LES CHANTS DE L'ÉTERNITÉ

Éternité was a project featuring Claude Péloquin, apparently a noted poet, and Michel LeFrançois. I already knew Michel LeFrançois from his collaboration with Claude Léveillée on his 1976 album Black Sun (it was recorded in 1976, but not released until 1978, but I can tell it was a 1976 recording as it does sound a bit behind the times for '78). While Léveillée wasn't exactly a prog figure, that album was definitely prog, and I was very certain it was LeFrançois that was most responsible for giving that album its prog character. Péloquin had also collaborated with Jean Sauvageau in 1972, and that album is pretty out there. Éternité is a bit more like the Claude Léveillée album I mentioned, but with vocals, so if you're a fan of symphonic prog, but put off by the album Péloquin did with Sauvageau, this album is much more up your alley. The album starts with "Même Si", basically some spoken dialog with spacy synth backdrops. "Apocalyptus" has a bit of a King Crimson feel to it, with dissonant synth and phased Mellotron. "L'extrême" is a nit more traditional prog, with some nice female vocals from Estelle Ste-Croix (she appears to be a fixture on the Quebecois music scene). 'Matin Magique" is an acoustic folky number, sounding more like it belongs in 1969 or '70 than '77. "Concert" has some really nice passages, although Billy Ledster's vocals seemed a bit too close to Broadway musical territory for my liking, but luckily the prog arrangements save this from being a totally cheesy disaster, although those vocals are undeniably cheesy. "Magnétique" is a rather nice piano-dominated piece with some nice Mellotron choirs creeping in, while "Il Vente la Vie" is a bit more pop, but still with Michel LeFrançois' nice keyboard playing.

On a side note: I thought the name Billy Ledster was a bit familiar. He was in Lighthouse, and also Man Made, who released a self-entitled album in 1973, an album I happen to be familiar with as I own a copy (side one is great, side two, not so great).

This album grew on me, although there are a couple of questionable moments, like Billy Ledster's vocals on one cut, and it does seem a bit too short (but I guess better than being too long and outstaying your welcome, like too many prog releases of the 1990s where 70 minutes were crammed on one CD without enough good material for that much time. This was never reissued, it was only released in Canada (on Polydor) and France (on CBS) (the French pressing featuring the same cover, but different typefont, in fact it's the French pressing you see here on Prog Archives), so you have to settle for the original LP, which luckily aren't overly expensive, but a bit hard to find outside of Quebec (but then not so difficult when you can get a copy online through places like Discogs). Really nice prog album worth getting.