Triumvirat
Palace Theatre
Providence, RI
12 October 1974

Master audience recording taped by Dan Lampinski

01 Illusions on a Double Dimple

- Flashback
- Schooldays
- Triangle
- Illusions
- Dimplicity
- Last Dance

02 Mister Ten Percent (spliced)

- Maze
- Dawning
- Bad Deal
- Roundabout
- Lucky Girl
- Million Dollars

Personnel:
Jürgen Fritz: piano, synthesizers
Helmut Köllen: bass, acoustic guitars, vocals
Hans Bathelt: drums and percussion

A review of the album they were touring when they played this gig:

"Triumvirat is EL&P German Counterpart"

The Hartford (Connecticut) Courant

July 28, 1974

ILLUSIONS ON A DOUBLE DIMPLE

by Triumvirat (Harvest Records)

International comparisons are always tedious and generally wrong. Remember when Donovan was called "The British Bob Dylan"? And is Johnny Halliday really the "French Elvis Presley"?

In some cases, though, the comparisons are so obvious- and so exact- that they must be made. Such is the case with Triumvirat; they are the German Emerson Lake and Palmer.

Jürgen Fritz, Triumvirat's synthesizer player, is the master of several keyboard instruments, as is EL&P's Keith Emerson. Both have extensive classical music training, inevitably reflected in their groups' music. Hans Bathelt, Triumvirat's percussionist, is a strong, sure-footed drummer, as is ELP's Carl Palmer. And Helmut Köllen, Triumvirat's guitarist, provides a competent rhythm track and sings, as does ELP's Greg Lake.

"Illusions On A Double Dimple" Triumvirat's first U.S. release, bears a strong resemblance to ELP's second album, "Tarkus". Both consist of extended suites, highlighted by exciting synthesizer sequences and occasional vocal passages. Triumvirat's "Last Dance" on the LP is cast from the same mold as ELP's "Mass", with bits of their "Jeremy Bender" thrown in for good measure.

There is the same halting rhythm, the explosions of synthesizer lunacy matched beat-for beat by the drums and the fervent bass track. But beyond that, there is the same strange mixture of honky-tonk and jazz-rock. It's enough to suspect that Triumvirat is really ELP in disguise (hmmm...surely there's no trace of German accent in the vocal passages...could it be?)

Still, there are differences, chiefly Triumvirat's skillful use of the Cologne Opera House Orchestra as a backing band. And in any case, there's no cause for Triumvirat to avoid comparisons. Any groups that can so successfully reproduce a top-notch jazz-rock sound like ELP is in good company indeed.

Especially pleasing is "Million Dollars", the final movement of the groups' "Mister Ten Percent" suite (apparently dedicated to a recently fired manager) in which all Triumvirat's talents are released in one electronic deluge. An especially Tarkus-like opening dissolves into a huge orchestral and vocal rush as Triumvirat bids farewell to their agent; "Who's going to work for you for the rest of your life?"



Opening for Fleetwood Mac



unknown model dictation style Tape Recorder
External Mono Microphone
Scotch cassettes


Mastered and FLAC'ed by Carl Morstadt (dantalion8@yahoo.com)

Master Cassette ->
Nakamichi CR-3A cassette deck with azimuth correction ->
M-Audio Firewire Audiophile 2496 ->
CDWAV 24-bit/96-KHz wav files ->
Goldwave (normalizing and crossfades) ->
CDWAV (track breaks) ->
dBpowerAMP Audio Converter (24-bit/96-KHz wav files converted to
16-bit/44.1 KHz wav files) ->
FLAC Front End (FLAC 8 with sector boundary alignment)
FLAC files tagged with Foobar2000 Live Show Tagger

No EQ'ing.

A 24-bit/96-KHz flac24 version of this recording is also available.


Warning/Disclaimer: This recording should not be confused with the series labelled "The Dan Lampinski Tapes Volume XX". This recording represents part of Dan's earliest efforts to capture the live concert experience for posterity, hence the series name "Dan Lampinski - The Early Years Volume XX". Given the very consistent high quality of Dan's later work, it would have been easy to blow off these recordings and consign them to the dustbin of history, but there are quite a few captures in the series that are well worth circulating, if not for their rarity, but for the obsessive collector types (we know who we are) that want every single second of any recordings of their favourite musicians. So please, just accept these recordings for what they are, another part of the tapestry we weave when we collect and share such things.

Since Dan never traded copies of his recordings, they are all essentially uncirculated. Some copies were made for friends, but these releases are the first time most of these recordings have ever seen the light of day, and are direct from his master cassettes. No EQ'ing has been done to any of the transfers. Feel free to EQ, matrix, patch, etc and re-post if you like, just give Dan credit for the original recording.

Dan was very meticulous about taking good care of his tapes and is very pleased that these recordings will now circulate among the trading community. Please honour his kindness and generosity by sharing these recordings freely.

The transfers are available as 16bit/44.1KHz flac files suitable for CD burning, and also as 24bit/96KHz flac files for those who prefer the higher resolution.

Always remember - the more generous you are with your music, the more it comes back to you.

Kev & Carl
November 2010