Ekseption

Ekseption was a Dutch progressive rock ensemble with changing membership, active from 1967 to 1989, growing out of the bands The Jokers and Incrowd. The group started out playing jazz, pop and R&B covers, but, impressed by a gig of The Nice, Rick van der Linden decided to concentrate on producing classical rock, modern re-interpretations of classical works with bass, drums and horn charts. Most of their albums contain both original songs and re-interpreted classical pieces.

Van der Linden left the group in late 1973 to form Trace, during which time he was replaced by Dutch keyboardist Hans Jansen. Jansen took the band in a jazzier direction, with two LPs of mostly original compositions, but lackluster sales caused the band to break up in 1976. An offshoot band, named Spin, formed later that year and released two more albums, but success also eluded them. In 1978 Trace and Spin merged to become Ekseption once again.