L'Heptade

I was able to pinpoint the time this came out after a track or two. Reminds me of stuff that Mike Oldfield was doing. Whenever it shifts genre, it does so really well, in a way that never feels jarring or out of place. I think the language barrier is a bit strong, kind of preventing me from fully grasping the story, but the music does a decent enough job getting me there. Call it a 4.5. Favorite tracks: "Le premier ciel", "Le corridor"

The language barrier is always a challenge, if this really had a sense of narrative scope I think that probably impeding my grasping it. As it was it seemed a bit of a prog mishmash. Bump it a point for just sfong musicianship on all fronts.

Rating: 7/10 Best songs: Le premier ciel, Comme un sage

This is highly unique and original, I have to give it credit for that. At times it sounds like the soundtrack to a TV movie (I mean this in a good way). At other times it is very pop ballady-y. Almost like a lot of modern Chinese pop ballads. This is made all the more strange because they are singing in Quebecois French. I didn't love it. It's not exactly my thing, but I will always applaud being introduced to something new and unique.

TOO SOFT. I HAD TO WRITE THIS REVIEW IN CAPS TO OFFSET THE SOFTNESS IN THE MUSIC AND UPSETTING RATIO OF GLIDES TO STOPS IN THE LANGUAGE. 3/5.

Je connaissais pas cet album, belle decouverte, vraiment excellent!

Elegantly arranged with a rich sound and intriguing concept. I enjoyed Serge Fiori's vocals, which remind me a bit of John Martyn. Some of the stylistic shifts struck me as odd and the pace occasionally drags, but overall this was a really enjoyable listen. Thank you for sharing it. Fave Songs: Chanson noire, Le corridor, Le premier ciel, Comme un fou, L'exil

Nice to know that after more than 1200 days of new daily album something can come along and give me goosebumps. I loved this album from beginning to end. Absolutely a beautiful and stunning work more than deserving of a place on this list. It evokes a real journey - and even the long runtime didn’t put me off. In fact, I was a little emotional when the journey ended both from the fantastic ending and knowing it will never be the first time I listen to this again. What a terrific addition to this list!

Harmonium! Kudos to this excellent pick. Listening to this album for the first time I was impressed by it's power, returning to it now its beauty is what stands out to me. In either case, this is a fantastic record. On the lengthier side, but the sweeping quality of the music lends itself to it

Very, very cool. French prog album, a lot of it instrumental. Very long songs, think I was listening to an extended album too. But I really enjoyed it, very atmospheric, expansive stuff. Cool pick!

Yea, this was like a mix of classical, prog and even a bit of motown.

Appreciated the classical feel of this one given the original 1001 didn’t have too many symphonic LPs, but ultimately this one wore my patience a bit thin. There are some interesting ideas at play, and the scope of the longer, proggier tracks is impressive, but there wasn’t a consistent enough melodic presence to keep me 100% grounded throughout. Maybe I would feel more connected if I spoke French?

Prog but French! You'd think it'd be an automatic 5/5 but sometimes it's comfortable sitting on an idea a touch too long.

Starts off orchestral and unassuming, launches into some interesting prog folk sung in French. I even dig the more singalongable parts. Nice harmonies all around, too.

If you like this one, listen to the previous two, they’re even better, imo (especially « Si on avait besoin d’une cinquième saison » aka « Les 5 saisons » ). This one is harder for me to get into. Still a classic, nonetheless.

Listened to a couple of their records when I did a top 100 Canadian records list a while ago. I remember enjoying them then. I still enjoyed in.

Not bad for a 1.5 hour album 4 3

Interesting! 3 stars.

It definitely has a pretty good start... different, french poppy with a slight prog twist. Fun and different... enjoyed soaking it all in. About half way through though it turns a bit more plodding orchestral and just isn't as interesting. Still, good listen.

