MANEIGE

Well, have I ever heard anything........ ??

It did not take me many minutes to understand that I was facing a serious battle in my intent to do a review of this album. It is a special album, and in as many meanings as possible.

The music comes across as a mix of baroque, prog folk, jazz and symphonic prog. The more folky version of Harmonium springs to mind. So does Gnidrolog, Focus, Return To Forever, Gentle Giant and Soft Machine too. In other words, an eclectic bunch of bands.

The music here is pastorial and minimalistic throughout. It is not bombastic or big. Just pretty minimalistic. The main instruments are guitars, piano, keyboards, sax, flute, bass, drums and xylophone. It took me some time to get that last one, btw. I was scratching my head there for a while. This album is listed under Fusion/Jazz and I agree with that. But it is not jazz/fusion as we knows it. It is more folk music based jazz. And that my friends is a contradiction in terms. But Maneige does not do logical things.

There are five songs on this album. Les porches De Notre-Dame is a twenty minutes long epic which blends folk music with jazz and some symphonic prog at the end. This is a superb song which got my attention when I heard this album for the first time some weeks ago. The short one minutes long La Grosse Torche (a good piano piece) neatly brings us over to the fifteen minutes long Les Aventures De Saxinette Et Clarophone. This piece starts with folk, goes over into a straight jazz piece before it includes some avant-garde stuff and return to jazz again. This is an excellent piece of music. The last two pieces of music is the rather short meditation pieces Chromo part I and Chromo part II. Both of them are good, btw.

I think this album deserve the reputation it has got. It is a strange album because it is strictly speaking neither a Fusion/Jazz, Symphonic Prog or a Prog Folk album. The music is excellent crossover, created by musicians who delivers it with both conviction and flair. This album is another eyeopener for me and an important one too. I live for eyeopeners like this one. Nice cover btw and a four star for this album.

4 stars

Long live Quebec Prog!

Oh Quebec, home of the Nordiques, Bonhomme Carnaval, Caribou and some of the most complex jazz fusion ever: Maneige, Uzeb, Morse Code. A huge province in the middle of Canada, my home and my prog.

Maneige (litt. 'my snow') is scoring an epic album with les Porches de Notre-Dame, entering immediately into history, without much background though. Kinda like Adrian Brody winning the Oscar for Best Actor in the Pianist. But the songs are so homogenic! Such a maturity in writing, it's uncanny.

When it comes to clarinette, bass and percussions, it doesn't get better than this. On top, we have vocals by Raoul Duguay, crazy LSD guru of the 70's in Canada. I can say that his performance is the only stain on the perfect shirt; his vocals can be compared to a cross of Jacques Brel and a sheep. A VERY dated way of singing I might say.

Fans of Gentle Giant and Gnidrolog won't be disappointed.

Be good to yourself, and taste what Quebec Province has to offer. Different, and heck yeah, it's good.

The Maneige albums are special albums and each offer different musical perspective. On their debut album Maneige were an all instrumental psych-jazz-prog band who in many ways remind me of a mix of Ummagumma era Pink Floyd with pieces of Mike Oldfield, Jethro Tull and traces of Canterbury prog tossed in. Their music is captivating and like many of the 70's prog quebec bands carried a high degreee of musicianship and deep song writing ability. On this first album maneige mix a wide range of instruments with some great mallet work, flute, various percussive tones, woodwind and sax. This is my favourite of all the Maneige albums and an absolute essential album to own. In the summer of 2007 i got a chance to meet Gilles Schetagne (percussionist in Maneige) and got to tell him how much i have enjoyed thier music and thanked him for the music after all these years.

