Supersister -

Supersister was a Dutch avant-garde/jazz-rock band that issued five albums between 1970 and 1974 on Polydor.

Emerging from the Hague scene, they drew on Zappa-inspired absurdism, Canterbury-style whimsy, and extended jazz passages shaped by keyboardist Robert Jan Stips. Their debut Present from Nancy balanced satirical vocal numbers with intricate instrumentals, followed by the darker, more orchestrated To the Highest Bidder and the expansive, side-long pieces on Pudding en Gisteren.

After lineup shifts, they steered into denser fusion on Iskander and theatrical pastiche on Spiral Staircase before disbanding in 1974. Stips later joined Golden Earring and Sweet d’Buster, while reunion concerts and archival releases sustained Supersister’s reputation as one of the Netherlands’ most adventurous early-70s acts.

Members: Robert Jan Stips (vocals, keyboards), Sacha van Geest (flute, 1968-73, 2000-01), Marco Vrolijk (drums, 1968-73, 2000-01), Ron van Eck (bass), Rob Douw (vocals, 1968), Herman van Boeyen (drums, 1973-74), Charlie Mariano (alto saxophone, soprano saxophone, flute, nagaswaram, 1973-74), Elton Dean (saxophone, 1974)

Background

Supersister was formed in 1967 as a school band by teenage keyboardist Robert Jan Stips. They initially performed as Sweet OK Supersister with five members, including a brief-serving vocalist.

By 1968, they settled on the name Supersister with Stips, flautist Sacha van Geest, bassist Ron van Eck, and drummer Marco Vrolijk. As they worked up a setlist, they drew heavily from the fuzz-bass runs and asymmetric meters of Volume Two, the 1969 second album by the UK jazz-rock/psych trio Soft Machine.

“She Was Naked” | “Fancy Nancy”

In May 1970, Supersister released their debut single: “She Was Naked” backed with “Spiral Staircase,” both Stips originals produced by Stips Hans van Oosterhout and engineered by Erik Bakker, a recent soundman for Fairy Tale, Sandy Coast, The Free, The Outsiders, and Cuby + The Blizzards.

A. “She Was Naked” (3:45) opens with airy flute and soft vocals in Caravan-like contour, drifting with light organ shades before breaking sharply at 1:40 into a faster tempo with fuzz guitar. Brief Gregorian-styled Latin phrases cut through the rush, then the piece races into dense ensemble lines before dropping off with sudden finality.
B. “Spiral Staircase” (3:06) sets stiff, staccato electric piano against a flat, mock-horror narration.

The single appeared on the short-lived Blossom Records, launched by Groop 1850 manager Hugo Gordijn as a subsidiary of N.V. Rutogram, itself a Philips subsidiary. “She Was Naked” — issued under the name Super Sister (two words) — was the second of three Blossom singles between titles by Fun of It and Big Wheel. Supersister then linked with Polydor for their November 1970 second single:

A. “Fancy Nancy” (1:48)
B. “Gonna Take Easy” (2:43)

Present From Nancy

Supersister released their debut album, Present From Nancy, in November 1970 on Polydor.

Robert Jan Stips plays keyboards, vibraphone, and serves as primary vocalist and songwriter. Ron van Eck co-wrote the first two suites and imparts fuzz bass throughout. Supersister group-wrote “Dona Nobis Pacem” with producer Hans Van Oosterhout.

The album opens with “Introductions” and the title track, a continuous surge of racing piano, staccato flute, and rolling bass. “Memories Are New (Boomchick)” shifts between bright, organ-led vocals and sudden experimental detours, followed by “11/8,” a jagged instrumental exercise in sharp dissonance. “Dreaming Wheelwhile” slows the pace, a drifting flute meditation built on cymbal swells and subtle organ.

