JACOB ROBERGE

A new voice in progressive rock, Canadian composer-vocalist-multi-instrumentalist Jacob Roberge has emerged with his 1st album, a grand excursion in the melodic symphonic prog tradition. The first half of the album features shorter songs and a more acoustic approach with prominent piano, acoustic guitar, winds, and strings, with soaring melodies and classical themes, but also some lulls and dull passages. The album picks up as it goes along, with Empty Traces, part 2 a highlight, but the album really soars with the epic-length (32 min.) title track, consisting of multiple sections, styles, and dynamics, encompassing the best of symphonic prog, embracing the styles of the classic bands (Yes, Genesis) as well as more modern influences (Big Big Train and especially Neal Morse) to produce a wonderful majestic track that satisfies on every level. It moves seamlessly from one section to the next, with beautiful melodies and rousing instrumental passages, and culminating with a grand majestic finale. This track is superb and more than makes up for some inconsistencies in the early tracks, producing a very good and satisfying album experience. It will be interesting to see what this rising artist does next. Best Tracks: The Passing, Empty Traces Part 2. Rating: 3.5

Jacob ROBERGE releases his debut album, a sound inspired by Porcupine Tree, Styx, Harmonium, Pink Floyd, Rush, and Yes. A versatile musical prodigy. His participation in the TV show Star Académie solidifies his profile as a young prodigy.

"The Long Way Home" features a solemn piano arpeggio highlighting Jacob's voice; acoustic guitar, classical orchestration with its strings; a crystalline piano break before the wild finale; the guitar solo filled with emotion; the grandiloquent side of Barclay James Harvest at the crescendo. A rock ballad addressing the themes of homelessness and the precariousness of the future. "Empty Traces, Pt. 1" features a chilling piano arpeggio; the melting vocals exude emotion, beauty at its peak on a warm slow song. The Western guitar exudes a drop of emotion before the soaring. An emphatic guitar solo throws the audience into disarray before giving voice to the reverberating guitar. "Garden of Souls" syncopated pad over a juice of melting notes; the distant vocal is ethereal, languid, and nostalgic, somewhere between a ballad and a nursery rhyme from the ends of the earth over a volley of violins. The vocal carries the listener to an overdone melodic track where her suave voice floats; backing vocals and the heavy riff make this piece explode. The soft, warm keyboard, the heavy riff with the organ in the background, a pure moment of regression. "Petrichor" solemn piano and majestic vocal, definitely a plus; a jazzy air that evolves into an Andalusian mid- tempo. Slowness and redundancy in a form of musical wandering. The solo trumpet with voiceovers is unsettling; a minimalist piano break, acoustic guitar releasing concentrated emotion, eyeing the captivating lines of MEER. The soaring vocal finale with the guitar solo provoking reflection and contemplation. "Empty Traces, Pt. 2" warm piano, a departure from SAGA's "Generation 13." Jacob inundates us with his distinctive, angelic voice. A syrupy ballad launching the admirable guitar solo, then the progressive variation via a pad. The chorus builds to STYX, and the guitar resumes, rising higher, shivering. An ethereal, solemn, and icy finale with Mercury-esque piano.

"The Passing" begins grandiloquently, solemnly, and symphonically; I find the soul of a Genesis-esque ANGEL, the orchestral sound worthy of DREAM THEATER, the madness of Neal MORSE with his brilliant fingering of the guitar solo for the transition from life to death. The five-minute intro holds the stage, the best of the year. The ambient space arrives, the vocals laid over BARCLAY JAMES HARVEST again, a musical moment between classical and rock, a warm passage full of emotion before the explosion. The bass break with neo-classical violins and cellos. You have to reach the first third to have a semblance of a chorus followed by a progressive drift with the drums as a catalyst. The jazzy space with the piano, the fat guitar solo then the explosion, everything is melancholic, ethereal, everything is majestically interpreted. These five stages of mourning navigate between classical, heavy rock and musical maestra with diverse rhythms and styles. The last third takes a Yessian turn with this grandiloquent detour, a Crimsonian passage with WETTON's voice before going on to fleshy heavy rock that would make many prog metal bands shudder. The solemn finale with southern western guitar, the soaring string instruments finish hitting the listener. The track of the year. We'll talk about it again in December.

Jacob ROBERGE, thunderous classical music supercharged with energetic rock; a classical-rock fusion that takes us far into varied symphonic spaces where twists and turns follow one another seamlessly. A very good album, easy to access and gradually captivating.

"The Passing" Jacob ROBERGE's first album is the fruit of ten years of hard work, let it be said. It addresses the themes of mourning and memory but with joy if one can say so. The delicate piano theme that introduces "The Long Way Home" is a good shortcut for what will follow, the symphonism heard in this title is only the hors d'oeuvre of a major work (9/10). The first part of "Empty Traces" is a little more passe partout although remaining ultra melodic, always this loose and heady piano in the spotlight (8/10) and a small solo of six strings in the middle. "Garden of Souls" sends a probably involuntary but emphatic wink to the Californian eagles (listen again to "The Last Resort"), a piece of overflowing symphonism and lyricism, just a little too repetitive for the vocal parts as far as I'm concerned (9/10).

The longest "Petrichor" which comes next, remains in the same musical model, a lot of piano, acoustic guitar this time before the electric which arrives later, certainly the track that I had the most difficulty judging (despite five listens) and the one that I like the least on the album a 7/10 only, the saxophone halfway through refers more to EARTH WIND & FIRE than to SUPERTRAMP (soft and very brassy). I clearly preferred the second part of "Empty Traces" all in emotional restraint, well-placed and not invasive choirs, and a magnificent guitar solo which starts at 2:01, a real and beautiful progressive canvas (9/10).

There is only one left, the eponymous piece "The Passing" which evokes the five stages of mourning and which displays thirty-two minutes on the hourglass, starting with an orgy of strings that we will find a little later in the piece and which offers an instrumental part of more than six minutes in the opening no less, the solo of six strings of the fourteenth minute (Gabriel CYR) is particularly brilliant. An ode to the progressive music that we cherish so much, listening is the only thing to do, a real auditory pleasure, obviously a (10/10) perfectly justified, even metalheads will be happy with the part starting at 25:50 which climbs high in the towers before the delicate pianistic return of the terminal phase.

The only criticism I would make of Jacob ROBERGE, all the tracks are more or less similar, a downside that remains minor in view of the overall quality of the work.