Progarchives, the progressive rock ultimate discography
Harmonium - Si on avait besoin d'une cinquième saison CD (album) cover

SI ON AVAIT BESOIN D'UNE CINQUIÈME SAISON

Harmonium

 

Prog Folk

4.35 | 1446 ratings

From Progarchives.com, the ultimate progressive rock music website

lor68
Prog Reviewer
4 stars An obscured French-Canadian band from the middle-seventies, whose pastoral side (actually They were born as a light folk prog band) was always evident and all along their short career...a few hints of bluegrass seem to make a strange mix here, but you can also listen to a typical light progressive rock, with some improvisational breaks-through (almost within a kind of jazz-genre) as well as to an intelligent folk prog...Ok They could be the "alternative" Canadian version of Gryphon, sometimes reminding me of another Italian light prog band of the seventies, called Celeste; but honestly it seems They were quite personal in their music tastes anyway, as They created a style of their own, which can be "labelled" in a difficult manner...Serge Fiori was the mastermind of the ensemble (playing a lot of acoustic instruments and creating also some intelligent lyrics...); but you can't forget the soprano saxophone, the clarinet and the bass clarinet, always played by Pierre Daigneault, with the support of some other interesting musicians, whose target was not the virtuosic music, but rather the goal in painting a picture with beautiful and ligth colours, not so far away from the U.K. scene of Canterbury... well actually I think above all of the quieter moments within the music of A. Phillips, but also of those ones inside the music of Renaissance and PFM, usually settled into the progressive rock scene; but the musicians were able to maintain a music imprinting of their own, from the beginning to the end! Even though the length of the album was various (from the short song of 3 minutes and beyond, to the last 17-minutes suite, an epic number entitled "Histoires sans Paroles") and considering that the album was not characterized certainly by the delicate sound of thunder (think of the diverse style within "Running Hard" by Renaissance for instance), in any case the perfect Soft Romantic scene (a sort of clean environment, where the birds and the delicate petties only- can live together in harmony!!) was created by means of sweet and sometimes haunted melodies, with a great emotion and the typical sound of Mellotron too!!

At the end- for the majority- it's an excellent addition to any prog rock music collection; instead for whom is more into the virtuosic aspect of prog music, probably the evaluation is "one star less"...but these latter fans either prefer new ELP clones for example or for sure think of Gentle Giant and Yes (do you remember the music of Myrthrandir for example, which was regarded as the best example of derivative music? Or again the modern Echolyn inside "Suffocating the Bloom" and After Crying from Hungary?...well forget the best complex music for a moment and relax with Harmonium!! )

lor68 | 4/5 |

MEMBERS LOGIN ZONE

As a registered member (register here if not), you can post rating/reviews (& edit later), comments reviews and submit new albums.

You are not logged, please complete authentication before continuing (use forum credentials).

Forum user
Forum password

Share this HARMONIUM review

Social review comments () BETA







Review related links

Copyright Prog Archives, All rights reserved. | Legal Notice | Privacy Policy | Advertise | RSS + syndications

Other sites in the MAC network: JazzMusicArchives.com — jazz music reviews and archives | MetalMusicArchives.com — metal music reviews and archives

Donate monthly and keep PA fast-loading and ad-free forever.