Side two contrasts humor and intensity: the brief “Corporation Combo Boys” parodies a Bond theme before leading into “Metamorphosis,” whose three parts move from percussive organ-and-drum patterns to contrapuntal organ dialogue, closing with a tongue-in-cheek 20-second Byrds quote. The finale, “Dona Nobis Pacem,” begins as a slow organ study, expands with flute, and escalates into carnival-like momentum before its close.

A1. “Present From Nancy” (8:02)
— a. Introductions
— b. Present From Nancy
A2. “Memories Are New” (9:49)
— a. Memories Are New
— b. 11/8
— c. Dreaming Wheelwhile

B1. “Corporation Combo Boys” (1:22)
B2. “Metamorphosis” (8:03)
— a. Mexico
— b. Metamorphosis
— c. Eight Miles High
B3. “Dona Nobis Pacem” [“Grant Us Peace”] (8:36)

Sessions occurred at Studios, where staffer Pieter Nieboer engineered Present From Nancy ahead of Song of the Marching Children, the second album by Earth & Fire.

Supersister posed for the cover in a wide-legged stance for photographer Nico Venneker, who captured a similar image of Golden Earring for their 1968 release On the Double. The vertical inner-gate contains studio pics, ink-pen doodles and lyrical scrawls.

To the Highe$t Bidder

Supersister released their second album, To the Highe$t Bidder, in August 1971 on Polydor. The album contains four Robert Jan Stips compositions; all half-sided in length apart from the closing “Higher.”

“A Girl Named You” bolts open with stabbing piano and shifting flute themes before moving into a brisk vocal section, alternating Latin-tinged runs, jazz-rock turns and airy mellotron washes across ten restless minutes. “No Tree Will Grow (On Too High a Mountain)” turns inward, its drone-laden atmosphere slow and deliberate, with soft vocals over piano and mellotron that eventually give way to darker electronic textures and a solemn, swelling close.

At fifteen minutes, “Energy (Out of Future)” sprawls in sections—tribal percussion, jagged organ, free passages, bursts of circus-like rhythm, stretches of pastoral flute—each pivoting with abrupt pace changes that veer between frenzy and calm before disintegrating into a warped electronic finale. The short closer “Higher” eases the tension with a relaxed, lightly jazzy ballad that feels like a deliberate soft landing after the dense invention of what precedes it.

A1. “A Girl Named You” (10:07)
A2. “No Tree Will Grow (On Too High a Mountain)” (7:38)

B1. “Energy (Out of Future)” (15:01)
B2. “Higher” (2:46)

Sessions occurred in June/July 1971 with Hans van Oosterhout, who produced the album in sequence with the self-titled by Hague rockers Drama.

To the Highe$t Bidder appeared in a gatefold with zoomed-in images of a female pair of eyes (front and back), each with coins reflected in the pupils. The zoomed-eye theme also features on post-psychedelic album covers by The Greatest Show On Earth (Horizons), Georgie Fame’s Shorty, Swinging Soul Machine, Nektar (Journey to the Centre of the Eye), and Norway’s 1,2,6.

Supersister lifted an edit of “A Girl Named You” as a single with the non-album “Missing Link,” a group-written track credited on the label to the two-word Super Sister.

B. “Missing Link”

In October 1971, an edited “No Tree Will Grow” became the second single with “The Groupies of the Band,” an exclusive group composition.

B. “The Groupies of the Band”

Pudding en Gisteren

Supersister released their third album, Pudding en Gisteren, in June 1972 on Polydor. The title translates as “Pudding and Yesterday.”

Robert Jan Stips wrote two tracks and multi-tasked on vocals, keyboards, vibes, and harmonica. He co-wrote “Radio” and the side-long title suite with guitarist Ron Van Eck, who plays four- and six-string basses. This was the final album by the original Supersister quartet with reedist Sacha Van Geest and drummer Marco Vrolijk.

