L'Heptade
| L'Heptade | ||||
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| Studio album by Harmonium | ||||
| Released | November 16, 1976 | |||
| Recorded | June, 1976–October, 1976 | |||
| Genre | Progressive rock | |||
| Length | 85:18 | |||
| Label | CBS | |||
| Harmonium chronology | ||||
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| Allmusic |
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L'Heptade is the third and final album from Harmonium. It was released as a double-LP in 1976 and is considered by some critics to be one of the most important Québécois albums in popular music.
L'Heptade is composed of seven core songs, in order: Comme un fou (Like a mad man), Chanson noire (Black song), Le premier ciel (The first heaven), L'exil (The exile), Le corridor (The hallway), Lumières de vie (Lights of life), and Comme un sage (Like a wise man). These seven songs were mainly written by the band leader Serge Fiori. The title, heptade, is the compound of two Greek affixes, hept- (seven) and -ade, which expresses both the notion of group (décade, pléiade) and epic movement (as in Iliad). Fiori mentioned, at the beginning of the live album of L'Heptade, that the album, framed in seven songs, was evoking the journey of a man in one day through seven levels of consciousness. Clues that the whole journey occurs in a single day are given on the original album. For example, a rapid sigh of a man waking up, followed by steps on a cracked wooden floor can be heard in the prologue, the first musical movement preceding the first core song. A man preparing to sleep can be heard in the finale of the album.
All seven core songs include at least two, sometimes up to six, different melodies, often with lengthy solos. Serge Locat offers among the finest ever performance on synthetizers, most notably at the end of "Le premier ciel", and on piano in "Lumières de vie". The voice of Serge Fiori, thanks to his falsetto (head voice), sometimes broken by emotion, and tainted by his peculiar (Franco-Italian) accent, succeeds to create an emotional intimacy. His singing is often counterbalanced by a chorus formed by some of the finest Quebec singers of the time, including among others Beau Dommage's Pierre Bertrand, Les Séguin's Richard, and Ville Emard Blues Band Estelle Ste-Croix. The signature of Harmonium, that is, the rich sound of the 12-string guitar, still remains the backbone of a few songs, particularly in "Comme un fou" and at the end of "Le corridor". But L'Heptade offers a much more sophisticated music than in the past. Lush arrangements, innovative use of piano, electric piano, and synthesizers, and the sophistication of the melodies are some elements that set this album as a full-fledged progressive rock.
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