This is one of the beauties of the Japanese progressive rock. PAGEANT was formed in '81 by guitarplayer Ikkou Nakajima, singer/keyboard player Hiroko Nagai, bass player Nagashima and drummer Hideaki Indou. In '85 they appeared on a Japanese progrock compilation entilted "Progressive Battle" and one year later PAGEANT released their debut-album "La Mosaïque de la Rêverie", a 'classic'. The band was completed by Kazuhiro Miyatake (flute and electric guitar) and Nobuyuki Nagashima (bass) on those records. The second album "Abysmal Masquerade" appeared in '87 and two years followed by the third record entitled "The Pay for a Dreamer's Sin". On this album Hiroko Nagai and Hideaki Indou remained from the original line-up, Kazuhiro Miyatake played flute on two tracks and the band's new guitarplayer became Hiroyuki Maeno.
The concept album is themed around space physics. The title is based on a planet’s albedo; the proportion of the light it receives that is reflected back into space. Albedo 0.39 features tracks “Pulstar” and “Alpha” and became his first album that reached #18 of the UK Album Charts. Vangelis played every instrument on the record, which resulted in effective and versatile synthesizer passages. Critics describe the tracks as mesmerizing trips of assorted rhythms that include elements of jazz and mild rock. The multiple-award winning composer of electronic, progressive, orchestral and jazz music Vangelis started his career working on numerous successful projects, such as Aphrodite’s Child, a collaboration with Yes lead singer Jon Anderson and award winning soundtracks for Missing (1982), Chariots of Fire (1981), Blade Runner (1982) and 1492: Conquest of Paradise (1992).