Antena

Several artists use the name Antena: 1) the French-Belgian electropop group founded by Isabelle Antena in 1980. 2) a Spanish christian rock group which recorded the album, Tecnopop. * * * 1) Destined to be overshadowed by their peers in the Factory Records universe, French-Belgian Antena were an underrated bossa nova-flavored electronic dream pop group that formed in France in the early '80s. Fronted by Isabelle Powaga (better known today as Isabelle Antena) with members Sylvain Fasy and Pascale Moiroud...

Several artists use the name Antena: 1) the French-Belgian electropop group founded by Isabelle Antena in 1980. 2) a Spanish christian rock group which recorded the album, Tecnopop. * * * 1) Destined to be overshadowed by their peers in the Factory Records universe, French-Belgian Antena were an underrated bossa nova-flavored electronic dream pop group that formed in France in the early '80s. Fronted by Isabelle Powaga (better known today as Isabelle Antena) with members Sylvain Fasy and Pascale Moiroud, the trio created a sound not terribly out of place on the legendary label's catalog, but were overlooked due to the fact that their work emerged on Factory's Benelux label - essentially a Continent-based label meant to test songs and do advance work for larger Factory U.K. acts touring Europe. In 1980, they released the single The Boy From Ipanema and a mini-album entitled Camino Del Sol - which would be expanded by Crepuscule in 1982.

The band would eventually sign with major labels Island and Mercury, but by that time, frontwoman and vocalist Powaga had taken sole artistic control of the Antena ship, and would later go solo as Isabelle Antena, releasing more than ten full-lengths that touched on jazz, latin, and funk stylings. The trio's brief impact on the electronic music scene lasted till 1983. In 2004, Numero Group once again repackaged and re-expanded the Camino del Sol record with two unreleased tracks, Frantz and Ingenuous. After a long spell between albums, the group's sophomore release, Toujours du Soleil followed in 2006. And soon, completing the Antena trilogy will be Bossa Super Nova (scheduled for release April 12, 2010). For this final volume, Isabelle and daughter Penelope Antena decided to rummage through their attic and dust off some classic Roland equipment: the TR-808 drum machine, TB-303 Bass Line sequencer and SH09 monophonic synth, all of which were used on the classic debut Antena album, Camino Del Sol in 1982.

Adding to this retro theme, old schoolfriend Jean Christophe Clair was invited to contribute lyrics and ideas in remembrance of times past. Isabelle then arranged and produced the songs with her husband Denis Moulin at their studio in the south of France, with Marco De Meersman adding extra percussion. Bossa Super Nova was born. Standout tracks include Une Francaise Sur Mars (bossa nova with cosmic sounds), Straight To The Point (an homage to Serge Gainsbourg and Pierre Henry), and Under your closed Eyelids (featured in season two of TV show, The Boondocks). * * * 2) Antena is a christian rock band with at least two group members, Sérgio and Daniel. Founder Sérgio explains that Antena began as an experiment to encourage young people to discover the experience of praising the Creator with the music and the language of their generation.

Both he and Daniel have worked with youth for several years in their respective faith communities and the two grew up with the same musical influences, so starting Antena was a natural step for them. Why Antena? Says Sérgio, "An antenna is a transmitter, and that is precisely what we want to be: transmitters of devotion to heaven and hope to the world." translated from: http://payplay.fm/antenamusic User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License and may also be available under the GNU FDL..