Ange


Ange is a French progressive rock band formed in September 1969 by the Décamps brothers, Francis and Christian.
Since its inception the band's music has been inspired by medieval texts and fantasy.

History

Ange was initially influenced by Procol Harum 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-là, on its second album Le Cimetière des Arlequins. The band provided its first concert on January 30, 1970, at the cultural center "La Pépinière", 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, which was 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 delà du délire, the 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 more rock-oriented change of direction, although various progressive reformations occurred over the years, e.g. for the 1992 album Les larmes du Dalaï-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 their first years, the other three members of the band were Jean-Michel Brézovar on guitar and flute, Gérard Jelsch on drums, and Daniel Haas on bass. In 1995, Ange played its announced farewell tour.
Christian Décamps released a few albums as "Christian Décamps et Fils", 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 à eau in 1999, performed on 2006 edition of NEARfest and was still on the road in 2013.
Francis Décamps and Jean-Michel Brézovar have also released solo albums.

Keyboards

The keyboard sounds of the '70s-era band, while reminiscent of a mellotron, were in fact generated from a Viscount organ through a modded Hammond reverb. However, an actual mellotron was played on the album Par Les Fils De Mandrin in 1976.

Studio Discography

Christian and Francis Décamps era

Current members



ImageSize = width:1300 height:800
PlotArea = left:100 bottom:120 top:0 right:08
Alignbars = justify
DateFormat = dd/mm/yyyy
Period = from:01/01/1970 till:07/01/2018
TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal format:yyyy
Legend = orientation:vertical position:bottom columns:4
ScaleMajor = increment:2 start:1972
ScaleMinor = increment:1 start:1970
Colors =
id:Chant value:red legend:Vocals
id:Claviers value:purple legend:Keyboards
id:Guitare value:green legend:Guitars
id:Basse value:blue legend:Bass
id:Batterie value:orange legend:Drums
id:Flute value:drabgreen legend:Flute
id:Rythmique value:teal legend:Rhythmic_Guitar
id:chœur value:pink legend:Choir
id:Albums value:black legend:Studio_Albums
LineData =
at:07/06/1972 color:black layer:back
at:15/03/1973 color:black layer:back
at:15/04/1974 color:black layer:back
at:03/12/1975 color:black layer:back
at:23/03/1976 color:black layer:back
at:29/03/1977 color:black layer:back
at:05/10/1978 color:black layer:back
at:22/09/1980 color:black layer:back
at:18/06/1981 color:black layer:back
at:27/03/1982 color:black layer:back
at:25/04/1983 color:black layer:back
at:25/04/1984 color:black layer:back
at:25/04/1986 color:black layer:back
at:25/04/1987 color:black layer:back
at:25/04/1989 color:black layer:back
at:25/04/1992 color:black layer:back
at:25/04/1999 color:black layer:back
at:23/05/2001 color:black layer:back
at:16/05/2005 color:black layer:back
at:04/03/2007 color:black layer:back
at:01/01/2010 color:black layer:back
at:21/05/2012 color:black layer:back
BarData =
bar:cd text:"C. Décamps"
bar:fd text:"F. Décamps"
bar:td text:"T. Décamps"
bar:frieden text:"J. Frieden"
bar:migaud text:"J. Migaud"
bar:brezovar text:"J.-M. Brézovar"
bar:demet text:"Claude Demet"
bar:serri text:"Mauro Serri"
