Ange

…Again I am very impressed by this new Ange line-up, what an enthousiastic and inspired band, for me it's obvious that they enjoy playing the music and they are even seems honoured to support the charismatic French progrock legend Christian Decamps!..

This album is a rather rocking one (like their eighties work but better). Lyrics of course are above par. Not to be compared with the greatest "Ange" albums from their most brilliant period (the seventies, would you believe?). A song as "Dieu Est Un Escroc" fully brings us some thirty five years backwards to their most anti clerical great texts (and I am so in line with them as far as this philosophic question arises)…

'Le Cimetiere des Arlequins' is one of my fave Ange albums, and may be considered as a perfect sample of their prog style delivered at its top level of energy and expressiveness. While not being an ensamble of top-notch virtuosos, the group works really well as an ensamble, performing both their hard-edged compositions and their softer acoustic ones with the same conviction…

Considered the French equivalent of Genesis due to their heavy theatrical version of progressive rock, Ange released 14 albums from the '70s to the mid-'80s. The group was led by vocalists Christian and Francis Decamps and included guitarist Jean-Michel Brezovar, bassist Daniel Haas, and drummer Gerard Jelsch…

This is the first album by the legendary and pivotal French progrock band Ange. It has a typical Seventies sound, very dated but also unique and captivating…

In an attempt to not overuse the word Classic, I must site "Par Les Fils De Mandrin" as a 70's French prog classic and one of their most enduring albums of all time for me. 5th release from ANGE successfully revisiting their classic ANGE style throughout with dramatic intensity. "Par Les Fils De Mandrin explores a nice wide range of musical aspects from folk-inspired as found in the epic tracks "Hymne à la Vie" to the classic-Ange-sounding track "Au Café du Colibri" which could have been lifted off their debut album years earlier. A truely wonderful concept album full of beauty with the real accent of classic ANGE…

In 1976, it was the appropriate moment to release an Ange live album. Their fame is at their peak (in France, and to a certain extent in Belgium) and they have recorded several great symphonic albums. I would say that this live album is a pivotal turnpoint in Ange's career. They will still produce some great albums after this recording but the density of the previous ones will never be matched again…