SOUFFLEURS DE VERS

I should have attended their concert at the Olympia in Paris for the real start of their promotional tour for their latest studio album (I even convinced my seventeen years old son to come with me) but poor health prevented me to do so. I'll console myself while attending their gig at the Spirit of 66 within a few weeks from now.

The time of the great "Ange" albums is of course a very old story. IMHHO their true latest great album was released in 1978 ("Guet Apens") but the band still produced very good material with "Sève Qui Peut" in 1989 and a good one with "Culinaire Lingus" (2001).

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).

The funniest one of this album is definitely "Interlude". But therefore you need to master the French language unfortunately. But this has always been a deep characteristics of this great band and probably therefore they never had a broader audience outside the French speaking territories (to which my country - Belgium - belongs).

This album is rather a deception for me.

Coupée En Deux renowns with the good texts from Christain Descamps. One of the best lyricists in the prog music history IMHHO. No god nor love song in his work. Just fabulous themes and stories. Only pared with Gabriel early work if you see what I mean. This song is full of play on words but again, totally out of reach if you are not fluent in French.

This album lacks in grandeur. It is French rock oriented all the way through and I can't really identify one great song out of it. Even not the long and epic title track. This album is not essential at all to your "Ange" discography. Their first six albums do sell for very cheap on Amazon, so stick to them and discover a great prog band.

Two stars for this one. Désolé les gars!

Two Christmas presents for the Ange fans living in Lyon. A gorgeous concert during which were played many songs from the new album and oldies (but goldies) too, true nuggets found in the rich Ange discography (by the way, the old songs were played with the original arrangements and today's brio). And a new album. I was surprised during the concert (I didn't know the new album yet at that time) by the quality of these new catchy tracks opening the set (and the album): 'Tous les boomerangs du monde' or 'Coupée en Deux' sung by Caroline. In the great Ange tradition, I enjoyed Tristan's splendid vocals once more in this new song 'Nouvelles du Ciel' closed as far emotion and quality are concerned to his version of Polnareff's 'Le Bal des Laze'. What about the rest of the album? Same excellence? Yes, indeed! First of all, some words about the cover and booklet. Gorgeous and clear, coloured and Zen. And the title, a superb pun, is an invitation to poetry, to true literature. As a good Bordeaux wine, Christian Décamps and all his band are still going strong. Ange shows they have a true musical magic, they are a real machine creating emotion. Almost all songs remain in your memory from the very first listening. 'Les Ecluses' with its multiple melodies is splendid, 'Où vont les escargots' with its delicate arrangements, sound and production (Caroline at her best) too. For Caroline is in her full bloom, more at ease in emotion. The track giving the title to the album is the only truly progressive epic, therefore with a more difficult access, one of longest tracks by Ange (16'), where the band shows again his capacity in composing such suites. Yes, Ange is a prog combo! A very good one even if as a whole this album features rather direct and traditionally formatted songs. Ange has always been a subtle blend of reality with fantasy, a bitter glance upon life and stories from dreams and imagination. In this album, it seems that reality is more present ('Dieu est un escroc'), so this is a darker album, a bit sadder than usual. Thus its emotional richness see what happens to the world and life, but finally all that remains enjoyable" seems to say the author. All Ange albums are good or even very good, that one is gorgeous. If Ange had not produced masterpieces in the past, the roots as they say, this album would be their best since there are no weak moments as the previous works featured. Yes, their best! (Olivier Sauce and Thierry - first published in Acid Dragon #46)