthesizer and multi-instrumental works. His earliest release however, was an obscure single, which we've never encountered.
His most adventurous outing overall was the outrageous and madcap conceptual extravaganza EROC ZWEI. Its concoction of synthesizer music, space-rock, comic theatrics, schlager and folk musics (oom-pah, liederhosen dance and accordion musics included), all coming together like an outrageous lopsided look at the German media and music industry, and obviously Eroc's homage to Frank Zappa's equally outrageous LUMPY GRAVY. In it we have bizarre cut-ups, stories and mock interviews, all in strongly accented German, which makes it all the more elusive and entertaining to the non-German ear! A delightful one-of-a-kind album.
A further anthology of early works, including rare Grobschnitt and other historical pre-Grobschnitt recordings (namely material by: Crew Blues Session and Wutpickel) was later released as the very varied EROC 3, an essential album for the Eroc and Grobschnitt collector. On later recordings Eroc mellowed somewhat, ending up like a mixture of Bavarian folk, synthesizer and rock, oft-reminiscent of Michael Rother's solos, but with the occasional touch of Eroc humour thrown in for good measure.
Not content as just a musician, throughout his career (since the 1970's) Eroc has also worked as an engineer and producer. Following the success of the "Wolkenreise" single (from EROC 4) Eroc left Grobschnitt in 1983. He has also recorded albums with Hans Reichel and Urs Fuchs, and now works as a record producer full time.
