Antena

Samba on ice

Antena formed in Paris in 1981 around Isabelle Powaga, later Isabelle Antena, with Sylvain Fasy on guitar and Pascale Moiroud as singer. The name comes from Kraftwerk's 1975 track "Antenna", with the third n dropped, and Neil Tennant, then writing for Smash Hits, coined the term electro-samba. They played Paris Metro stations to fund synthesizers, and mailed eight demo songs recorded on a basic tape recorder to Ralph Records, ZE Records and Les Disques du Crepuscule in Belgium; Crepuscule replied first. Powaga was born on May 28, 1960 and had worked as an au pair in London for the Yes keyboardist Rick Wakeman.

In 1982 they recorded in London with John Foxx at his studio, The Garden, producing the single "The Boy From Ipanema" (TWI 073) with "Spiral Staircase" on the B-side. The mini-album Camino del Sol (Crepuscule TWI 114) followed in September or October 1982, self-produced, recorded by Gilles Martin at LBO Studio near Brussels; Resident Advisor counts five tracks and about 20,000 copies sold on release. The Crepuscule package tour of October 1982 with Cabaret Voltaire, 23 Skidoo and The Pale Fountains played Brussels on October 5 and Tielt on October 8, and they played Danceteria in New York on New Year's Eve 1982.

Moiroud left in 1983, to pursue fashion design, according to Numero; a brief Island Records deal produced the poorly selling "Be Pop", and a 1984 signing to Phonogram gave "Life Is Too Short". The last Antena release was the "Seaside Week End" 12-inch in early 1986, and from then Powaga recorded as Isabelle Antena, beginning with En Cavale. Numero Group reissued Camino del Sol in 2004 with two unreleased tracks, "Frantz" and "Ingenuous", and a deluxe two-LP in 2010; Crepuscule issued a double disc in 2013. Pitchfork gave the reissue 9.0 and AllMusic 4 stars, and FACT placed it on its 100 best albums of the 1980s. She toured the US in May 2005 with a backing group, from Milwaukee on May 12 to Atlanta on May 28.