Sandrose (Full Album) – Very Rare French Prog Rock LP 500 GBP

Here is the UK Polydor 1973 release by French Prog Rockers `Sandrose`. Recent top copies are selling for around 400 – 500 British Pounds and looks like it will continue to rise in value, the UK issue comes in a single matt sleeve, printed and made in England by MacNeill Press on the `red` Polydor label. A truly superb Prog Rock LP with flashes of early Genesis, some great melodic passages akin to `This Van Leer`s Focus` hard to believe it never sold well making it a rarity in today`s market. Check out my other rarities on youtube
Side 1
1 Vision
2 Never Good At Sayin’ Good-Bye
3 Underground Session (Chorea)
Side 2
1 Old Dom Is Dead
2 To Take Him Away
3 Summer Is Yonder
4 Metakara
5 Fraulein Kommen Sie Schlaffen Mit Mir

One week in Studio Davout was all it took for Sandrose to record an album that has long been considered one of the most important to emerge from France. After a failed stint as Eden Rose, the various members of that ensemble, led by guitarist extraordinaire Jean-Pierre Alarcen, decided to try a new approach. Their first move was to add a singer. Alarcen had been struck by the vocal of Rose Podwojny (later to become foxy pop sensation Rose Laurens) on a William Sheller demo, and roped her into the band, which was newly dubbed Sandrose. They started rehearsals and rapidly built a repertoire, mainly Alarcen compositions. Strongly influenced by both classical symphonic music and rock and roll; his goal was to combine both musical styles. The resulting album is something special. On their sole release (Polydor 1973) Sandrose play a superb mellow proto-progressive rock based on the continuous floating sounds of the mellotron, incisive guitar interventions by Alarcen (whose sublime playing explodes during superbly constructed instrumental passages), and singer Rose Podwojny’s powerful, clear voice. On songs like ‘Vision’ and ‘Never Good at Saying Goodbye,’ Podwojny’s voice expresses such a maturity and sensitivity that simply listening to this song is enough to have goose-bumps and tears in your eyes. But it’s the eleven minute instrumental ‘Underground Session’ that is the centre piece of the album, with Alarcen giving free rein to his creativity; As for singing in English, Alarcen explained at the time: “The spirit of our music is closer to the Anglo-Saxon spirit, it is perfectly normal that we have the words in that language.”