Formed in 1969 in Cologne, Germany - Disbanded in 1980
(In 1999 Fritz tried to revive Triumvirat; They recorded a new album, "Website Story", which remains unreleased)

TRIUMVIRAT is one of the most maligned but at the same beloved bands, they were accused of being ELP clones, but at the same time most people love the pristine music they created and the unique arrangements by that virtuoso keyboardist named J?rgen Fritz.

In 1969 TRIUMVIRAT was formed in Cologne, Germany by Hans-J?rgen Fritz (keyboards), Hans Bathelt (drums) and Werner Frangenberg on bass. The musicians admit that their main influence was THE NICE, but their pristine arrangements and respect for the melody marked the difference. Being that Frangenberg had a compromise with a dance band, he had to leave TRIUMVIRAT and was replaced by Hans Pape in 1970, who had the advantage of being a very decent vocalist.

The band sent a demo to EMI Cologne, and the guys from the label loved it, so soon they were signing the first contract. With this lineup, the band released in 1972 their debut album a semi conceptual LP called "Mediterranean Tales", and were brave enough to open the album with the 16 minutes epic "Across the Waters". Due to the great success in Germany, the band started to work in their second release that was called "Illusions on a Double Dimple", but during the recording Hans Pape left and Helmut K?llen (guitar, bass and vocals) took his place, and their most famous lineup was born.

With this conceptual album about depression and personal relations, enhanced by the Cologne House Symphony Orchestra, the band became international, and the album was a hit in many countries, even in my native Per? (Where Prog records never reached the public), every major store had some copies recorded by a Peruvian label.

But still the USA market was elusive, until the band had the idea to launch an historical conceptual LP about the gladiator who challenged Rome in 73 B.C. and called it simply "Spartacus". Capitol Records USA heard it, and decided that was what they were looking for due to the blend of elaborate tracks and beautiful ballads.

When things were going really well, Helmut announced his departure to search for a solo career, and with the support of his teammate and cousin J?rgen as well as other well-known musicians, his debut started to take form.

In the meanwhile, the band was having a hard time finding a replacement for K?llen, so they decided to call their old friend and former band mate Dick Frangenberg as bassist plus Barry Palmer for the vocals, and as a quartet they recorded "Old Love Dies Hard", the first non-conceptual album with really good passages, but the difference with "Spartacus" was obvious and they started to loose popularity, which caused the departure of Bathelt and Palmer.

J?rgen as the only original member decided to work on another historical album about the Vesuvius eruption in 45 a.d. and asked Helmut to rejoin them, but he felt that the vocal sections were not adequate for his voice so left the project. And then, tragedy hit the band, Helmut died in his car by poisoning with carbon monoxide fumes while listening to his latest tapes, this really affected J?rgen, who had to gather all his strength to keep the band alive and the best way to do this was making new records.

After some time Fritz managed to convince Barry, recruited the drummer Curt Cress and bassist Dieter Petereit, with whom they renamed the band as "THE NEW TRIUMVIRAT" and at last "Pompeii" reached the stores, but the magic was gone, despite some really good passages, the effort was not enough to save the band.

The story of TRIUMVIRAT should have ended here, but Jorgen wasn't ready to let it go, so with several musicians released the inferior "A La Carte" (1978) and the even weaker "Russian Roulette", that was the end of "the rat".

In 2002 J?rgen Fritz and Grant Stevens announced the recording of a new TRIUMVIRAT album called "The Website Story" and even released some promo videos, but for unknown reasons never saw the light. Hopefully someday the CD will reach the stores because the material I heard is interesting.

People can love or hate them, but nobody can deny that we are talking about an icon of German Prog and a band that gained by own right a place of honor in the Symphonic pantheon.