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Exponent came together in the early 1970s in Wuppertal, in Germany’s Bergisches Land region, growing out of earlier groups including Upside Down and Cannabis India. Their music belongs firmly to the German progressive underground: keyboard-driven, atmospheric, slightly raw, and built around a rich palette of organ, Mellotron and other classic 1970s instruments.
At the centre of the band was Frank Martin, the main creative force behind the project and the writer of the material. Where Exponent’s earlier archival release presented previously unissued 1974 recordings, Exponent 2 moves forward to material recorded in 1976 at Martin’s Music-Flat-Studio, revealing another side of the group’s development.
The sound is strongly keyboard-focused, with Hammond organ, Mellotron, Minimoog, Fender Rhodes, Hohner Clavinet and studio effects adding texture around the guitar, bass and drums. The result is a dense but organic progressive rock album, balancing structured composition with freer instrumental passages and a distinctly homegrown German studio character.
Tracks such as Living Right, Improvisation and Leave Him Alone show the band’s combination of song form and exploratory playing, while the unusually titled Musik Ist Das Sinnvolle Zusammenwirken Von Ton Und Rhythmus points toward the more conceptual and experimental side of the project. The Fool Rock, Kaysynth and Montagmorgen complete the picture of a band working outside commercial expectations, with keyboards leading the way.
This Garden Of Delights edition, catalogue number CD 203, presents these previously unknown 1976 recordings on CD for the first time, accompanied by a 32-page booklet with extensive historical notes on Exponent, its predecessor groups and related later projects.
Track Listing