French Canadian seventies airy prog rock. Oh well... I was already aware of who Harmonium were through an older colleague of my partner, who is a fan of the LP released before this double-album. Yet it looks like we have a quite different animal here, as the ambitions displayed in this particular release go way further than before on *L'Heptade* -- I should probably ask that fan if she has ever listened to *L'Heptade* (Harmonium is definitely more obscure in France, where I live, compared to Québec). The question is: did those newfound ambitions lead that seventies Canadian act to release a record absolutely worthy of the international household names in the genre? To be honest, my internal jury is still out on this one. First proper song "Comme un fou" is not bad by all means. I also loved the Debussy-indebted orchestral interludes, but I think they kind of stick out like sore thumbs, here interspersed within the band's mix of French chanson and prog shenanigans. You can easily sense those interludes were penned by a different composer. And only in the last couple of "symphonic" songs do the orchestral flourishes actually mesh well with the prog agenda. But more on that later... I'm also in two minds about Serge Fiori's lead vocal duties on this album. On the one hand, you can sense that something very personal is expressed through the singer's performance, and I like the fact that the production doesn't always puts his voice to the forefront -- French-speaking mixers working in the overall "rock" and "chanson" genres often follow some stupid "radio-friendly" requirements enhancing lead vocals for no good reason (the supposed primacy of lyrical contents compared to to the music probably explains that tendency). I'm glad such trend can't be found here at least. On the other hand, and even if they are mixed properly, Fiori's vocals often go from extremely maudlin to unnecessarily quaint or sickly-sweet, with over-affected mannerisms that are a little grating in the long run. Add the fact that lyrics within this concept album are (willingly) naive, wearing their heart on their sleeve, and it's difficult not to feel a little derisive about the results at times. Another point of contention is about the music proper. Once in a while, the novelty / "variétés française " elements sound a little formulaic and heavy-handed. And so do the hackneyed bluesy flavors of "Chanson Noire". Worse, some *extremely* drawn-out and meandering compositions don't warrant their sheer length (looking at you, "Le premier ciel" and "L'exil"), and this even in the context of prog rock. Take away the quite inert moments usually found in the first halves of those cuts, maybe those songs would work better. But as they stand now, they almost feel like filler tracks. Fortunately, the destination's worth the long journey. "Les premières lumières" et "Lumières de vie" see Harmonium offer some trippy, inspired instrumental moments that are close to cinematic, with or without a grand orchestra to back them (it's worth noting that it's when those moments are purely instrumental that they work best for me). And finally, "Comme un sage" is an extraordinary pop-prog song. Its length is perfectly justified here, helped along with a stellar, memorable climactic chorus where female backing vocals (a reviewer thought of Motown singers, interestingly) and the orchestral arrangements simply do wonders. Here I can compliment Fiori's vocal performance at last, which I didn't expect at first given how said performance didn't sit well with me during the rest of the album. Nice that such a long album ended on a high note. At least for me. All in all, I can understand why a French Canadian citizen could fall in love with this record. As a whole album, it's definitely not for me, for the reasons stated above. But I'm happy it gave me the opportunity to listen to "Comme un sage", which was worth the price of admission for sure. Who knows? If my partner asks me for a gift suggestion for her colleague's birthday, maybe I'll suggest a copy of this album. And this just because someone thought of it for this list, somewhere across the Atlantic Ocean... 2.5/5 for the purposes of this list of essential albums, rounded up to 3. 7.5/10 for more general purposes (5 + 2.5) Number of albums from the original list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 465 Albums from the original list I *might* include in mine later on: 288 Albums from the original list I won't include in mine: 336 ---- Number of albums from the users list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 12 Albums from the users list I *might* select for mine later on: 16 Albums from the users list I won't select for mine: 29 (including this one). EDIT DU FUTUR/MESSAGE PERSONNEL: Toi qui vient de la belle province et qui a mis cet album dans la "User List", on pourrait essayer de correspondre à travers ce site, non ? Je sais, il n'est pourtant pas fait pour ça, mais ça pourrait être amusant de s'en servir autrement. "Like" cette review dès que tu l'as lue, et je saurais que tu as reçu le message. J'ai enregistré ton numéro d'utilisateur, il me suffira de descendre jusqu'en bas de ta page de "ratings" et de voir ta réponse dans ta dernière review (tu en es actuellement à The Zutons -- c'était il y a deux ou trois jours, d'ailleurs, et j'espère que tout va bien pour toi, vu que tu a l'air de laisser un rating tous les jours habituellement). Et pour voir mes propres réponses, fais de même sur ma propre page, en allant tout en bas des ratings partie "users list" : https://1001albumsgenerator.com/shares/61d7478d46b550187c92f00c Pour lancer la conversation : c'est quoi ton nom, et c'est quoi ton album préféré dans la liste originale du bouquin des 1001 albums (que tu n'as pas encore terminée) ? Mets-le à la fin de ta dernière review, après un truc du style EDIT DU FUTUR ou MESSAGE PERSONNEL POUR CYRIL. Bien entendu, si tu te sens pas d'essayer, je suis absolument pas vexé. C'est comme tu veux, cousin. 🙂 Bonjour de France, dans tous les cas !

