Ageness from Finland, Post-Scarab: 1992 Showing Paces, 1995 Rituals, 1997 Imageness, 2009 Songs from the Liar's Lair [limited time only]

 

Similar in style to well known Swiss neoprog band, Flame Dream.  But just what you'd expect from the semi-prog band Scarab continuing forth into the dreaded 1980s and onwards to the glorious 1990s.

However, as neo it's quite good, consider New World Anthem from the first, with the great Gabriel impersonation, complete with ridiculous lyrics plus silly voices near the end:

As usual, it amazes me this came out in the same year Nirvana, Pearl Jam, and alternative broke through and made a clean sweep through 90 percent of the music scene.

From the 2009 Liar's Lair, the Sons of Madness to me at least sounds imitably like old Flame Dream:

Scarab, from Finland 1983 [Pre-Ageness] [limited time only]

 

Ageness:

Finnish 1990s prog band with former members of Scarab.

Scarab:

Prog band from Finland.

This 1983 album has a nice pleasing classic prog sound, maybe a little like classic countrymate band Fantasia transported forward into the days of neoprog and Marillion.  It's definitely a dramatic cover for something that sounds nothing too dramatic or creepy that would warrant a skull in front of a heart, but good for them for going all out with the surreal art.

Asylum 32 has a nice tritonal feeling, but doesn't develop very far into progressive territory, it's nothing at all like old classic Rhea Sad Sorceress though it covers similar harmonic and lyrical territory:

(Note that this composition was, not surprisingly, recycled for the first Ageness album, 1992's Showing Paces.)

Another ex., For her Son:

So it's wonderful that there is almost no digital 80s influence, like my old 1980 favourite Prisma, which although beyond this in complexity is quite similar in terms of overall sound.

Very competently played and sung though, tight and pleasing in terms of the playing, at least for neoprog.  The thing about that style is, the closest it resembles real prog is in the way it imitates Peter Gabriel's nasally, staccato and affected style of singing, in that order.  Otherwise the chord progressions are ordinary, there are no sudden changes, no classical importations, no fusion, no jazzy parts, definitely no dissonances or minor seconds, no mix of acoustic with hard parts.  If they included those things, we would surely call it real prog, not neoprog.  But that's just my opinion.

Mortal Wings of Sin, a bonus track not on the original release, reminds me a lot of the German prog I've posted here before, like Iskander's Boheme, in sound that is, not necessarily in masterpieceness:

Listing for reissue with live bonus tracks is here.  This is the copy I have to share.  Unfortunately the live tracks suffer from poor recordings, which interferes with my enjoyment, personally.  However, a violin appears here and there, similar to Kansas or UK's Curved Air, other Darryl Way, etc.

Bernard Lubat and his Mad Ducks, 1971 [FLAC limited time only]

 

Bernard Lubat:

French (library) music composer, singer, pianist, vibraphonist, accordionist, drummer, band leader

Born on May 12, 1945 in Uzeste in the Southwest of France

Note that he was in the Live in Montreaux fusion album with Engel, Louiss, etc. posted here.

While information on this very early fusion release can be found here.

As you might expect there's the kinda nutty early Soft Machine (1, 2) vibe with silliness and psych noodlings but also quite a large amount of surprisingly well evolved and composed great music, enough to make this 1971 album more modern sounding than its year (at least in my opinion).

To Yasmina features lovely harmony (I think, 4-part) vocals:

On the elegant and thoughtful piano solo Mickey Schroder's Dream, it's Bernard Lubat himself playing, as you can tell from this databased page:

Some Claude Engel: 1972 99% Pop, 1973 More Creative Pop, 1976 Fantasmagory

 

Claude Engel is of course a French guitarist who was involved in Omega Plus, Magma briefly, Troc, and Univeria Zekt.  I posted the Lubat Louiss Engel Live in Montreaux back here.

Aside from those groups outings, he made the library records 99% Pop and More Creative Pop, plus an ST 1973 and then notably the 1976 Fantasmagory, the most progressive of the bunch.  That first solo 1973 one was more chanson and therefore I didn't include it here in this package.

As an ex. of the library styles, Ralentissimo A from 1972's Pop library:

I posted Teddy Lasry here and there in the past, with whom he collaborates (along with Lubat) on 1973's More Creative Pop.  Teddy's stunning Fiction Melody, obviously is a masterpiece of the prog genre, pretty much a textbook lesson in how to write creative and intense prog rock:

From the wonderful Fantasmagory which is all written by him, very much an acoustic guitar-based work, but with interesting chords, harmonies, and some funky passages (the second side's Martian Suite), plus ethnic importations, the title track feat. vocals:

Less electric than Alain Renaud but similar.  The beautiful solo guitar piece called Improvisation sur Colchique sur les Pres, sounds very much like classic Larry Coryell, which is a wonderful thing always:

I was not a little surprised I had never heard that album before, but happy to discover it now.

April Orchestra 48: Francis Rimbert + Frederick Rousseau

 

The music here is almost as good as the old classic AO's I collected way back when, see search function here.  This one I skipped over at the time.  And what a surprise to be back here with these guys and their seemingly endless library tracks.  Looking over the whole series, it's truly amazing how much great music there was on offer there in that little quiet and neglected local library.

This one came out in 1982, and it seems all the compositions are cowritten by the two artists.

Francis Rimbert:

Keyboardist and composer born at the 3rd of October 1953 in Val D'Oise (France). At an age of 5 he started to play piano and later accordion. At the age of 7 he started to play harmonium in the church. He studied at the Paris Conservatory (Paris, France) but didn't like the classical music ambiance. At the age of 14 he started his first band, which he didn't like, so he stopped this band. Later he founded FanChris together with a folk singer/songwriter.

In 1978 he start working at a music shop specialized in synthesizers in Paris where he start rehearsing on those synths. There his career started when his boss offered him to record an album: "Bionic Orchestra" and he quit FanChris. Some later he met Jean-Michel Jarre with who he works often.

And Rousseau, briefly:

French keyboardist and synthesizer player, sound engineer and composer.

Quai de L'enigme:

Marguerite Degarne: