Harmonium (band)
| Harmonium | |
|---|---|
| Origin | Montreal, Quebec, Canada |
| Genres | Folk rock, Progressive rock |
| Years active | 1972–1978 |
| Labels |
Celebration PolyGram Quality Records Société Radio-Canada |
| Past members | Michel Normandeau Pierre Daigneault Jeff Fisher Serge Fiori Louis Valois Serge Locat Robert Stanley Denis Farmer Libert Subirana Monique Fauteux |
Harmonium was a Quebec progressive rock band formed in 1972 in Montreal.
Lead vocalist and guitarist Serge Fiori met Michel Normandeau (vocals and guitar) in a theatre music meeting on November 1972. Later on, in 1973, they met bassist Louis Valois and formed Harmonium. In November 1973, the group performed their first air play on CHOM-FM. They played 3 tracks: "Pour un instant", "Un musicien parmi tant d'autres", and "Un refrain parmi tant d'autres". The first 2 songs were later recorded professionally to be put on their self-titled debut album. The last song was a sequel to "Un musicien parmi tant d'autres", but never made the album cut, staying unreleased. A single was also released at the time with the hit "Pour un instant" on side A and "100,000 Raisons" on side B, the latter only included on the CD version of the album nearly 20 years later. This album was a huge success and a sold out tour was staged all over Quebec and in french Canada.
Their second album Si on avait besoin d'une cinquième saison, better known as Les Cinq saisons, was an immediate success. This concept album included five songs, each one representing a season with the last song being a long instrumental representing a fifth and imaginary season. For this album, the band recruited two new members, Pierre Daigneault, playing the flutes, sax, and clarinets and Serge Locat, handling the piano and synthesizer. The group also invited two guests to play on the sessions: Judi Richards, who handles the vocalizations on the instrumental "Histoires sans paroles" and Marie Bernard performing the theremin-like sounds of the Martenot waves. In 2015, Rolling Stone magazine listed this album at number 36 of the best 50 progressive rock album and declared it the best progressive folk album.
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