Jacques Tom Rivest (CA) - former leader of Pollen

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Jacques Tom Rivest was the leader and one of the founding singers/multi-instrumentalists of the Québécois symphonic prog band Pollen, who released just a single self-titled album in 1976 before splitting up. Rivest then released a solo album in 1979 which has been added to Pollen's discography here on PA, but does it really belong under Pollen? I know several former members of Pollen played on it, but Pollen as a band split up in 1976, and the solo album didn't land until three years later. Perhaps Jacques Tom Rivest needs to be evaluated for inclusion here in his own right?

Rivest released the self-titled debut solo album in 1979 featuring three members of Pollen's original lineup (including drummer Serge Courchesne, who quit the band on the eve of the Gentle Giant tour back in 1974) along with Daniel Mathieu, the former bassist of another Québécois progressive rock band called Solstice, who we have on here in JR/F. Whilst the music on this album certainly has plenty of flashes of the instrumental fireworks typical of Pollen, it doesn't really sound like that band in terms of song structure. The music leans more towards atmospheric folk-rock and pop-rock overall really, with the songs generally being much more melodic and commercial, but some prog influences do remain. A non-album single is included at the end as a bonus track.

Rivest continued his solo recording career in the early 80s, and with his name shortened to just "Tom", he recorded another self-titled album 'Tom Rivest' in 1981, which was even more commercially orientated, following it up with the now hard-to-find 'Voyage Dans L'Univers' a few years later in 1984. This latter album has been described as beautiful all-instrumental synth-driven ambient new age music, with some nice Floyd-ish progressive tones.

Rivest later became Canadian pop singer and actress Joe Bocan's musical director, helping her win a Félix award for 'Best Pop-Rock Show' in 1989, and 'Best Female Singer' the following year. Besides his own albums, Rivest penned many other songs too, including the music for 'Ces Femmes voilées', which became a huge hit for Joe Bocan, and he released more albums of his own in the mid to late 90s, such as the Reves D'enfants (Children's Dreams) CD in 1996, and an album of Halloween-themed music on cassette in 1997, called simply 'Halloween'. He has also composed soundtracks for theater, film and television.

The debut 1979 album is the one that needs to be evaluated by one of the teams if it is agreed that it really does need to be assigned to Jacques Tom Rivest himself rather than being bundled here under Pollen, and it can be found on YouTube Music or Spotify. It sounds like a mixture of Prog Folk and Crossover Prog to me, with occasional Symphonic moments here and there, so I don't really know which team should be the one to start any evaluation.

The album is already on the site under Pollen, so would just need moving to Jacques Tom Rivest's new page if he were to be evaluated and approved for inclusion as a solo artist. The album isn't included under Pollen on RYM (where it can be found on his own page there), or Proggnosis (who don't have it either under Pollen or as a Rivest solo release).

Thoughts anyone? 