EMERAUDE - GEOFFROY - 1981

Formed between 1979 and 1980, this French combo of friends and relatives had regular everyday lives, complemented by an amateur pursuit of music. A previous musical project, the folk group "Temple Ghost", formed the core of the new group, with members Jean-Paul Ansart (keyboards), Dominique Flachon (guitar), Didier Chas (drums) and Gilles Baud (guitars, bass). They were joined in the new group by Gilles Escoffier, on guitars, and Jean-Paul Ansart's wife and Gilles Baud sister, Bernardette Simonet, on piano. Influenced by groups like Ange, King Crimson and especially Pink Floyd, the new group chose the name Emeraude, a word reporting to a primordial esoteric tradition. The group's goal was to produce an album by themselves which they could leave as a legacy to their children.
With a bit of devotion (the band rehearsed at night after their hard days of work) and a good savings plan, they gathered enough money to rent a studio and record their compositions. So, on August 1981, their debut album Geoffroy, a wonderful display of space-folk, featuring two long compositions and three smaller ones, a sample of the dozens of compositions the band had penned. The album had a limited pressing, with the existing copies being sold by the band members themselves.
The recording of the album was followed by the departure of Gilles Escofier and Didier Chas, who were replaced by Bruno Catz and Guillaume Roatta, the latter being replaced months later by Eric Bollaro. This was the outfit that spent 4 years touring, between 1982 and 1986. During those years, the band also recruited singer Guy Marro. They played new compositions, featuring several music directions, as well as parts from the album Geoffroy. In the Spring of 1986, the group decided to call it quits after a great concert in Nice, and each member went its separate way, despite remaining close friends.
By the year 2000, Gilles Baud was playing with the blues band "Crossroad", when he showed some of EMERAUDE's masters to fellow band member Eric Delzard. The duo decided to revive the name EMERAUDE, and thus recruited an array of musicians for the recording of Voyageur, an album made by 10 medium length pieces, more rock-oriented than Geoffroy. Gilles Baud was responsible for the musical arrangements, while Jean-Paul Ansart contributed with the lyrics.

http://www.progarchives.com