PASTALES

Completely forgotten somewhere in the dustbin of history, Anoxie was a French project found in 1982 by keyboardist Pascal Lachaize in order to blend his electronic influences (Klaus Schulze, Vangelis) with Classic 70's prog.From 1984 Anoxie gigged extensively with the founder of the legendary prog fanzine ''Acid Dragon'' Thierry Sportouche being a permanent member as the lyricist of the band.The numerous line-up changes and uncommercial style of music were propably the reason Anoxie never reached a full-length album back in mid-80's , but in 1992 Mauro Moroni of Mellow Records showed an interest on their past material, so the compilation ''Pastales'' saw the light in 1994, consisting of 12 live tracks and 2 studio compositions, recorded between 1984 and 1987.

All tracks are written by Pascal Lachaize and ''Pastales'' has this lovely 80's underground sound, which I personally love, and deliver some good musicianship exactly in the middle of Electronic Music and Symphonic Rock.About half of the tracks are built around Lachaize's synth/electronics with hypnotic passages, cosmic atmospheres and a healthy dose of New Wave, sometimes supported by the rhythm section or distinct electric guitars and often having a VANGELIS-like cinematic symphonic grandieur.The other half is light Symphonic Rock but with straighter links to Neo Prog and very similar to bands like THE FOUNDATION or QUASAR.Dominated again by Lachaize's synthesizers, these tracks contain the interesting vocal work of singer Remy Soriano with some more guitar parts on the forefront and a tight rhythm section, but the production of the live performances does not help this time, as the recording quality is on an amateur level.Still the musicianship is pretty decent and the two studio tracks are great examples of synth-driven energetic Neo Prog with lovely choruses.

An obscure album for sure, ''Pastales'' is likely to please all fans of Electronic Prog and light Symph/Neo Prog and thus comes recommended overall.A long forgotten gem from the 80's with some pretty strong moments here and there.