In the 1960s of the last century, a new direction of rock music, inspired by the hippie movement, began and developed - this is progressive rock.
On this wave, a lot of diverse musical groups arose, which tried to combine oriental tunes, classics in arrangement and jazz melodies.
One of the classic representatives of this direction can be considered the group East of Eden.
History of group creation
The founder and leader of the team is Dave Arbas, a born musician, it could not be otherwise, because he was born in the family of a violinist.
The year of foundation of the group is considered to be 1967, the place of the beginning of musical activity is Bristol (England).
In addition to the violin, Dave, unlike his father, also knew how to play the saxophone, flute, and electric guitar. The future rock star had a full set of skills to create music in the style of a progressive electric sound.
In addition, according to rumors, he spent some time in the East, comprehending philosophical teachings and looking for the meaning of life. All this together predetermined the future success of the musical group.
Group composition
The main composer, the ideological inspirer of East Of Eden and the next member was Ron Keynes. He also played the saxophone. And vocals and guitar playing were the prerogative of Jeff Nicholson, bass guitar - Steve York.
Drums were led by Canadian-born musician Dave Dufont. In such a strong line-up, the group, it would seem, was destined for a grandiose success.
The result of their work was an unusual style of music inspired by new phenomena of that time, based on a combination of rock and unhackneyed improvisations.
Albums
The debut album was released very quickly in 1969, it was called Mercator Projected. By that time, the team worked under a contract with the Dream recording company.
The music of this disc clearly gravitated toward oriental motifs, and was generally well received by the public and critics.
During this period, the group performed a lot and often on venues and in clubs, attracting more and more fans to their ranks with outstanding improvisations.
East Of Eden recorded their next album Snafu with a slightly changed line-up - the bass player and drummer changed.
This release is considered to be one of the most successful in terms of sales, the team managed to get into the list of top bands in England, and the guys were recognizable in Europe.
One of the group's old hits, Jig A Jig (after re-arrangement in a completely new unrecognizable style) was very popular.
This composition reached the 7th position of the national hit parade and stayed there for almost three months. It seemed obvious and undeniable to everyone that these guys had achieved their goal.
It was absolutely clear that now it was only necessary to go forward, to create new musical masterpieces to the delight of numerous fans.
Breakup of East of Eden
A year later, the group signed a new contract with Harvest Records. These changes also caused a new change of musicians, now only Dave Arbas remained from the old members.
The style of music has also changed - from oriental motifs and jazz tunes, now they have switched to country music. Commercially it was justified, but East Of Eden lost its unique style of course.
Soon the founder also left the group, the former violinist Joe O'Donnell also came to his place, and the musical group from the original left only the name.
Two more albums were released: New Leaf and Another Eden, but they were not very popular.
The group failed to stay on the charts in Britain, the fans did not accept and did not understand the reincarnation of their favorite musicians. In addition, the constant change of personnel did not have the best effect on the quality of musical compositions.
The name of the group did not change fundamentally, publishing a not very high-quality sound, the producers and members hoped to hold out on the laurels of the former members. Thus, the group worked until about 1978 before finally breaking up.
Second wind East of Eden
After almost 20 years, in the late 1990s, Dave Arbas decided to re-create East Of Eden and teamed up with Jeff Nicholson and Ron Keynes for this purpose.
Of course, the guys dreamed and were sure that they would be able to repeat the success that the group felt in the 1970s of the last century.
With this line-up, the musicians released two more albums - Kalipse and Armadillo, which, of course, deserve to be heard. But the guys, unfortunately, failed to achieve the former atmosphere, jazz, unusual sound.
Despite their outstanding abilities and creative approach to creativity, almost none of the original line-up of East Of Eden managed to achieve huge success in music.
The only exception was one of the drummers, Jeff Briton, he was lucky enough to work in the Wings group, founded by Paul McCartney.
The success of the East Of Eden group is quite easy to explain - 1960-1970. marked by new movements among the youth. Everyone knows what only hippies were worth, these flowers of the sun, children of freedom.
Unusual music, playing such extraordinary instruments as the saxophone, in harmony with the violin and electric guitar, could not go unnoticed.
