Contemporary

The origins of Contemporary are a bit hazy. It is known that Otto and Stefan played piano and occasionally organ at a very early age and it is also known that Henri did too, but despite his father being a Church-organist, he never really developed that to a professional level. Henri had a Guitar in 1974, some reports state that he already played Guitar in about 1971 and was able to unravel the riff to Iron Butterflies' In-a-Gadda-da-Vida, although he didn't have a guitar for himself at the time. Otto's website mentions 1972 as the year 'Contemporary' was founded. This could be true when one realises Otto's father owned a Guitar which he hardly ever played himself. It is also known Henri mimed on a Guitar to do a play-back act with some friends from sunday-school on Deep Purple's Child in Time, this would be around 1973. It appears he was interested in especially Spanish Guitars from 1971 onwards and picked things up quickly. The first recorded output from Contemporary however does not pop up before early 1975 although some multi tracking Guitar-recordings exists predating 'Take it or leave it'. Otto auditioned Henri, who played the House of the Rising Sun correctly and even improvised a solo over the chord sequence by making use of a full scale. Henri got into blues and pentatonics not before he joined the band. Otto was convinced Henri could do the Guitarjob for the band he was destined to surrect with his other cousin Stefan. Those two alternated on Piano, Organ and Drums. Early 1976 for a short period of time, Erik was hired to play a second Guitar but at the end of the year he was dismissed for not showing up at rehearsals. 'Take it or Leave it' contains the first recorded music from the band from 1975 and 1976.