This symphonic rockband from Flanders (Belgium) was founded by Arnold De Schepper and Walter De Berlangeer back in 1974. Tired of covering Deep Purple, The Who, Uriah Heep, Wishbone Ash, etc., they started to compose and arrange music of their own, inspired by the magic of British bands like Genesis, Yes, King Crimson. However the original line-up proved too unskilled to perform the complex arrangements.
Arnold, who played bass, bass pedals and guitar and who was also the lead singer at that time, found all these instruments too difficult to combine. In 1977 his brother Dirk De Schepper joined the band as lead singer, so Arnold could concentrate more on his instruments and on backing vocals.
In that same year a new keyboardplayer, Geert Amant, joined the band. With him, Arnold found a co-composer and co-arranger who fully understood the complexity of Isopoda’s musical style and who was perfectly able to play their creations during live performances.
One local concert followed after the other whilst their performances were backed by fabulous light shows and Gabriel-like disguises, which earned them the reputation of “The Flemish Genesis”.
The first album “Acrostichon” was recorded in 1978 and released in 1979. By Belgian standards it was a very successful album. However, their success was undone soon afterwards when Geert Amant announced he was going to leave the band for what are still unknown reasons.
This is where Luc Vanhove steps in. Luc was familiar with the use of synthesizers and revealed himself as the sound magician of the band. With his musical skills, his absolute pitch and his extensive musical baggage he proved to be the perfect replacement for Geert Amant. He played all the “Acrostichon” material without any difficulty and contributed in an increasing degree to the creation of new songs.
In 1981 Isopoda started recording their second album “Taking Root”, but tensions already began to mount. Arnold and Luc were convinced the band had to go on playing the musical style of “Acrostichon”, whereas the other band members wanted to switch to a more commercial style. After long and heated discussions some compromises were made, but since Arnold and Luc were responsible for most of the compositions they managed pretty well to preserve the progressive and symphonic nature of their music in spite of the fact that some more commercial, shorter tracks were included.
To promote the second album’s release the band planned to give a great concert in Aalst, their native town, backed by a symphony orchestra, a big band and a choir. It turned out to be a memorable concert. It took place on 31st January 1982, just a week after the release of the album “Taking Root”. Some 2000 people were present to witness a stage with a rockband, a symphony orchestra, a big band and a choir, something which had never been seen in the region at that time.
Walter had left a few months before the concert. His motivation had been completely gone for months and it seemed he had enough of rehearsing. At this crucial point of time the band could not afford this and Arnold asked him kindly to leave, which he did without hard feelings. He was replaced by guitarist Bert Van Calenbergh who did a great job having mastered such a complex repertoire in such a short time. Bert came from the band Quies in Oostende, a band which had John ‘BoBo’ Bollenberg as a singer and manager for a while !
The second album’s sales were promising…at least that was what the band thought.
Bad concert reviews sparked off new discussions among the band members. The new album’s distribution was postponed resulting in disappointing sales when compared to “Acrostichon”. A meeting planned in March 1982 in an attempt to smooth things out, turned out to be a disaster. Isopoda split a few weeks later.
Financial contracts concluded formerly by Isopoda urged Arnold and Luc to continue playing. They started a cover band which got them the necessary money and then their roads parted.
Arnold did some solo projects afterwards, but none proved to be a success. It was not before the late nineties that Arnold and Luc met again to try some new ideas, together with drummer Hubert Lissens and guitarist Jeroen Vanryckeghem.
During the same period the re-release on CD of both Isopoda albums by the French Musea label sparked some new interest in their music. A solo CD by Arnold called “Topical Matters Blues” was the result of this. Arnold produced the record on his own and sales were not fabulous as a consequence, but at least he had a new band with his old partner-in-crime Luc Vanhove.
Keen on finishing a chapter that was concluded too abruptly back in the early eighties, they started rehearsing old Isopoda songs. Arnold took to singing again and with a more skillful drummer and guitarist, better present-day equipment and more musical baggage, the Isopoda music became much more colourful.
They did two successful gigs in december 2004, one in CC De Werf in Aalst, the other at the well known prog temple The Spirit of 66 in Verviers. This proved that they still had an audience.
In recent months they have been rehearsing some new songs, which might lead to new studio recordings. Then John Bollenberg, who was there at the famous concert on 31st January 1982, came with the excellent idea of a prog-/sympho-festival at the 013 in Tilburg to be held on 15th September 2007. He asked Isopoda to join in and to play music from their two seventies albums. So the band started rehearsing the old songs again whilst putting more energy and detail into the whole …and they like it!
Isopoda is back and thanks to the means of internet, specialized radioshows, their re-recorded CD output and above all the enthusiasm of a lot of musiclovers around the world, the band will finally get the recognition it has deserved for way too long. Isopoda is back to stay for a long time to come !
