Progquebec

Procréation: After the critical success harvested by La Marche des Hommes, Morse Code kept the same team of collaborators to record the follow-up, Procréation, truly a masterpiece of Quebec progressive rock. One exception: lyricist Chantal Dussault was replaced by Jean Robitaille. The previous album was already an impressive opus; Procréation added ambition, grandiose, and managed to be exempt of any weak tracks. Side one begins with "Précréation," an instrumental piece hinting at the themes developed onside two. "Qu'est-Ce T'es V'nu Faire Ici" (What Are You Doing Here?) is the closest the group gets to the sound of La Marche des Hommes: complex, dark, and witty. "Des Hauts et des Ha!" illustrates Robitaille's propensity for plays on words.

For the 1977 Je Suis le Temps, Capitol sent the group to London to record with Eddie Offord, the engineer responsible for Yes and ELP's classic albums. For a moment, Morse Code believed they had a chance to break out on the international market, what they weren't counting on was prog rock's brutal crash in the late '70s. Dropped by its record company, the group disbanded. It re-formed in 1983 with the same lineup for a tentative comeback as an intelligent pop group with the LP Code Breaker, but this attempt failed rather miserably. In the early '90s, Capitol issued a CD compilation of the three French albums, allowing a new generation of Quebecers to discover a national prog treasure. Capitalizing on the good sales of the CD, the group recorded a new album, 1995's D'Un Autre Monde, and scored a minor campus radio hit with "Le Fils du Grand Dragon," but plans to put a tour together failed and Morse Code disappeared once again.

Following the departure of Jérôme Langlois, Maneige launches its` second era. The band gravitates towards more concise and accessible compositions, melding classical, jazz and rock influences. The first result is 1977’s "Ni Vent… Ni Nouvelle", a successful and unique style of fusion, which remains one of the bands’ high points amongst their fans. This new CD reissue contains the 10 original tracks which have been recently remastered, plus bonus live material culled from this same era (featured on the 1979 album “Composite”), as well as a 12-page booklet full of photos.

POLLEN was a Canadian four-some that released only one album of symphonic progressive in the seventies. They were from the Quebecois progressive scene and were perhaps the most-known Canadian symphonic group with HARMONIUM but their music is much purely rooted in the symphonic genre than their countrymen, whose music is more folk-oriented. The group consisted of Jacques Tom Rivest (vocals, bass, acoustic guitar, keyboards), Richard Lemoyne (electric & acoustic guitars, bass, keyboards), Claude Lemay (keyboards, flute, bass, vibraphone, vocals) and Sylvain Coutu (drums, vibraphone).

Brégent was formed around two brothers, vocalist Jacques and keyboardist Michel-Georges Brégent, with a backing band of guitar, bass, drums/percussion and two saxophone players.
After the formation and dissipation of Dionne Brégent, the Brégent brothers got back together for “Partir pour Ailleurs” (1979). Vincent Dionne is enlisted here on percussion. With the exception of one track from 1977, all music was written between 1970 and 1972. Once more, many of the lyrics are from poets such as Léo Ferré, but a good number are written by Félix Leclerc, a popular singer in Quebec during the 70s. The album was not recorded until 1978; the reason for it being seven years in the making remains a mystery. The music is more rock-oriented, even funky at times…

L'Orchestre Sympathique was a progressive jazz rock quartet founded in 1976 by classicaly trained vibraphonist/percussionist Jean Vanasse, flautist/pianist Francois Richard, and drummer Mathieu Leger. They were joined by various bass players over the years. They released three live albums over their careers including this one recorded live at the La Grande Passe in April of 1979. They never could secure a record deal so there were no studio albums released unfortunately. The band would eventually move to Paris, France and toured Europe extensively from 1981-1985. This album is of particular interest to progressive music lovers, sounding very much like early Maneige.

Vos Voisins (Your Neighbours) was an early prog rock band from Québec, Canada that released a single album in 1971 while much of the Rock Progressif Québécois was still caught up in the heavy psychedelic haze period and had yet to blossom. Though their album reflects the heavy guitar rock and organ of the day, there are gentler piano songs, too.
Keyboardist J Perron and drummer P Ringuet had worked together with local celebrities and then with Les Enzymes (L Forestier and Y Deschamps) before hooking up with Guitarist Vallieres and bassist Parenteau and making Vos Voisins. The group made a huge scandal with the releases of their sole album with its artwork depicting the scandal paper Allo Police (one of the trashiest ever "newspaper" to ever exist on Earth) and their album had to be taken away from the record shelves after a week or so, after lawsuits…

Self-taught guitarist that played a few years on the local Quebec scene in various line-ups, sharing stages with Octobre, Maneige, etc. Jacques Blais became one of Quebec's best guitarists (along with Frank Marino) and his reputation grew to the point of playing prestigious shows without having recorded an album (yet). Late 74, despite having his own and upon hearing Contraction's second album La Bourse Ou La vie, he asked the group's bassist Yves Laferrière to produce his first album, and soon enough most of the band was backing Blais, not only in the studio, but in the next few months' following its release in 1975. Contraction's influence is all over the music. Nonetheless, all writing credits are given to Blais, who plays acoustic and electric guitar in addition to singing. Roughly half the cuts are instrumental, and it is these that shine in particular through their gorgeous melodies and arrangements, rather than outright virtuosity…

Franck Dervieux was the keyboardist of Jean Pierre Ferland, one of Quebec's best known singers. Dervieux became ill with cancer and after regaining his strength, he released an album called "Dimension M" in 1972, in which his life's philosophy is aptly, yet abstractly, described on the insert. The band comprised Yves Laferrière (bass), Christiane Robichaud (vocals), Michel Robidoux (guitar), and Christian Saint-Roch (drums) who would all go on to form Contraction. Also present during sessions was Michel Séguin (percussion), who later formed Toubabou.
Dervieux dedicates the album to his 3 doctors from Sherbrooke, who he says on the insert 'preserved' him. Indeed they saved him just long enough to produce what is undoubtedly one of the finest progressive music LPs to have emerged from Quebec…

First of all, a confusing point must be cleared up: yes, this album contains all the material previously released by Fonovox in 1998 under the title Live Montréal 1974-1975, Enregistrement Inédit, although its title mentions only the 1975 show. First up on this 78-minute disc is Maneige's performance at L'Évêché, a concert hall in Montreal's Hotel Nelson, on November 22, 1975. The show was broadcast live on CKVL radio. To "1-2-3-4-5-6" and "La Balloune" (two pieces the group never recorded in the studio), Live à l'Évêché adds three tunes the group would record for its next album, Ni Vent…Ni Nouvelle. Thus, here listeners have the only known performances of "Mambo Chant," "Les Épinettes," and "Bullfrog Dance" with founding member Jérôme Langlois still in the lineup…