bar:defer text:"Robert Defer"
bar:cuenot text:"Serge Cuénot"
bar:boffo text:"J.-P. Boffo"
bar:hajdi text:"Hassan Hajdi"
bar:kachanian text:"P. Kachanian"
bar:haas text:"Daniel Haas"
bar:renard text:"Gérald Renard"
bar:viseux text:"Didier Viseux"
bar:chojnacki text:"F. Chojnacki"
bar:sigrist text:"Laurent Sigrist"
bar:sidhoum text:"Thierry Sidhoum"
bar:rio text:"Jean-Claude Rio"
bar:jelsch text:"Gérard Jelsch"
bar:biger text:"Guénolé Biger"
bar:guichard text:"J.-P. Guichard"
bar:schreiner text:"J.-M. Schreiner"
bar:potin text:"J.-C. Potin"
bar:meyer text:"Francis Meyer"
bar:bony text:"Fabrice Bony"
bar:rouyer text:"Hervé Rouyer"
bar:cazzulini text:"Benoît Cazzulini"
bar:crozat text:"Caroline Crozat"
PlotData=
width:10 textcolor:black align:left anchor:from shift:
bar:cd from:01/01/1970 till:01/01/1996 color:Chant
bar:cd from:01/01/1997 till:end color:Chant
bar:fd from:01/01/1970 till:01/01/1996 color:Claviers
bar:td from:01/01/1997 till:end color:Claviers
bar:frieden from:01/01/1979 till:01/01/1980 color:Claviers
bar:migaud from:01/01/1979 till:01/01/1980 color:Claviers
bar:brezovar from:01/01/1970 till:01/01/1978 color:Guitare
bar:brezovar from:01/01/1988 till:01/01/1990 color:Guitare
bar:brezovar from:01/01/1991 till:01/01/1996 color:Guitare
bar:demet from:01/01/1978 till:01/01/1979 color:Guitare
bar:demet from:01/01/1990 till:01/01/1991 color:Guitare
bar:serri from:01/01/1979 till:01/01/1980 color:Guitare
bar:defer from:01/01/1980 till:01/01/1982 color:Guitare
bar:defer from:01/01/1990 till:01/01/1991 color:Guitare
bar:cuenot from:01/01/1972 till:01/01/1974 color:Guitare
bar:cuenot from:01/01/1982 till:01/01/1988 color:Guitare
bar:boffo from:01/01/1995 till:01/01/1996 color:Guitare
bar:hajdi from:01/01/1997 till:end color:Guitare
bar:kachanian from:01/01/1970 till:01/01/1971 color:Basse
bar:haas from:01/01/1971 till:01/01/1978 color:Basse
bar:haas from:01/01/1988 till:01/01/1996 color:Basse
bar:renard from:01/01/1978 till:01/01/1980 color:Basse
bar:viseux from:01/01/1980 till:01/01/1982 color:Basse
bar:chojnacki from:01/01/1980 till:01/01/1982 color:Basse
bar:sigrist from:01/01/1982 till:01/01/1988 color:Basse
bar:sidhoum from:01/01/1997 till:end color:Basse
bar:rio from:01/01/1970 till:01/01/1971 color:Rythmique
bar:jelsch from:01/01/1970 till:01/01/1975 color:Batterie
bar:jelsch from:01/01/1994 till:01/01/1995 color:Batterie
bar:biger from:01/01/1975 till:01/01/1976 color:Batterie
bar:guichard from:01/01/1976 till:01/01/1982 color:Batterie
bar:guichard from:01/01/1988 till:01/01/1993 color:Batterie
bar:schreiner from:01/01/1979 till:01/01/1980 color:Batterie
bar:schreiner from:01/01/1990 till:01/01/1991 color:Batterie
bar:potin from:01/01/1982 till:01/01/1987 color:Batterie
bar:meyer from:01/01/1987 till:01/01/1988 color:Batterie
bar:bony from:01/01/1993 till:01/01/1994 color:Batterie
bar:rouyer from:01/01/1995 till:01/01/1996 color:Batterie
bar:rouyer from:01/01/1997 till:01/01/2003 color:Batterie
bar:cazzulini from:01/01/2003 till:end color:Batterie
bar:crozat from:01/01/2001 till:01/06/2010 color:Chant

width:2.5 textcolor:black align:left anchor:from shift:
bar:cd from:01/01/1970 till:01/01/1996 color:Claviers
bar:cd from:01/01/1997 till:end color:Claviers
bar:fd from:01/01/1970 till:01/01/1996 color:Chant
bar:td from:01/01/1997 till:end color:Chant
bar:kachanian from:01/01/1970 till:01/01/1971 color:Flute
bar:crozat from:01/01/2001 till:01/06/2010 color:chœur