Clarika Manquer à Quelqu’un Quelque Part

French-Canadian singer/songwriter Lynda Lemay has been a star in her native Quebec since the early '90s, and also has a large following in Europe, where her playful, poignant writing style is appreciated for its compassionate, literate, and often humorous approach to both the large and small requirements of contemporary life.

Francis Cabrel (born 23 November 1953 in Agen, France) is a French singer-songwriter and guitarist. Inspired heavily by Bob Dylan, he has released a number of albums falling mostly within the realm of folk, with occasional forays into blues or country. Several of his songs, such as "L'encre de tes yeux" and "Petite Marie" have become enduring favourites in French music. Others, such as "C'était l'hiver", about the suicide of a young girl, have since been covered by other artists such as Canadian Isabelle Boulay.

The third and latest CD entitled Quelque Part from the Quebec based trio known as Talisma has been released and it continues building on the solid prog framework the band has established for themselves. Picking up where they left off Talisma produce a mostly instrumental set with an emphasis of melodic and yet quirky guitar riffs using the keyboards to build the atmospheric backdrop for each of the CD’s 10 compositions. Most of these pieces tend to be shorter, anywhere from 2 to 3 minutes however the closing piece clocks in a 9-minutes (although it’s really three pieces strung together). And yet the band manages to jam a fair bit of complexity into these rather small musical packages. If you are at all familiar with the band’s music you’ll know to expect a lot of musical variety, dynamics, drama and texture, all with an overriding somber or melancholy tone.

Fans of progressive rock music already have it hard enough as it is. The casual music listener already thinks we’re pretty snobby, a little elitist, kind of neurotic, and well, pretty strange. (Pun intended.) But when a progressive rock enthusiast tells a friend they are listening to the third and final album in a trilogy based on Stanley Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke‘s film 2001: A Space Odyssey…