Pudding en Gisteren tilts between whimsy and intricacy, its two sides starkly different in scale. “Radio” opens with a bright, almost lighthearted pace that quickly bends into darker narration and odd vocal interjections over sharp keyboard accents. After the brief keyboard palindrome of “Supersisterretsisrepus,” “Psychopath” pushes tongue-in-cheek baroque pop with harpsichord runs, piano turns, and spoken lines that teeter between satire and cabaret. The twelve-minute “Judy Goes on Holiday” roams through shifting sections—fuzzy organ and flute exchanges, bursts of jazz-rock, long stretches of airy minimalism, and finally a jarring plunge into doo-wop parody.

The twenty-one-minute title piece drives the second half, threading together dozens of sharply cut sections: shifting tempos, fuzz-laden organ, elastic bass lines, vibraphone textures, flute passages that alternate between folk-like and free, and extended stretches where piano and woodwinds dissolve into near silence before surging back. Its abrupt pivots and contrasts make it Supersister’s most ambitious suite, balancing humor, disorientation, and moments of striking clarity.

A1. “Radio” (3:55)
A2. “Supersisterretsisrepus” (0:15)
A3. “Psychopath” (3:58)
A4. “Judy Goes on Holiday” (9:14)

B. “Pudding en Gisteren Music for Ballet” (21:00)

Sessions occurred in early 1972 at Phonogram Hilversum with Hans van Oosterhout, who produced the album in sequence with Alquin‘s debut, Marks.

Pudding en Gisteren appeared in a die-cut gatefold illustrated by Wouter Stips. It features plain beige outer-gates with a cutaway that reveals a single panel of a raunchy comic spread on the inner-gates, which also contains a two-sided lyrical leaf.

“Radio” appeared first as a May 1972 single backed with “Dead Dog,” an exclusive Stips original.

B. “Dead Dog”

After Pudding en Gisteren, Van Geest and Vrolijk left Supersister. Meanwhile, Jan Stips guested on two tracks on the 1972 Polydor release Only Parrots, Frogs and Angels, the debut solo album by Golden Earring frontman Barry Hay.

Iskander

Supersister released their fourth album, Iskander, in December 1973 on Polydor. The album’s concept revolves around its title, the Turkish name for Alexander The Great (356–323 BC), the king of the ancient Greek kingdom of Macedon.

The album contains two tracks (“Roxane,” “Looking Back”) by vibist/keyboardist Robert Jan Stips, who co-wrote the rest with bassist Ron Van Eck.

The two co-founders welcome young drummer Herman Van Boeyen and international jazz reedist Charley Mariano, an American band leader (then aged 50) who recently joined Embryo for their December 1972 recording We Keep On. Mariano plays saxophones, flute, bass clarinet, and the nadaswaram, a South Indian double-reed. “Bagoas” features voice actor Gerard Lemaitre and Gong marimba player Pierre Moerlen. Ex-member Sacha Van Geest plays flute on the final track.

Iskander traces Alexander’s campaigns in nine sharply defined episodes, balancing terse motifs with extended instrumental detours. The brief “Introduction” opens on mournful clarinet before “Dareios the Emperor” drives forward with electric piano, deep bass, and eruptive sax, its pace shifting between uptempo bursts, calmer passages, and sudden re-entries. “Alexander” unfolds in layers—light keyboard figures, dissonant horns, and stark piano stretches—before building into surging organ and fierce sax exchanges.

“Confrontation of the Armies” counters martial implication with playful flute and piano turns, while “The Battle” spreads over eight minutes of drum rolls, dark organ, and sax outbursts, its structure pivoting between suspended lows and explosive highs. “Bagoas” brings marimba, percussion, and bass into a tight rhythmic push, while “Roxane” softens into flute-led lyricism over piano. “Babylon” rides descending electric piano figures that fracture into dissonant sax and free passages, anchored by forceful rhythm shifts. “Looking Back” closes the cycle with restrained vocals, flute, and electric piano in a subdued reprise of earlier motifs.

