Trilogy: Here It Is (1980)
I was a bit hesitant to buy this album. Sure I heard comparisons to ELP, Genesis, etc. But the album was released in 1980, a time where usually little good can be said of prog rock, this was an era where many of the prog greats gave us albums like Duke (Genesis) or Drama (Yes), which aren’t usually considered highpoints by those bands from a prog standpoint. But there was this little known German prog band calling themselves Trilogy who made some truly incredible prog strictly in the classic style in an era where people’s interest in prog was waning.
Here It Is is that example, recorded at the beginning of 1979, but the usual bullshit of finding someone to release the album (since few labels were interested in prog in ’79/’80) prevented it from being released until 1980 (the band even gave the tape to Klaus Schulze, but was ignored – had Schulze released it, the album would have ended up on his Innovative Communications label). The label that released this album was called Cain.
The band, mostly consisting of 19-20 year olds, were keyboardist Jochen Kirstein, keyboardist Guido Harding, bassist Ludgor Samson, guitarist Detlef Deeken, and drummer Martin Breuer. If you noticed, the band featured two keyboardists, and is an analog keyboardist dream come true since these two guys played Hammond organ, Minimoog synthesizer, Hohner clavinet, and a Roland String synth.
Certainly Trilogy’s music isn’t the most original on the face of the planet. In fact, the band named themselves after the famous ELP album by the same name that was released in 1972, so you get sort of a clue where Trilogy is at, as ELP was one of the band’s influences (as well as notorious German ELP clone Triumvirat, which Trilogy did a cover of one of their songs, “March to the Eternal City”, but did not record it). There’s some Genesis influences as well, particularly in the keyboard department which alternates between Emerson and Banks styles.
The album features six songs, my favorites include “Venice”, “Changing Scene”, “Andy”, and “Crowded”. Each of the songs are more or less in the same style: killer analog keyboards, complex compositions that will keep the most diehard proghead happy, and wonderful, inspired compositions throughout. The band is all instrumental, which is great news for all who like German prog, but don’t like the vocals (bands like Eloy and Grobschnitt might have made some great music, but they both feature singers that not everyone would like, especially because they sung in English with a heavy accent).
While the original LP of Here It Is is not exactly easy to come by, Musea Records from France, which I feel is simply one of the greatest labels that deals specifically with prog rock, reissued this wonderful gem (and Amazon.com carries titles from Musea, by the way) with a bonus track, “Treibsand”. That bonus cut was a 1981 re-recording of a cut that never made it to Here It Is (lack of space). It’s easy to tell this version is from 1981 because it features some rather ugly, early ’80s-sounding polyphonic synthesizers. Luckily they still used their Moog synthesizer and Hohner clavinet. Still, I didn’t find the bonus cut as good as Here It Is proper.
Regardless, this album might not amaze you with originality, but I still very highly recommend it, especially if you enjoy bands like ELP, Genesis, Triumvirat, and German prog in general.