3.5 stars. "Les Porches" is similar to the debut but without the dark passages and avant moments.So for my tastes the debut is much better.This is so well played and arranged though,very impressive.The classical and pastoral flavour of this album just does little for me,no matter how good it all is.I know i'm in the minority with these feelings so take my opinions with a dash of salt(if you know what i mean).This album consists of two long tracks and two short ones. "Les Porches De Notre-Dame" is classical and pastoral with lots of flute and piano for the first 13 minutes.I just can't get into this,and believe me i've been trying.My favourite part of the whole album is the final 6 minutes of this song.First vocals come in and they are fragile,almost quivering but i like them.Sax before 15 minutes leads the way while bass impresses.Guitar takes over before 17 1/2 minutes and is just fantastic! Six minutes of these guys letting their hair down and showing some passion. "La Grosse Torche" is very classical with strings. "Les Aventures De Saxinette Et Clarophone" is mellow with some atmosphere for a couple of minutes then a melody arrives.Piano and an uptempo melody before 4 minutes.I like the guitar after 6 1/2 minutes then it settles with percussion and vibes as the piano continues.Guitar is back 8 1/2 minutes in.A change after 9 minutes as horns come in.It's chaotic 11 1/2 minutes in.Great track. "Chromo" features lots of wind instruments,bass and drums.A calm before 3 minutes and it stays fairly restrained the rest of the way. It's hard for me to imagine too many people giving this less than 4 stars,but the enjoyment level isn't there to warrant it from me.

I guess you could call this "Rhythmic Fusion" with all the percusion,drums,xylophones and vibes.Very accessible and polished with shorter tracks, it's a far cry from their first amazing album.So yes this was disappointing for me,mostly because my reference point with them is the first album. "Troizix" opens with a beat and lots of clapping.Guitar comes in followed later by flute. "L'Envol Des Singes Latins" opens with percussion and synths before drums and flute take over.There is an island vibe to this tune after 1 1/2 minutes.A catchy track. "Les Petoncles" is better with the slower beat and vibes.Guitar and bass follow.I like the calm after 3 minutes.Sax comes in then the tempo picks up to end it. "La Belle Et La Bete" features xylophone and vibes early with drums.Flute 1 minute in.Good sound 2 1/2 minutes in as we get a fuller sound.A gong ends it. "Bagdad" has a good rhythm to it once it gets going. "Noemi" is less than a minute of piano,guitar and flute. "Celebration" opens with bells as flute joins in.A full sound arrives around 1 1/2 minutes. "La Noce" opens with sleigh bells then flute and classical guitar.I feel like throwing on some tights and prancing around.Kidding! Thankfully a good piano melody takes over with drums and bass.Guitar comes in at 2 1/2 minutes.Flute leads the way later. "Toujours Trop Tard" is mellow with flute.Drums,percussion and guitar take over.Sax 3 minutes in then guitar returns before 4 minutes. "Miro Vibro" opens with piano before flute and percussion arrive before 2 minutes.Piano is back leading the way then flute joins in again.Tasteful guitar late. There is certainly lots to enjoy here if your into the lighter side of fusion.

Les Porches is certainly the best album of the Quebec scene, better than Harmonium albums and Sloche albums; a real masterpiece of untypical musical instruments, perfect instrumentation and a lot of folk, jazz and classical influences. Both long pieces contain real ecstasy moments (emphasis for clarinet, sax and percursion and the vocals and guitar solo on désouverture) and the short pieces have wonderful melodies. Another characteristics are the non-clear experimental and concret music moments (few moments unfortunately) and the power but not agressive bass. Xylophones also join the music with eminence some times. My favorite song on this album is Les Porches De Notre Dame and its Désouverture and Suite I; Chromo part two also is incredible. I hope progressive guys enjoy this work and my last spell of this album is simple: a non-rock but progressive masterpiece

Maneige's first 2 albums had too many cooks in the kitchen and their sound was a mixture of Henry Cow- light, Gilgamesh, Gentle Giant influences and post-Daevid Allen Gong. Their first 2 albums were somewhat directionless best served as backround music while not quite being muzak. No question Maneige are talented bunch, but the first 2 albums were meandering jazz doodling, really(IMHO). However, _Ni Vent, Ni Nouvelle shows Maneige maturing with cohesive composition and some playful childlike melodies combined with a lightjazz ethereal flow(if that makes any sense to you, dear reader). Electric guitar appears more frequently. This is a percussion heavy album, not unlike Pierre Moerlin's Gong. Other points of reference would be Pekka Pohjola and the Spanish band GOTIC. Recommended.

