Ange - Collection (7 Albums Mini LP SHM-CD) (1972-78/2013)

Ange is a French progressive rock band formed in September 1969 by the Decamps brothers, Francis (keyboards) and Christian (vocals, accordion, acoustic guitar and keyboards). Ange was initially influenced by Genesis and King Crimson, and its music was quite theatrical and poetic. Its first success in France was the cover of a Jacques Brel song, Ces gens-la, on its second album Le Cimetiere des Arlequins. The band provided its first concert on January 30, 1970 at the cultural center "La Pepiniere", in Belfort, France. It performed 110 concerts in England from 1973 to 1976, opening for Genesis at the Reading Festival in England, on August 26, 1973, fronting some 30.000 listeners. One of the reasons for which the band was unable to break through into the British market was because they sang in French. Ange eventually released an English-speaking version of its fifth album Par les fils de Mandrin (By the sons of Mandrin), which hard to find and sold poorly, although this version has since been made available on CD. Unfortunately, after three albums, the quality of creation had started to decrease, and Par les fils de Mandrin was probably not a good choice to try to break into the British market. Au dela du delire, third album, could be the band's best effort and is recommended as the one to listen to as a starter, for newcomers to the Ange progressive phenomenon. Following Par les fils de Mandrin and the excellent live double album Tome VI, the band issued a mellotron one, Guet-apens, and then had a change of direction into a more rock-oriented colour, although various progressive reformations occurred over the years, e.g. for the 1992 album Les larmes du Dalai-Lama. Sponsored by the French radio RTL, Ange relentlessly toured till the end of 1977, welcoming an average of 5,000 to 6,000 listeners per show. During its first years (generally regarded as the best ones), the other three members of the band were Jean-Michel Brezovar on guitar and flute, Gerard Jelsch on drums, and Daniel Haas on bass (and acoustic guitar). In 1995, Ange played its announced farewell tour. Christian Decamps released a few albums as "Christian Decamps et Fils" ("Christian Decamps and Son"), before taking over the name "Ange" in 1999, and is backed by his band for his solo albums. The new lineup has issued several albums from La voiture a eau in 1999, performed on 2006 edition of NEARfest and is still on the road in 2013. Francis Decamps and Jean-Michel Brezovar have also released solo albums.