EKSEPTION '78

After Ekseption split up in the mid seventies, Rick and Rein came together and decided to reunite Ekseption, with the same band members of their fourth and fifth album. The opening track of this album ('Again') is probably the best opening track from Rick ever. It's an arrangement of Bach's 'Kommt ihr Tochter helft mir klagen' from his Mattthaus Passion, and Rick's arrangement is breathtaking in its beauty. The rest of the album consists of 5 originals written by Rick van der Linden and/or Rein van den Broek and 5 arrangements from music written by classical, plus one composition ('The Cat') from Lalo Schifrin in an excellent arrangement from Rick. The 5 original compositions vary in quality, at times they sound a bit polished and dull, other times they have spunk, and the same is true for the arrangements of the classical compositions, Handel's Andante is very polished, however, Gershwin's Summertime has an excellent driving rock rhythm. Bach's 'Jesus, bleibet meine Freude' is a new recording of the B-side of a single released in 1973, and the track 'Faith', written by Rick, was previously released on the album 'The white ladies' from Trace in 1976. In short, the album is mixed, it knows some excellent moments (the opening track with music from Bach, 'Summertime', 'The Cat', to name a few) as well as times when the music sounds a bit tame.