This is user recommendation 106 for me, of 226 suggested so far. It's also probably also the tenth Quebecois French album. This is by no means problematic for me - I thoroughly enjoyed visiting Montreal and would happily go back, but I am really quite surprised at how well represented Quebec is in the user suggestions. I mean, my suggestion also happens to be French Canadian, from an act I loved for twenty years before ever even setting foot in the provence.. It's actual really very surprising. Anyway - this appears to be Quebecois prog. And that in itself is as surprising as the quantity of Quebecois music in the user suggestions. It suffers many of the most common pitfalls of prog, generally, in that it is massively over long at an hour and a half, and in many places it's overwrought and pompous. Those are faults of prog rather than, necessarily, Harmonium, who were working with what was the style at the time. Like much prog though, the themes, motif and execution of stand so high that one has to regard the problems described as detractions from the definition, rather than the definition. You can almost forgive the duration because, well, it's good. As other reviewers have pointed out, there may be a language barrier that makes this harder to appreciate, but I'd urge the listener to hear Serge Fiori's voice as an instrument, if you're not a francophone, as you will still gain much from him this way. I am genuinely pleased to have heard this, so merci, and let's see how much more Quebec has to offer!

Listened to this but can't remember it

I think there's context that's needed for this album to really be appreciated. There's passion in the music, but muted. It's an easy listen, but probably not something that could be done so repeatedly.

Prog Rock is a hit or miss for me. I did read the wiki: prog rock, french canadian, over 80 minutes and pretentious. Listening to it took most of the fears away. The album consists of very varied music, from ballads, folk, orchestral, chansons to rock fit in a prog format. With great theremin, horns and good vocals. Some songs are too long (Come un Sage) or unnecessary elevator music (le corridor, epilogue). All in all a pleasant surprise!

I can hear the potential and how it has been influential but I prefer the albums that built upon it.

An impressive but overblown prog album. The overall sound world is quite lovely and the musicianship is very impressive, but there are just not enough strong or compelling ideas in here to warrant its 85 minute run time

Ew french

This album was okay. I've never been all that drawn to prog rock, so it's not a surprise that I'm not particularly drawn to this. It's fine and competently made, it's just not what I get into 3/5

Un album de rock progressif, avec des éléments classiques. En français. C'est bof. Rating: 2.5 Playlist track: L'exil Date listened: 07/01/25

Made me a bit bored near the end

Rock progresivo en francés. Rollo. Un 2.

Progressive orchestral? Unique genre but ultimately a foreign language snooze fest and overly long. Not engaging at all.

This could use some more power and drive. A bit too fluffy for me.

This sure was a bunch of very quiet 10-minute long French songs.

as much as I enjoyed the stylistic element of this album it really made it difficult to love with the constant soft tone of inaudible singing and French lyricism that did not translate for me. It was well made and I’m sure if I understood some of it I would give it 3 stars but language gap brings it down yet again. 4.7/10

First off, another long ass prog rock album in so many days. I really dislike these long albums. They are just so boring. Do we need 4 songs that that are between 12 and 14 minutes? No. They aren't even that interesting. I guess this is why I hate prog rock. Long songs can be fun if they are interesting and none of these were. I also sense there was a group of finishers who are in Quebec since I've seen that there are a few albums from the province. That's nice to mix it up from the usual UK/US dreg, but still it just boring. I suppose I should support more Canadian music but this isn't it. Cut it in half and I'll be interested. My personal rating: 2/5 My rating relative to the list: 2.5/5 Should this have been included on the original list? Yes, in the sense of it's at least not from the UK or US but no in the sense of it doesn't need a boring almost 90 minute long prog rock album.

Yep, L'heptade XL is pretty much what you expect. It's gentle and cool in places but it goes on for fucking ages and lacks conviction, emphasis or quality direction, and the language barrier is a struggle even though I'm okay with French. 2/5 is generous.

Very interesting album, not sure I’m a fan but I’m glad I got to hear it.

I listened to this while I was packing and while it didn’t annoy me when I was listening passively I wasn’t too impressed when I was listening actively either. Also I’m still not in the mood for music like this let me go back to my sad breakup music.

Meh

I cannot do orchestral French whatever for this long. Maybe you can. Bon chance

This album feels old, it has aged badly because it doesn't even feel classic. Being in another language makes the challenge of getting to grips with it even more complicated because the vocalists sound very slow in their phrasing and the beats of the music don't help them much either. The result is that after a short time the album seems very heavy to listen to because of its length.

Did not really enjoy this one.