SI ON AVAIT BESOIN D'UNE CINQUI�ME SAISON

Harmonium

Prog Folk

4.35 | 1474 ratings

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I heard Harmonium's first album sometime in the 80s and have been haunted by their sound ever since. To see one of their albums ranked in the all-time top 100 was very exciting for me, so I bought it and have been listening to every day since. I agree: It is a masterpiece. The LP has a very Ant "Geese and Ghost" feel to it, the guitars and refreshing and unusual rhythms luring you into each song like the fireplace at an old friend's house on a cold, blustery night. The use of mellotron is sparing and often brilliantly timed---practically unexpected but always a pleasant surprise.

The first song, , opens, quite appropriately, with echoes of a flute before the gentle vocals and guitars take us into the song. The song's bass and keys are a bit dated and "hoaky," and the melodies or chord sequences never really "hook" us, making this the album's weakest song. (7/10)

is one of the happiest, upbeat songs I've ever heard, beginning deceptively with a very old-time 1900s folksie/bluegrass to 1920s ragtime feel to it but then, wow! Let that rhythm keep setting up the soloists all night! Brilliant! Keep pounding that piano, strumming those stringed instruments (where's the banjo?) till the neighbors fall off the porch! (10/10) is a masterful prog song in the vein of the early greats of Genesis and Crimson and the Moodies. The guitar & clarinet improv at the 5 minute mark are absolutely brilliantly supported by mellotron before vocal "ooos" set up the song's high point: the building layers of harmonic vocals over the strumming of multiple guitars and a catchy synth riff. The vocal line that is then repeated to get to the song's end would, I imagine, be a great one to shout out with the band in a live performance, should one know French. (9/10)

is an amazingly well crafted song, with very mature and virtuosic commands of sound dynamics both in the instrumentation and the vocals. It has one of the catchiest outros ever, with its beautiful use of accordian, to usher us on to the "fifth" season. (10/10)

The "instrumental" is a simple yet convoluted piece of art with a folksy, almost-Celtic heaviness to it: flute and woodwinds and guitars and other strings interspersed with piano/keys with mellotronics used to tie sections together all taking one on a very innocent though tension-filled, visual journey. I absolutely love the simple two-chord climb to resolution from the 11:00 minute mark to the 14:30 climax followed by the shift with the flute into the band's collective answer. (9/10)

BrufordFreak | 5/5 | 2008-6-23

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