CD Details

LIVE AU FMPM 2006/THEMES

LANGLOIS, JEROME
2007/1984 , CANADA , EAN CODE 619061342921 - EURO 15.50

Label: PROGQUEBEC

ALBUM REVIEW
After having released the fabulous Molignak album, clearly Jérome Langlois got a new-found confidence and assembled a group form the Festival des Musiques Progressives de Montréal (FMPM organised by the Takashy/McFee team, also responsible for ProgQuebec's superb releases) in 2006. And indeed his band is something that most Maneige fans would consider calling Maneige: while having the participants to Molignak (the veterans Cormier and Légaré, his daughter on clarinet, as well as the Maneige king Gilles Schetagne), it includes as well, François Richard on keys and flute and Maneige's Paul Picard on percussion. The first iof the two disc affair is the set that the group played at the afore-mentionned festival, with an added two tracks recorded the year before at another event called Gesù, which had the same line-up bar Paul Picard...The least one can say is that between 76 and his then-apex work of Spectacle De L'Albatros in 76, where he had resurrected Lasting Weep and enticed his then-just newly ex-colleagues of Maneige into participation, and the release of his first solo album in 84, Jérome Langlois had not kept in view of the public eye, and this piano-solo album was not about to change much to the situation. Indeed behind the sober B&W artwork, there is little else than a piano and some great melodies recorded at the McGill University Pollack Hall...While nothing enthralling, Themes is definitely an album for those Maneige enthusiasts, but not likely for a wider public, much like the Steve Hackett acoustic guitar albums. Despite the opening track, Langlois seems more able at this time to revisit his early days of music in this album, rather than delve into new grounds. Nevertheless this album is a real pleasure to listen to and one album to play to get close to the prog-hermetic mate. While maybe not worth the acquisition on its own (unless an unconditional fan), the Thèmes album makes a superb bonus on the FMPM release. (S.Trane - progarchives.com)