NI VENT... NI NOUVELLE

1975 was also the last year of Jérôme Langlois with Maneige.Due to musical differences he parted ways with the band and moved on to a solo career, while he also started writing music for TV and cinema productions.Paul Picard joined the band permanently on drums and Alain Bergeron was the only one to handle some piano parts during the next sessions.The third album of Maneige ''Ni vent... ni nouvelle'' came out in 1976 on Polydor, featuring guest musicians Andre Pelchat (from L'Infonie) on sax, Jean Prefontaine on viola and Chantale Remillard/Denise Lupien on violin.

Forget about the long compositions of the previous efforts and the interesting leading keyboards of Langlois for this album.Does this mean that Maneige sounded less tasteful or moreover commercial?No way, ''Ni vent... ni nouvelle'' does not contain any long pieces, in fact none clocks at over 6 minutes, but the music remains extremely sophisticated, fascinating and complex, showing an obvious turn towards more jazzy rhythms and solos and presenting an instrumental lifting.The sound is now heavily relying on flutes, sax and electric guitar with occasional piano interludes and frequent injections by the invited string section.The music is great with countless interplays, managing to be delivered in a dreamy fashion, which still bursts incredible individual and teamwork skills.The overall style contains soft symphonic touches, the already known rural vibes and a heavier Prog Fusion attempt with the guitars having a dominant role compared to the previous albums.What's really exciting about the album is how the hell these guys maintained this efficient profile, balancing between chamber and jazzy arrangements, after a quite significant instrumental change.To my ears this one sounds even better than ''Les porches'', even introducing a few somewhat bombastic sections between the elaborate and efficient interplays and ends up to offer a nice bunch of amazing electroacoustic mini-suites.

Superb album.Jazz meets Classical meets Folk meets Rock Music in one of the best displays ever to see the light by a Prog band.Instrumental flexibility, excellent interactions and lovely orchestrations.Highly recommended.