Maneige does indeed make lovely music. This is the least electric of the 4,but great never the less. I love Quebec prog like Cano and Harmonium also which is in the same sounding category of music. My problem with this album though ,is the first 4 minutes of the first track and a few bridges along the way. It sounds like the group strumming/tuning in avantgardish fashion,which in my ears just get totally annoying.I play this song the least because I just can't get bowwered sitting through the intro. Don't get me wrong,when the melody here is flowing, it is very special indeed. A big thank you to ProgQuebec for making these albums available.They say 'Non profit',but I do not find them particularly cheap.But ,I have no problem with that really ,because Maneige is a great band,and is nice that they are available. I rate this one three ,and the next Maneiges 4 * each. I will add though, that a proghead should at least own one Maneige.

MANEIGE should be considered one of the most clever progressive rock bands in history and surely one of the top-3 coming out of the progressive scene of Quebec.The band was formed back in 1972 with main figures being the woodwind player Alain Bergeron and the keyboardist Jerome Langlois.The band at first started as a quintet but ended up as a sextet before releasing their first eponymous album in 1975.

Having a woodwind and a keyboard player as their leaders it is not surprising that MANEIGE's debut is dominated by the flute and the piano,resulting an almost chamber rock album.The album is totally instrumental and consists of a side-long 21 min.epic plus 3 shorter songs on the b-side.Do not expect that the tracks do differ very much in their sound despite the different running times,this is a heavenly structured mix of chamber music,folk prog,symphonic prog and jazz improvisations.Bergeron's flute is all over the place,while he is accompanied by Langlois' piano work at most of the times.With the right doses of bass lines,drums and percussion the final result is fabulous,combining the cleverness and the difficult to get into- complexity of GENTLE GIANT with the symphonic touch and darkness of KING CRIMSON in a more folkish and less electric way...Progressive rock...And where's the electric guitar?...If you ask me,after several careful listenings the only track I can remember hearing some electric guitar is the final one...But do not hesitate...This is progressive rock 100% despite the evident lack in electric instruments...

Coming to the end,it is just a shame for an album like that to have only 4 written reviews by this time.This is an album for all the open-minded progressive rock fans full of numerous interplays between rock and non-rock instruments,with an obvious ''classical feeling'' and superb-structured instrumental tracks.It is not the absolute masterpiece of progressive rock but it is at least an essential one for a decent collection...4 stars along with high recommendations!

MANEIGE play chamber music that is mostly flute and piano led with some dissonance and darkness.This band from Quebec is pretty amazing actually.When i say flute and piano led,don't think this is lightweight music because it isn't.The musicianship is top notch by the way. "Le Rafiot" is the side long opening track at over 21 minutes.It's quite experimental and dissonant to start until we get a piano melody after 4 minutes with percussion.Flute and bass follow.This is very classical sounding at times with flute and piano usually leading the way.It turns dark after 13 minutes,then intense after 16 minutes as horns come in and drums go crazy.Dark again before 19 minutes before piano takes over again. "Une Annee Sans Fin" features some harsh sounding piano early and flute.A good melody before a minute.Vibes and bass join in around 2 1/2 minutes but it's brief.Piano and flute take over.Great sound before 5 minutes. "Jean-Jauques" is my favourite track on here.Piano intro is joined by flute and drums.The bass that follows is impressive.Cool ending. "Galerie III" reminds me of Zappa early on.It then settles as flute and vocals come in.A heavy sound follows,but these guys are all over the place at this point.Some dissonant horns followed by vibes then a pleasant melody.It turns dark and spooky before 5 minutes to the end. This is a very entertaining listen that will appeal to fans of chamber music and avant-garde music.