Tabu
At the end of 2014 a remastered version of the Trace albums was released. Particularly the new versions of Trace and Birds drew my attention. Both albums were double-CD, including the original album and an add-on CD with material that had not been previously released.
A pleasant surprise indeed! The sound quality of the original had improved significantly. Additionally, the Trace Remastered CD number 2 contained quite a few interesting unknown tracks. Apparently, there was some never used studio material available.
Birds Remastered CD2 mainly contains live recordings of rather poor quality. Nice for the atmosphere, but no so very interesting.
The church organ piece Fairy Tale starts with a clear summary of Partita Nr. 2 in C minor BWV826 by Bach. Then there is a lot of improvisation that ends in a section that you can hear in Galliarde on the ‘official’ CD Trace.
A Swedish Largo combines the famous Largo by Haendel with the main theme from A Memory from the ‘official’ Trace LP.
Gnome Dance will emerge in a slightly different form on the later album White Ladies.
Nocturne makes up a remarkable compilation with sections from Progression, an arrangement of the theme Wachet Auf by Bach and a little piece of Once from the ‘official’ Trace LP.
Bach-atel, I guess the name is quite a clue, will return later on the LP Night of Doom and the CD Ekseption 89.
Another World is a tremendously energetic track that gives all three members of the band ample opportunity to party!
That was the most original material. The remainder of the CD contains various demos and fragments of these tracks in various mixes and instrumentations.
As I hear it, his Trace period was a very creative period for Rick van der Linden. It yielded lots of material that appears later in other forms. I found it really fun to hear the enthusiasm in the music and the energy in the work of drummer Pierre van der Linden.