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 (g), Locko Richter (b) and Achim Giesler (keyb) appearing as guests.

In November 1979, the line-up consisting of Klaus Kreuzeder, Helmut Meier-Limberg, Lutz Oldemeier, Locko Richter, Freddy Setz and Roman Bunka from “Embryo” on guitar recorded the LP “Live”, which was released in April 1980. This record included live recordings from concerts in Kiel, Isselhorst, Herford, Berlin and Hamburg.

That very month Roman Bunka left the band again and returned to Embryo. The following year he recorded the LP “Dein Kopf ist ein schlafendes Auto”, with Freddy Setz and Gerald Luciano Hartwig from Embryo.

Once again, Aera was without a guitarist – but was supported by newcomers Peter Kühmstedt, bass, (formerly Guru Guru), drummer Toni Danner (formerly member of the groups of Joachim Kühn, Toto Blanke, Jasper van’t Hoof and Cyklus) and Limbus, brother of Ulrich Meier-Limberg, keys.

LP number 5 followed in February 1981. The album “Too Much”, released on “Spiegelei”, now featured Achim Gieseler (piano, computer, ex-Cyclus) as permanent band member.
In November 1981 the album “AKATAKI” was recorded with the same line-up and guest musician Detlef E. playing the trumpet. It was released in January 1982, also on “Spiegelei”.

At the end of 1982 Aera featured once again with new musicians. Apart from the core around Klaus “Ede” Kreuzeder and Helmut “Limbus” Meier-Limberg, there was now Alto Pappert (ex-Kraan), tenor saxophone, Jens Fischer (Tri Atma, Inga Rumpf, Cyklus), guitar, Peter Schmidt (Anyone’s Daughter), drums and Heinz Otto, guitar, trumpet, flugelhorn and vocals, along with returnee Locko Richter, bass, vocals.

Once this formation split up in 1984, the individual band members turned towards their own projects or formed new bands with other musicians, which put an end to Aera for the time being.

In the summer of 2006 Muck Groh founded the NEUE AERA, together with Jonas Gruber (son of Muck) bass, guitar, initially also with Locko Richter (violin, organ), Christoph Krieger, violin and former co-musician on the second Aera-LP “Hand und Fuß”, Wolfgang Teske, drums and former co-musician on the first album “Humanum Est”, and Armin Fleissner, saxophone, from “Locko Richter Agreement”, - and even Limbus appears from time to time as a guest musician.

An initial promo-maxi-CD has been released, and a new album is being planned for release. 
For further information please visit the following websites:

www.musikgruppeaera.de
www.myspace.com/muckgroh

www.neueaera.de
www.myspace.com/dieneueaera

www.muckgroh.de

Andreas Hedler
Translation: Dr. Martina Häusler




Aera - Humanum Est

A:
Papa Doing 08:22
Demmerawäng 07:07
Hodibbel 05:37

B:
Sechs achtel 10:45
jonas schläft 04:20
alois’ flötending 02:26