Some bands refuse to stay in one lane, and this page is where I keep them. On this site I use eclectic prog for progressive rock bands whose records pull together sources that rarely share a stage: Beethoven and Bach, Japanese philosophy, Andean instruments, free jazz, ambient textures. The label is a convenience, not a movement, so everything below is about the bands and the facts of their records.

The short version

I use eclectic prog as a filing label for this site, not as the name of a historical movement. The six bands in this guide come from four countries and span half a century. Ekseption in Haarlem and East of Eden in Bristol both took shape in 1967; Arco Iris was active in Argentina from 1968; Jade Warrior formed in England in 1970; The Muffins came together around Washington, DC in 1973; and Djam Karet started in Claremont, California in 1984. What links them on this page is the range of what they borrowed: classical repertoire for Ekseption, the violin and jazz leanings of East of Eden, Japanese ideas and world music for Jade Warrior, Latin American folk for Arco Iris, the Canterbury sound and avant-garde jazz for The Muffins, ambient and psychedelic rock for Djam Karet.

Six ways out of the rock song

Ekseption grew out of The Jokers, a Haarlem high-school band formed by trumpeter Rein van den Broek, the only musician on every one of its albums, and settled on its name in 1967. Keyboardist Rick van der Linden steered the group towards classical rock, and the music was mostly wordless. The 1969 debut “Ekseption” opens with “The 5th”, an arrangement of Beethoven, and the same record includes Khachaturian’s “Sabre Dance”, Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” and a Bach “Air”. “Beggar Julia’s Time Trip” won the Dutch Edison Award for album of the year. Van der Linden left after “Trinity” (1973) to start a new group, and in 1978 his new band and the group Spin merged to revive Ekseption for “Ekseption ’78”.

East of Eden began in Bristol in 1967, first under the name Picture of Dorian Gray. Dave Arbus played electric violin, flute and saxophone, and he is also the violinist on the solo of The Who’s “Baba O’Riley”. The debut “Mercator Projected” came out on Deram in April 1969. Its follow-up “Snafu” entered the Official Albums Chart in March 1970 and peaked at number 29, and the single “Jig-a-Jig” entered the Official Singles Chart in April 1971 and climbed to number 7. AllMusic’s Bruce Eder noted that the hit sounded unlike anything else the band recorded, and that while some place East of Eden with symphonic prog, others hear a band rooted in jazz.

Jade Warrior grew out of the 1966 band July and formed in 1970 around Tony Duhig, Jon Field and Glyn Havard. Three albums appeared on Vertigo, starting with “Jade Warrior” in 1971; two more were recorded in 1973, but Vertigo did not release them. In 1974 Steve Winwood urged Island Records’ Chris Blackwell to listen to Duhig and Field, who then made four albums for Island. The first, “Floating World”, is a concept album built on the Japanese idea of ukiyo; Brian Eno called it an “important album”. Winwood himself played keyboards and Moog on “Waves” (1975), a record of two long parts. Havard rejoined in 2005, and the trio released “NOW” in 2008.

Arco Iris came from Ciudad Jardín, Buenos Aires, with Gustavo Santaolalla on guitars and charango, Ara Tokatlian on flutes, saxophones and keyboards and Guillermo Bordarampé on bass. The band mixed rock with regional folk music, and its members lived communally with their spiritual guide Danais Wynnycka. The 1972 double album “Sudamérica o el regreso a la aurora” is laid out in two acts, with sung roles credited to Danais and to José Ferrari, and with quena, panpipes and charango among the instruments. In 1978 the members, without Santaolalla, moved to California, and the music turned towards jazz and new age.

The Muffins formed in 1973 and soon moved into a farmhouse in Gaithersburg, Maryland. The core quartet was Dave Newhouse, Tom Scott, Billy Swann and Paul Sears, and their music is largely wordless. They released their records on their own label, Random Radar: “Manna/Mirage” in 1978 and “185” in 1981, the latter produced by Fred Frith, who also plays on it. The band split in 1981, reformed in 1998 with the same four members, recorded for Cuneiform, and played the Rock in Opposition festival in France in 2009.

Djam Karet, a wordless progressive rock band, takes its name from an old spelling of an Indonesian word that translates loosely as “elastic time”. Founded in Claremont in 1984, it issued its early records through HC Productions, and Cuneiform later reissued them on CD. In 1991 the band released two albums in the same year, “Burning the Hard City” and “Suspension & Displacement”; the magazine Exposé heard the second as a diary of dark ambient soundscapes. Its album “A Sky Full of Stars for a Roof” came out in 2019.

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The bands in this guide

Six bands, from the Dutch classical rockers to the Californian wordless explorers, each with its own page and album guides.

Elsewhere on Prog Atlas

Several threads run from these bands to pages elsewhere on the site. When Rick van der Linden left Ekseption he founded Trace, whose drummer Pierre van der Linden had left Focus in 1973; both sit in my Symphonic section. Ekseption’s debut also covers “Dharma for One”, credited to Ian Anderson and Clive Bunker of Jethro Tull. The man who opened Island’s door to Jade Warrior, Steve Winwood, founded Traffic in 1967. From The Muffins the threads run to Britain. Fred Frith, who produced “185”, co-founded Henry Cow, and Dave Newhouse has said that Henry Cow’s “Living in the Heart of the Beast” had a big influence on him. The Rolling Stone Record Guide called The Muffins the “spiritual American cousins of Henry Cow and Soft Machine”, which brings in Soft Machine; the band’s own history also names Caravan among its Canterbury models, and Tom Scott’s liking for Gentle Giant.

Where to start

I would start with the debut “Ekseption” (1969), where Beethoven, Bach, Gershwin and a Jethro Tull piece share one record. Then go to Bristol for “Snafu” (1970), the album that took East of Eden into the UK albums chart. For Jade Warrior I would pick “Floating World” (1974), which AllMusic’s Jo-Ann Green called “an undeniable masterpiece”. From Argentina, “Sudamérica o el regreso a la aurora” (1972) is the band’s double album in two acts, across four sides of vinyl. For The Muffins, “185” (1981) brings Fred Frith into the room as producer and player. And for Djam Karet, “Reflections From the Firepool” (1989) is the one where, in the view of AllMusic’s François Couture, every element of the band’s later sound is already present.

Related scenes

Eclectic prog borders on many other parts of the site. The avant-garde end, where The Muffins played their festival dates, is in RIO & Avant-Prog. The jazz side of East of Eden and The Muffins connects to Jazz Rock & Fusion and to The Canterbury Scene. Ekseption’s classical adaptations sit close to Symphonic Progressive Rock, and the folk roots of Arco Iris lead to Progressive Folk.

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