MANEIGE

MANEIGE should be considered one of the most clever progressive rock bands in history and surely one of the top-3 coming out of the progressive scene of Quebec.The band was formed back in 1972 with main figures being the woodwind player Alain Bergeron and the keyboardist Jerome Langlois.The band at first started as a quintet but ended up as a sextet before releasing their first eponymous album in 1975.

Having a woodwind and a keyboard player as their leaders it is not surprising that MANEIGE's debut is dominated by the flute and the piano,resulting an almost chamber rock album.The album is totally instrumental and consists of a side-long 21 min.epic plus 3 shorter songs on the b-side.Do not expect that the tracks do differ very much in their sound despite the different running times,this is a heavenly structured mix of chamber music,folk prog,symphonic prog and jazz improvisations.Bergeron's flute is all over the place,while he is accompanied by Langlois' piano work at most of the times.With the right doses of bass lines,drums and percussion the final result is fabulous,combining the cleverness and the difficult to get into- complexity of GENTLE GIANT with the symphonic touch and darkness of KING CRIMSON in a more folkish and less electric way...Progressive rock...And where's the electric guitar?...If you ask me,after several careful listenings the only track I can remember hearing some electric guitar is the final one...But do not hesitate...This is progressive rock 100% despite the evident lack in electric instruments...

Coming to the end,it is just a shame for an album like that to have only 4 written reviews by this time.This is an album for all the open-minded progressive rock fans full of numerous interplays between rock and non-rock instruments,with an obvious ''classical feeling'' and superb-structured instrumental tracks.It is not the absolute masterpiece of progressive rock but it is at least an essential one for a decent collection...4 stars along with high recommendations!