Beggar Julia's Time Trip

Ekseption's history goes back to the mid-60s in Haarlem, the Netherlands. Trumpeter Rein van den Broek's high school band The Jokers morphed into The Incrowd, gaining keyboardist Rick van der Linden in 1966; subsequently they renamed themselves Ekseption. Both classically-trained musicians, driven on by The Nice's fusion of rock and classics, made a name for themselves-playing rocked-up versions of classical themes! Released in 1969, "5th Symphony" b/w "Sabre Dance," an arrangement of Ludwig van Beethoven's famous short-short-short-long motif, was an instant hit. The bustling horns, swirling organ and a driving rhythm was met with open arms and the single soared for weeks in the Dutch charts. Ekseption's debut album, released in the US as Symphonic Revelations on the Philips label, saw a further mix of classical and jazz standards, plus a cover of Jethro Tull's "Dharma For One" for good measure. Infinitely more interesting was their second album, Beggar Julia's Time Trip, released in 1970. The lineup had now shuffled a bit, adding drummer Dennis Whitebread, vocalist Michael van Dijk and flautist Dick Remelinck, along with producer Tony Vos on saxophone and electronics. In addition to the classical arrangements (here including J.S. Bach, Pyotr Tchaikovsky and Tomaso Albinoni), van der Linden shelled out over half an album's worth of original material; though one can't imagine why he didn't offer more like the multi-faceted monster of "Pop Giant." Coupled with Linda van Dyck's groovy spoken word and some electronic interludes, the album is an expertly performed classic, if one very much of the era. Ekseption continued offering classical rock for several more albums, before mutiny hit their ranks and van der Linden was asked to leave. He did, moving on to form the more progressive Trace in 1973. With new keyboardist Hans Jansen, Ekseption continued before breaking up in 1976.