Spartacus formed in January 1978 in the north of Switzerland, an area of apple and cherry trees near Lake Bodensee on the German border, not exactly the right place to be discovered if you are a progressive rock band. Members included Helmut Muller (guitar, vocals, synthesizer), Ruedi Gust (organ, piano, vocals), Manfred Fries (drums, vocals), and Christian Meyer (bass, vocals). The band performed at numerous musical festivals throughout 1978 and the early part of 1979, and they released an extremely rare sampler on the equally obscure KD Records. Spartacus also recorded an entire LP that was never released. However, the recordings somehow made their way out of the studio in the form of bootleg cassettes and the music became quite beloved by some progressive rock fans in Germany and the Netherlands. The recording quality was, of course, substandard. The band dissolved in April 1979. Black Rills Records re-released the music of Spartacus in 1997 as a limited-edition CD. ~ Stanton Swihart