Le Corridor (Harmonium, 1976)

Harmonium are mostly known for their second album, "Si on avait besoin d'une cinquième saison" and you'll find many songs from that Canadian masterpiece in my blog. Nonetheless, there are some more excellent songs in the rest of their discography. The concept double album "L'Heptade", for example, includes this "Le Corridor", featuring the guest vocalist Monique Fauteux, also responsible for many back vocals and harmonies in this album. Her gentle voice perfectly fits with the delicate sound of Harmonium and gives even more sensibility to such a good composition.

"L'Heptade"was the third and final Harmonium's studio work.

The instrumental section is like evening passing clouds, so ethereal and so atmospheric that the listener simply flies away on a magic carpet. Of course, this is not for the solid rock fans, but I think this track - and the whole album at that - are as modern today as they were in 1976, and maybe more. The orchestral coda is light and unobtrusive, fading out with grace and leaving behind a nostalgy aftertaste. In short, if you could do with eight minutes of inner pleasure, this track's for you.

Vert (Harmonium, 1975)

If you're a regular reader of this blog (then you're a brave one too) you probablyknow how much I like Harmonium's album "Si on avait besoin d'une cinquième saison".This is the opening track of the original LP and clearly shows how important folk roots were for this Québec based band. The first half of the song is in fact a traditional ballad, sweet and well arranged, following the style of the hippy era and the group's own taste for smooth and liquid sounds.

Serge Fiori and LouisValois of Harmonium in 2009.

The second and final part is a swingy instrumental one, suspended between jazz and dixieland, including a funny choral section and displaying all the pleasant fantasy these musicians were capable of. I simply love the apparent artlessness of this track, the discreet way it has to gradually pervade my mind and to fill my soul of a bittersweet, out of the blue melancholy.

Depuis l'automne (Harmonium, 1975)

"Si on avait besoin d'un cinquième saison" (meaning "If We Needed A Fifth Season") is one of the best appreciated prog albums by a Non-English speaking band. And Harmonium deserve this, as the beautiful "Depuis l'automne" proves only too well. Describing the autumnal mood, this 10 minute song is a gentle ballad with long and nostalgy instrumental sections.

 

Some of the beautiful illustrations inside the gatefold cover of

"Si on avait besoin d'une cinquième saison".

Mellotron and acoustic instruments draw the warm atmosphere of the falling season adding a deep feeling of solitude and introspection that's another winning point of the song. As I like the whole song, it isn't easy for me to point out its best features, but I can't forbear to mention the long half-way instrumental passage, a real treat with its slow and winding architecture and the creative use of vocal harmonies. Definitely, a pivotal song.

Histoires sans paroles (Harmonium, 1975)

What? Didn't I introduce this song yet? Forgive me: it's one of the sweetest and most enjoyable suites in the prog universe, IMHO. Harmonium is just one of so many good Québec's proggers from the '70s, but "Si on avait besoin d'une cinquième saison" is undoubtedly the most popular album of the lot... and "Histoires sans paroles" is the brightest pearl in it. With a touch of folk, a brush stroke of pop and a hatful of good melodies, this track retains after so many years the mgic power of switching on the sun in a dully day. I always find here the smell of spring, the kindness of a good memory and the colours of the impressionist era.

How could I forget this cover?

 



Some say the beauty of such songs rely on teenage memories. Well, not for me: I didn't know this song, I just discovered it ten years ago and halas I wasn't a child then... no way, this is a beautiful song, a timeless masterpiece with the flavour of an era. Don't you miss it.