Ange Biography

The three other members of the band, in its first years (generally considered its best years), were Jean-Michel Brézovar on guitar, Gérard Jelsch on drums, and Daniel Haas on bass (and acoustic guitar).

Ange began life in the early 70s, releasing a number of early singles. This is a period documented by the In Concert 1971 release, which shows the band in a still embryonic mode. Their first album was 1972's Caricatures, which was just recently reissued by Musea, but the band hits their stride on their third album Le Cimietiere des Arlequins. The follow up, 1974's Au Dela du Delire is a clear classic by any stretch of the imagination, undoubtedly Ange's pinnacle. For such a well regarded band, Ange's truly "classic" period seems painfully short. The next two albums, Emile Jacotey and Par Les Fins Mandarin are both quite good, but neither scale the heights of Au Dela Du Delire, or Cimitiere des Arlequins, for that matter. A live album Tome VI, was released in 1977, followed by the reportedly quite good Guet Apens, which apparently closes out Ange's period of interest to the progressive listener. Throughout the 1980s, Ange, like many of their contemporaries, went pop, and these albums are by all accounts utterly horrid. Still, they've managed to continue in one form or another under the consistent leadership of Francis and Christian DeCamps to the present day, and perform regularly in France.

They were initially influenced by Genesis and King Crimson, and their music is quite theatrical and poetic. Their first success was a cover of a Jacques Brel song Ces gens-là, on the album Le Cimetière des Arlequins.

In 1995, they made their farewell tour. Christian Décamps released a few albums as "Christian Décamps et Fils" ("Christian Décamps and Son"), before taking over the name "Ange" in 1999 (using the band from his solo albums, which included his son Tristan), with the album La voiture à eau.

The keyboard sound of the '70s-era band, while reminiscent of a mellotron, were in fact created with a Viscount organ through a modded Hammond reverb. An actual mellotron was, however, used on the album Guet-Apens in 1978.

Thirty years later, after multiple lineup changes, charismatic and theatrical frontman Christian Descamps leads the new Ange generation alongside his son Tristan on keyboards, Hassan Hajdi on guitars, Thierry Sidhoun on bass, Caroline Crozat on vocals and Benoît Cazzulini on drums.