CHRISTIAN DÉCAMPS

8. Opéra Cosmique with 3mn of prog intro as we no longer dreamed of from ANGE, and there bam it comes out; symphonic to the point, with blood flowing like from a roast beef; in short a nocturnal musical space and the orchestra which follows for the moment enjoyable; Troisième Etoile A Gauche arrives at 5mn yes, yes he says it himself; the more the pompous side, the less the grandiloquent side, but what a pleasure to find the soul of ANGE in this angelic title; 10 minutes and Margaret appears, a solemn synth, an inimitable voice, always one of the rare ones that I can listen to while stopping all activity; in short what more can I say when it's perfect, we write, we applaud

9. Quasimodo which will be played in concert quickly and which will find its place for the shameless air, and then and then the slap arrives with Tristan who plays his keyboards to show the future ANGEL, what a voice, what an organ, the drift, the solo that kills, in short the pleasure of finding the SOUND of this most famous group in the world to have gone unnoticed, yes we have to laugh about it, thank you Tristan 10. Les Nénuphars and it continues, the vocal that makes you say that it's done Christian has finally let his son fly on his land; a voice that changes, a bluesy solo that melts, ah yes Hassan will become the Hassan of the ANGE 2nd version, with his solos that make the group continue to keep the progressive imprint 11. Quatuor - Tout Ca N'Etait Qu'Un Rêve! follows, a delicate arpeggio and Tristan continues, after the comic opera we enter another album with a final Dantesque vocal flight that makes you shiver; well the titles start to follow one another but there is a response 12. Le Sexe Des Anges with the return of Christian in a jazzy bluesy mode; a country air, words above all, the keyboard, that of the nephew who has always been between the two brothers, ah the saxophone break of the 80s; the tone is fluid, when you think about it there is more prog blood in it than in the last albums of ANGE, musical paradox again; the piano is declined and would make you forget the outro which launches 13. Que Deviensnt Les Héros with Tristan 'again' letting his voice flirt between two scales, a guitar arpeggio which is played out, a Harlequin candy, a sweetness, just to get used to it? 14. Selon Socrate Et Corpernic - Inclus La Mer De Quartz returns to the sound of the beginning, fat, heavy... almost like in the asshole of the world; a rhythmic bass from hell, a synth which drips, like a suppository which would not want to enter; Christian's puns always hit the mark, but with time I expected a little more poetry, especially with his son next to him; well Tristan comes to add a little sweetness... And Hassan delights us with an anthology slow solo, he is good the guy; good phone call listen, it's for you... 15. Guess! Tristan on vocals and piano, guess who sells the powder; beer no it makes your belly swell, I saw it in the concerts of the imbibés; well the spleen guitar comes to mix in the party with Christian launching a legalization of Love, yes well we are in this totalitarian country that wants to manage everything precisely!! I digress, go listen to this piano note that makes us vibrate with pleasure at least 16. See you soon on life! with the angelic heavy madness, such that we no longer recognized it; the very fat sound on a 'Guet-Apens', a 'Vu d'un Chien', a 'Tout Feu Tout Flamme', in short a title that I would have loved to hear live, if anyone has any information? the angelic title with its little grains of prog scattered here and there, just to be savored in the back of the palate 17. Coda sic, with Tristan inaugurating the hope of hearing it quickly, the future will disprove us but hey that's how it is; a latent outro.

''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.