WITH LOVE FROM EKSEPTION

I don´t have this album titled as "With Love From Ekseption" , but I have a double L.P. album called "Greatest Hits", which has the same songs, the same record label and album number (Philips 6677025, "Made in France" as the labels say), but a different cover :in the front cover, with Ekseption`s members being photographed walking over a train`s line, and with also another photo which looks like being made in a photo studio; and in the back cover, a photo of Ekseption`s members walking in which looks like a parking lot. The gatefold cover has in the inside the titles of the musical pieces for each of the L.P. sides, with a year assigned for each musical piece (like "Flight of the Bumble Bee", (P) 1973). But it seems that some of the years are incorrect for some of the musical pieces. Also this album has not a date of production, so I don`t know when it was released (I bought it in 1979), but some websites say that it was released in 1975. This album is a compilation of arrangements done to classical music pieces.and all these musical pieces were taken from their original albums. It includes musical pieces originally released in the albums: "Ekseption", "Beggar Julia`s Time Trip", "Ekseption 3", "00:04", "Ekseption 5", and "Trinity", all these albums with Rick van der Linden on keyboards and main arrangements. It also includes two instrumental musical pieces from Ekseption`s line-ups after van der Linden was replaced by Hans Jansen, which are not included in other of their original albums: "Persian market" (released as a single, 1974) and "El Barbero" (which was only previously released in a rare E.P. in 1974 with "Bingo-Bingo " from their "Bingo" album from 1974, with a musical piece titled "Sleep Well" which was only available on that E.P.,and with "Persian Market" again). Ekseption was criticized and underrated because they did these arrangements for Classical music pieces, but for me the best in this album are: "Adagio", "Sabre Dance", "Aria", "Italian concerto", "Peace planet", "Ave Maria", "Vivace", "Partita no. 2 in c minor", "Siciliano in G", "The Fifth", "Romance", "A la Turka", "Concerto" and "Rondo". Van der Linden was a very good arranger, and it seems that Ekseption was more successful and better in the years he was in the band. The arrangements are very influenced by jazz, and sometimes by rock. It seems that van der Linden is still playing with a new line-up of Ekseption. They have an official website.

Update (28-January-2008): Yes. Rick van der Linden played with a new line-up of Ekseption with him as the only original member of the band for several years, until he died in January 2006. Their official website still exists, I think.