1974 Albums

Hailing from Torino, Arti e Mestieri ("Art and Crafts") combined the talents of keyboardist Beppe Crovella and drummer Furio Chirico. The latter had spent time in The Trip, an odd Anglo-Italian group that once featured Ritchie Blackmore. The rest of the bandmates had previously played in a local Turin group, Il Sogno di Archimede, and included guitarist (and main composer) Gigi Venegoni, bassist Marco Gallesi, violinist and vocalist Giovanni Vigliar and Arturo Vitale on wind instruments and vibes.

Hailing from Pennsylvania, Todd Rundgren was first heard in Nazz, a band whose 60s-garage rock styling was released to no particular acclaim. In 1970, he formed Runt with Hunt and Tony Sales, and scored a hit with the blue-eyed soul of "We Gotta Get You a Woman." In 1972, Rundgren released the double-album Something/Anything? It provided another couple of hits: "I Saw the Light" managed to chart on both sides of the Atlantic, while a re-recording of Nazz's "Hello It's Me" entered the US Top 5.

Hailing from the Netherlands, Trace featured the talents of two (cousins) van der Lindens. Rick, the classically-trained keyboard player, cut his teeth with classical performance before leading Ekseption (sic) for nearly five years. That band found considerable success by rocking up classical adaptations and jazz standards, though they offered little more than novelty. And yet, this would become the popular Dutch variant of prog rock. Drummer Pierre had been in several Dutch groups, including Brainbox and Focus. In 1974, the pair joined up with bassist Jaap van Eik to form Trace.