A1. “Introduction” (0:42)
A2. “Dareios the Emperor” (4:51)
A3. “Alexander” (7:02)
A4. “Confrontation of the Armies” (2:47)
A5. “The Battle” (7:59)

B1. “Bagoas” (2:54)
B2. “Roxane” (3:21)
B3. “Babylon” (7:57)
B4. “Looking Back (The Moral of Herodotus)” (4:33)

Sessions occurred in October 1973 in England at the Manor, a converted mansion owned by Virgin co-founder Richard Branson and used recently for Tubular Bells, the debut by the label’s breakout star Mike Oldfield. Moerlen recorded his parts soon after Gong’s sessions for Angel’s Egg, which used Branson’s portable Manor Mobile.

Supersister recorded the album by Georgian-British music mogul an ex-Yardbirds manager Giorgio Gomelsky, who also produced Gong’s first two Radio Gnome albums and the Vertigo titles by his other main client, Magma. Virgin insider Simon Heyworth engineered Iskander in sequence with You, Köhntarkösz, and titles by Gravy Train and Slapp Happy.

Iskander appeared in a black-frame gatefold with Hellenic themes. The inner-gates show a loin-clothed man and woman posed under red lighting against an ancient Greek wall.

Spiral Staircase Sass

Supersister (as Sweet Okay Supersister) released their fifth album, Spiral Staircase Sass, in 1974 on Polydor.

They reclaimed their original name for this release, recorded as a trio of keyboardist Robert Jan Stips, bassist Ron van Eck, and returning flutist co-founder Sacha van Geest, who co-wrote the nine tracks with Stips. The album features three backing vocalists and eleven auxiliary players on assorted instruments, including guitar, bagpipes, mandolin, and steeldrum. Golden Earring drummer Cesar Zuiderwijk anchors the set.

Spiral Staircase dives headlong into theatrical absurdity, threading dense arrangements with collage-like bursts of sound effects, altered voices, and sudden shifts in style. “Retroschizve” drifts from traffic noise into piano-led narration, folding in sped-up vocals before blurring into “Jelly Bean Hop,” whose pacing snaps between spoken word and full-band surges. “Dangling Dingdongs” stretches into one of the record’s weightiest passages, upright bass and agile drumming holding against jagged instrumental eruptions, stray samples, and a collapse into chaos.

“Sylver Song (Groan, Stamp, Shock, Hoot)” swings between whispered lines, carnival chants, and heavier ensemble drive before breaking down again. The second half drifts even further into irreverence: “Cookies, Teacups, Buttercups” sets bagpipes over martial drum accents, while “Gi, Ga, Go (Gollumble Jafers)” lurches from piano into island rhythms, horns, and chipmunk voices. “It Had to Be” pulls inward with piano, hushed singing, and vibraphone shimmer, only to be offset by the brash humor of “Nosey Parkers,” where clavinet and sax push hard beneath Gong-like vocal bursts. The closer, “We Steel So Frange,” begins in a playful mode but softens into a serene, glowing coda, an unlikely calm after the manic detours that define the album.

A1. “Retroschizive (Introducing Schizo)” (2:22)
A2. “Jellybean Hop” (1:36)
A3. “Dangling Dingdongs” (6:53)
A4. “Sylvers Song (Groan, Stamp, Shock, Hoot)” (3:09)
A5. “Cookies, Teacups, Buttercups” (3:11)

B1. “Gi, Ga, Go (Gollumble Jafers)” (4:01)
B2. “It Had to Be” (3:26)
B3. “Nosy Parkers” (4:26)
B4. “We Steel so Frange” (3:00)

Sessions occurred on July 22 and August 15–16 at Sound Push Studios in Blaricum, Holland, where Hans Van Oosterhout produced the album ahead of titles by Fontessa and Frank van der Kloot.

Sacha van Geest co-designed the cover, which shows a staircase that spirals up the trunk of a towering green gazebo.

Robert Jan Stips also played on Sister Slick, the 1974 CBS release by the Chris Hinze Combination. He disbanded Supersister and joined Golden Earring for their 1975/76 albums Switch, To the Hilt, and Contraband.

Discography: