French chanteuse and musician Isabelle Antena is a pioneer of bossa nova- and samba-inflected nu-jazz and electropop. She was a founding member of the original 1980s French-Belgian synthpop trio Antena, and in the 1990s led another group, the genre-defying Powaga Sisters to record three releases between 1993-2004. Alongside these projects, she has also carved out a remarkable solo music career in the last thirty years, selling over a million albums and winning fame and musical acclaim across the globe… From Camino Del Sol (1982) to Toujours du Soleil (2006), her cool latin, bossa, jazz and funk vibes have delighted ears and feet worldwide. Originally Antena were a trio.
Despite having discovered a sound all of their own (Camino del sol), light years ahead of its time, Antena’s exotic combination of indie, electro, pop and sambas was destined to be overshadowed
Thanks to Martin Hayles, in the summer of 1984 Antena signed a deal with Phonogram, who took a shot at cracking the single chart with Be Pop. At the same time Isabelle moved to London. The second single, a polished Hayles production of « Life Is Too Short », appeared in November, but also failed to make waves, and was all but impossible to buy outside Britain.
Despite the fact that Antena were releasing quality pop records with hip club appeal, the UK singles sold only modestly. It would be another ten years before bands like Saint Etienne, Air and Stereolab would make French pop hip in Britain again, and in the mean time, the years 1984 and 1985 proved a difficult time for Isabelle : « I signed to Phonogram in England and had to go and live in London. It surely was an experience.
They released two singles, and by that time Martin and I were lucky enough to work with great musicians like Trevor Murrell, Camelle Hinds and Danny Cummings and Alan Moulder was our sound engineer . But it was not a commercial success. With small companies you can do as you please musically, but there is no money. On a major label, you get tied down by commercial demands.
And Frenchies in England - pfft, they don’t give a damn. » Sessions for the album were shelved, and in 1985 Isabelle returned to Brussels with the tapes of En Cavale (On The Run) in her luggage
Happily relations with the Crépuscule label were restored, with the result that a new single, Seaside Week End, appeared at the beginning of 1986, By the time « Easy Street » was released as a single in May 1986, Isabelle was already recording her next album. Released early the following year, Hoping for Love saw Isabelle step left of the dance-floor, and expand her latin, funk and samba palette to include jazz and acoustic stylings.
Like Camino Del Sol it was largely self-produced, and kept the satirical working title La generation bof until the eleventh hour. Hoping For Love was (and is) very much an album of two halves, with side one comprising pop and dance numbers in similar vein to En Cavale, and the flip exploring jazzier avenues with the help of veteran players such as pianist Johnny Hot and hornsman Johnny Dover. Stand-out tracks on the first side include « Laying on the Sofa », the edgy « La tête contre les murs » and soft Mediterranean ballad « Le Poisson des Mers du Sud », while side two works best as a single suite. Hoping For Love took Isabelle to Japan for the first time, where in 1987 she was voted best international female singer at the prestigious Tokyo Music Festival, ahead of Whitney Houston, Sade, Basia and Tracey Thorn. Her subsequent performance of « Time to Work » at the Tokyo Dome between spots by Earth, Wind & Fire and Kool & The Gang remains a career highlight. Isabelle quickly consolidated this success with On a Warm Summer Night, which remains one of her best-selling albums.
Recorded in Brussels in late 1987, the set was produced by Isabelle with Martin Hayles, and reflects both her desire to cut a pure jazz album, and his own uptempo funk leanings. As well as superior originals such as « Je Respire », « Une Journee Banale A New York City » and « Romancia Del Amor » (also released as a single), the album includes a gorgeous bespoke ballad co-written by noted French soundtrack composer Gabriel Yared (Eclat De Nuit), and a radical samba arrangement of Frank Zappa’s « Village of the Sun ». In Europe it was released as Tous Mes Caprices, and promoted with a Belgian tour supporting Vaya Con Dios, whose bass player Dirk Schoufs would go on to collaborate with Isabelle as a writer and musician, and become her second husband. Always a prolific writer, Isabelle went on to write and record De l’Amour et des Hommes (1988) and Jouez le Cinq (1989) - the latter being re-issued only months later as Intemporelle (1990) - performing live across Europe as well as North America and Japan. Dirk Schoufs left Vaya Con Dios to join forces with Isabelle, bringing with him Vaya drummer Marco De Meersman and Fritz Sundermann, crack jazz guitarist and son of Freddy Sunder.
