CHRISTIAN DÉCAMPS

''Le mal d'Adam'' sounds as a good transitional work of the Ange style, which was leaving the symphonic, progressive hints behind for a straight and sometimes poppy Rock sound entering the 80's.The album contains 10 compact songs with Decamps voice in evidence in one of his familiar, ultra-expressive performances and it is led by a good dose of rockin' grooves and solos with some proggy vibes around.Additionally you should forget about Ange's rough and dark productions, the sound here is clean and the production is top notch.Some keyboard parts are very interesting, despite the limited space for instrumental moves, part of them are still grounded in the dreamy atmosphere of ANGE with light symphonic underlines and a few grandiose orchestral textures, other exercises appear to be closer to acts like GENTLE GIANT (there are even some funky runs to be found) and ATOLL with a more tricky way of performing.As a whole ''Le mal d'Adam'' remains an accesible Rock album with an intense lyricism, evolving from theatrical singing to poetic vocal arrangements, it contains a good bunch of quirky executions on instruments, but it much more optimistic and less atmospheric than any of Ange's previous albums.At any rate, this was a different Decamps' project and apparently the man was flirting with the rising era of more upbeat and less complicated music, while he still respected his past as a monumental musician of French Prog.

Lyrical Art Rock with ANGE references.Likely to please all fans of French Prog and tight, well-composed Rock music.Recommended.

In this case, we're dealing with a mostly instrumental release, literally heavily dominated by keyboards and with some atmospheric guitar-work thrown in.

Many of the compositions have a new age tinge to them, most often at the start of any given excursion, but as the track unfurls it will in most cases stray well away from this specific stylitic expression. Typically layers of synths and sounds are added, some existing ons will grow in stature and darker - often brooding - elements are added in the back of the mix; and by the time the composition is revealed in it's final form it's as a symphonic, majestic piece of electronic music; quite often with a certain sense of drama and theatrical flair to it.

There's not a lot of rock to this venture however; and although synths and keyboards dominate it's not fair to call it electronic either. It's symphonic though, without any shadow of a doubt, and a pretty good release too. Well worth checking out.