BEGGAR JULIA'S TIME TRIP

For this, their second album, the band had some changes in the line-up: both Rob Kruisman (saxophones, flute, guitar, vocals) and Huib van Kampen (guitar, Tenor saxophone) left the band, being replaced by Dick Remelink ( saxes, flute). Drummer Peter de Leeuwe also left the band (but returned for their next album), being replaced by Dennis Whitbread. Also the band had a lead singer called Michel van Dijk, plus some guest appearances from Tony Vos (saxes, tonytone, electronic effects, and also the main producer of some of their albums), Linda van Dyck ( voice on "Prologue" & "Epilogue"), and Eric van Lier (trombone, tuba), who also was going to participate in their '00.04' album from 1971.

This album is really a concept album about a beggar named Julia who does a time trip through several centuries (more or less as I understood the concept). The main composer in the original musical pieces in this album is keyboard player Rick van der Linden, with some collaborations with lyrics from singer Michel van Dijk, who really only sings in two songs ('Juila' and 'Pop Giant'), and from Linda van Dyck who does some narration. There are some sections in the album which really are done with electronic sound effects and their function is more to work as links to other musical pieces. These electronic sound effects make this album sound a bit influenced by psychedelia, and they really sound like 'experiments' maybe done with Moogs or with other electronic devices.

As in every album by the band, there are several arrangements done to Classical Music pieces (Albinoni`s 'Adagio', J.S. Bach`s 'Italian Concerto', and Tchaikovsky`s 'Concerto'). The appearance of an electric guitar solo in 'Concerto' and its previous appearance as the B-side of the 'Air' single in 1969 makes me think that 'Concerto' was really recorded for their first album, but was finally released in their second album. Of these Classical Music pieces I prefer more 'Adagio' and 'Concerto'. There are also some brief appearances from other uncredited Classical Music pieces in some parts of the album, like some bars from Rachmaninoff`s First Piano Concerto and a bit from J.S Bach`s 'Sicilano in G', a musical piece which the band was going to record in a full arrangement for their 'Ekseption 5' album from 1972.

This is maybe their first attempt for a full Prog album, having a conceptual story, and with each musical piece being linked one after the other without interruptions (other to the natural end of the Side One in the old LP version). The Jazz, Rock, Classical and Pop influences are very present, and maybe in this second album the band sounds more 'mature', more 'serious', and with maybe having less inclinations to appear in the radio, even if they still released some singles.