L'ORIENT D,Ô

L'Orient D'ô is one of those bands I never heard of until now, and it's easy to understand as it was only released on vinyl and never reissued. They're yet another one of those Quebecois prog bands that I'm happy to discover. Their sole album appeared at the end of 1978 (I presume, it was recorded in October and November 1978, it could have been released at the start of 1979, but the LP clearly gives a 1978 copyright and there's a possible chance this album was rush released in time for the Christmas season). It was on Capitol Records, which made me wonder if the label was searching to fill in a void left by Morse Code, who by 1978 seemed to have broken up.

The group consisted of keyboardist Lorraine Blanchard, vocalist Serge Fréchette (he's also credited to sax, but I didn' notice any), guitarist Gaétan Laurendeau, bassist Serge Martineau, and drummer Marc Prud'homme. Lorraine Blanchard is one of the rare examples of female keyboardists in prog, the photo of her reminds me of Tina Louise's role as Ginger Grant in Gilligan's Island, but not a redhead and with that late '70s/early '80s hairdo. Anyways, the music isn't too terribly different from the French school of prog like Ange and Atoll, along with Quebecers Morse Code. Serge Fréchette has a bit of an operatic voice so his vocals may not be to everyone's liking, but I got used to it, but the album itself is very good, and I really dig Lorraine Blanchard's keyboard playing, really nicely done. Highlights for me include "Amoureusement Vôtre", "Démon de Ville", "L'Orient D'ô" and "Si la Vie Vous Intéresse". "L'Orient D'ô" has a bit of a Middle Eastern influence in the music, while 'Démon de Ville" starts off reminding me a bit of Pollen (when they're trying to imitate Gentle Giant). It sounds like "Madame Rivard" regards Quebec, as Quebec keeps getting referred to in the part with what sounds like a game show host. Don't know what he's on about not knowing the French language. The LP does come with printed lyrics but not for the "game show host" part.

It's also no surprise this was their only album, given they arrived a bit too late to make much of an impression. While Maneige continued into the early '80s, most of the major prog bands of Quebec had pretty much called it a day.

This album actually grew on me quite a bit. Certainly it's not a mindblowing album that every proghead must hear. After all it's on the mellow side of prog, so nothing that really rocks out. But it's nice to hear.