This quartet formed the new creative core for the next Isabelle Antena album, Les Derniers Guerriers Romantique, a conceptual work released in April 1991 and intended as a celebration of the love affair between Isabelle and Dirk. However tragedy struck on May 24 when Dirk died, leaving Isabelle devastated, and only just able to complete tours of Europe and Japan scheduled in June. Following a year of reflection, Isabelle returned to the studio in 1992 to record one of the best albums of her career, Carpe Diem, released in Japan and France in November. The song Corto prend le large is a heartfelt tribute to Dirk, while the album as a whole represents her personal affirmation of life and music. Recorded by Gilles Martin with friends including De Meersman and Sundermann in the comfort of Studio Caraibes in Brussels, Isabelle produced the album herself, which has rightly come to be regarded as a milestone.
The vibe is chiefly cool jazz, latin and bossa, and complements perfectly Isabelle’s warm voice and soft, sensual lyrics, never more so than on « Corto prend le large » and E Preciso Perdoar. At the Caraibes sessions Isabelle also met producer (and now husband) Denis Moulin, whose personal and professional partnership has since gone from strength to strength. Since Carpe Diem in 1992, Isabelle has released a further ten albums, spanning jazz, funk, latin and pop, as well as writing for and producing other artists. Side projects have included Fragile On The Rocks, Zeta Reticuli and the jazz project Pause Cafe. Although as a solo artist Isabelle Antena has often found greater commercial success in Japan and the Far East than in Europe, quietly selling more than a million albums, more recently the rest of the world has been catching up.
In 1996 the track Antena opened the first ESL compilation by Thievery Corporation, and since then Isabelle has worked with many hip DJs and producers including Buscemi, Nicola Conte and Yukihiro Fukutomi. Along with Thievery Corporation, all worked on her essential 2005 bossa mix double album, Easy Does It / Issy Does It (Remixes), and Thievery guested again on the 2006 Antena project Toujours du Soleil. And, completing the Antena trilogy, Bossa Super Nova was released April 12, 2010. Isabelle remains an artist of genuine integrity, proudly independent, and faithful to the bold philosophy she espoused to the NME back in 1984: « The fact that we have had to struggle quite a lot to get to even where we are now is not important. I think there is always a value in people whose music is not mainstream.
What is hard to listen to today might be easier to listen to tomorrow. The good thing about music is that anything is possible ».
Isabelle Antena’s Discography:
01. Antena - Camino Del Sol (1982)
02.Antena - Be Pop (single, 1983)
03. En Cavale (1984)
04. Antena - Seaside Week End (single, 1986)
05. Hoping for Love (1987)
06.On a Warm Summer Night / Tous Mes Caprices (1988)
07. De l’Amour et des Hommes (1988)
08. Jouez le Cinq (1989)
09. Intemporelle (1990)
10.Les Derniers Guerriers Romantiques (1991)
11. Carpe Diem (1992)
12. Plus Acid Que Jazz (compilation, 1994)
13. A la Belle Etoile (1995)
14.Mediterranean Songs (1997)
15. De l’amour Et Des Hommes, Vol. 2 (1999)
16. Take Me to Paradise (2001)
17.L’Alphabet Du Plaisir (Best Of 1981-2001) (compilation, 2001)
18. Easy Does It / Issy Does It (Remixes) (2005)
19. L’Alphabet Du Plaisir (Best Of 1982-2005) (compilation, 2005)
20. French Riviera (2006)
21.Antena - Toujours du Soleil (2006)
22. Antena - Versions Spéciales/Camino Del Sol
23.Antena -Bossa Super Nova (2010)
