News from Official Prog Suppliers - ProgQuebec to reissue the Sloche Lps

Today, ProgQuebec signed a licensing agreement with Sony Music Canada to reissue the two albums by Quebec-based 1970s symphonic fusion artists Sloche. This agreement is the culmination of close to four years of communication with various groups within Sony in an effort to make a legal, high-quality reissue of these essential progressive rock albums a reality. Both albums, 1975's "J'un Oeil" and 1976's "Stadaconé", will be released on September 15th 2009 and will be available at the 2009 edition of the FMPM.

Originally released on the now defunct label RCA, the masters for these two albums have been located in Sony's archives, and the reissues will be remastered from these tapes. This is ProgQuebec's first licensing agreement with Sony, and follows the 2007 licensed reissues of the Morse Code and early Maneige catalogs from EMI.

Sloche is one of the best-loved 1970s groups from Quebec, having created two albums of exceptional quality inspired by symphonic rock, in particular Gentle Giant, and jazz fusion. The line-up that recorded these two albums was virtually a complete turn-over of the original Sloche line-up, driven by a relentless search for superior musicianship by the conservatory-trained keyboardist Rejean Yacola. While their instrumentals can be compared to groups such as Finch or Gentle Giant, the atmospheric vocal passages on the first album also bring to mind other Quebec groups such as Opus 5 or Morse Code.

Sloche has been one of the most hotly requested progressive rock reissues from any part of the world for over a decade, and has been our top priority for a while. For years, the only way to get this album was to find it on vinyl, or buy unauthorized knockoff pirate releases. It will be one of ProgQuebec's proudest moments when properly licensed and high quality editions of these CDs are finally available. And after 30 years, the members of Sloche will finally start getting paid for their work again.

ProgQuebec also hopes this will be the start of a fruitful relationship with Sony Music Canada, who have the rights to a number of excellent projects that have been largely forgotten by the mainstream markets but are beloved to progressive fans. We intend to pursue further collaborations with Sony Music Canada going forward.

Thank you to everyone who has waited patiently and held off on buying bootleg versions while we pursued this through the proper channels. It has taken a long time to get to this point and we are very excited about it.

Regards,
Sean