CONNIVENCE

Two tracks are credited to Robert Soucy and these come as an intersting offering of sweet and harmonic Folk Rock with nice orchestral parts, based on violins, piano and acoustic guitars.Gilles Legault contributes with three tracks of dreamy Folk/Folk Rock.''Dans ta fenetre'' from the opening side is a pure acoustic Folk ballad with sensitive vocals, while the two tracks of the flipside follow more or less the same vein, though ''Blanc-bleme'' contains some nice synths towards the end.The opening side contains also two compositions credited to Steve Burman, among the most challenging tracks of the album.''Le boyau en liberte'' is incredible instrumental and quirky Progressive Folk with fast piano paces and hard violins on the forefront, while ''Le pit de sable de Lucerne'' has an intense Chamber Music/R.I.O. feeling ala MIRIODOR with great work on saxes, piano and clarinets.Philippe Legault is the only artist appearing with only one track, ''La villageoise en ville'', of romantic Orchestral/Folk Music with an excellent atmosphere based on the delicate flutes, the sensitive piano and the ethereal female choirs.The two longest tracks of ''Connivence'' belong to the group Oasis and are definitely the proggier ones as well.''Happy Endings'' is great jazzy Progressive Folk, featuring a solid rhythm section with strong violin parts in the vein of DIXIE DREGS, JEAN-LUC PONTY or KANSAS along with superb saxes.The closing ''Lapin'' is even more amazing.Melodic Symphonic/Folk Rock with lovely string parts and furious interplays between flutes and violins to go along with some top-notch breaks.

It seems that this album sums up the whole Prog Folk scene of Quebec at some point.Its material ranges from melodic folky tunes to full-blown Progressive/Folk Rock ones with professional performances.Most of them are very good and deserve a strong recommendation...3.5 stars.

Nous Autres contributes to pure or trad folk songs like Quebec Au Printemps (a cheesy ode to Quebec that was obviously aimed at airplay) and Le Bateau or Une Goutte De Sang. But most of the tracks are hovering between folk rock and folk jazz, induced by Syncope's presence in backing Burman and LaFrance (see 1959 and Dac). Sometimes you'll hear chunks of early Harmonium influences, but then again the head-twisting Saskatoon is close to a jig in its last developments.

In the typical Quebec fashion, delicious female vocals are present, here France Charron on four tracks) including the delicious Le Mat, set to cello and strings, and the superb flute-laden Chanson D'Amour pour France is a Burman & Syncope tune with some jazz arrangements, but Dac and Cocottes De Kazou are much in the same mould. Nous Autres is back with the superb S'Il Y A De L'Amour that can only send shivers down your back. And wait until you get to the closing stunner Accouche Qu'On Baptise to get the same shivers.

Since these albums have never received a Cd reissue (legit or boot), there is only one hope for most of progheads to one day hear Connivence's first two collaborations, and that hope's name is ProgQuebec, but Connivence's vinyls are still quite cheap , the only trick is to ship them through the expensive Canada Post, but no doubt you'll not regret doing so. Certainly worth a listen (and a few more), Connivence is the perfect music to get in close to your mate and start making some connivance;

After reading the first paragraph, you'd have to believe that this album would be very eclectic, uneven and with a wide spectrum, but actually, the album is fairly focused and most of the tracks are folk, folk rock or folk-derived prog. So eclectic this album is but for its own good: they folk-jazz-rock is sometimes head-twirling, at times virtuosic and all the time very charming.

The opening progressive instrumental jig (aptly called Gigue) is calling your ears to attention right away, with the hippy-folk idealist Dans Ta Fenêtre being a stark contrast in sobriety. With Boyau De La Liberté reminding you of the opener (minus the open jig) and its violin reminiscent of Kansas' Robby Steinhard, the album is made to please even the most demanding proghead. Even if Grande Valse is fairly cheesy, Sable De Lucerne is modern classic-influenced and the tracks sounds like a RIO marriage between Univers Zero and early Maneige. And with the superb Villageoise track closing off the first side of this Ottawa voyage, you realize that once again, Quebec still has many hidden gems still waiting for Cd releases.

But with the second side to go, opening strangely with Happy Endings (an instrumental symphonic-jazzy jig) which is like a cross between Maneige and Aquarelle, again the second track is leading us in a very sober folk couple of tracks written by folk duo Nous Autres, one of which can be likened to Anthony Phillips' works on his "private parts and pieces" series. The album closes on a head-twisting pastoral symphonic Lapin, which fittingly ends this great album.

While not a real masterpiece of Quebecois music, the first Connivence album is very worthy of any proghead's interest and it is a shame their albums (no Cd re-issues and vinyls getting scarce) are getting hard to find, because even most Quebecois seem to have forgotten about this amalgam of artistes, which will release two more album under the same formula, but with different participants.