Hasard - Embarque si ca t'tente, Canada 1982

Since we're on the subject of Canadian overlooked albums... 

This is a singer-songwriter album with some touches of prog and fusion, and this is their only release.  Very similar to the early 70s Vos Vousins, if you are familiar with that one (as you should be).

For the SSW, Un Enfant:

The closing track is really lovely and it's called Nuit d'amour:

The kind of piano playing one never hears anymore.

When you look at those photos of skinny dudes it's shocking how fat and chunky we've become as a species, isn't it?

Syncope, 1980 Canada

 

Their only release which came out in the late year of 1980, they are related to the band Connivence I posted here earlier in the entirety of their oeuvre (including the wonderful offshoot Gilles Legault's Chansons).  The music is a wonderful mix of fusion and folky singer-songwriting, kinda like Connivence in fact.  Consider the track called Les amours d' enfance (the loves of childhood), which features such a wonderfully original chord change in it:

Check out the beautiful calligraphic handwritten lettering on the back too.  That kind of thing is never seen anymore now, is it, when children don't even learn how to write cursive by hand anymore in most public schools, only how to type on ever-diminishing keyboards in size, or better yet, use their index finger on a touchpad--isn't it wonderful and miraculous how human beings have progressed in the times we have been alive?  Same comments as what I made about porn, how when I grew up it was out of reach on the top shelves of convenience stores where the owners would yell at us if we dared to approach, compared to today, where it's accessible for free to any kid no matter how young, and hardcore of the vilest kind too. 

Well, allow me to feel nostalgic about more than just the music of 40 years ago.

Focus I - XI, limited time only

Some of these are not 'counted' in the numbering, presumably the live albums, so in reality we have 13 here, plus there's the Thijs plus Akkerman album from 1985 oddly enough, or as a joke entitled, Focus and I already posted that one in conjunction with the former artist.  Of course Akkerman was the original guitarist of the group but he flew off to become a phenomenal solo artist who hit an absolute masterpiece ne plus ultra with the beyond brilliant concept album called Eli written of course with Kaz Lux, one of my all-time favourite progressive rock albums with its brilliant combination of skilled, intelligent songwriting, fusion elements, plus excellent guitar playing.  Thereafter he made a few great albums and a few disappointing albums in a career that continued from the seventies all the way down to the present day.  (I'm referring here to Akkerman, not Focus.)  Thanks to the box set a friend sent, I've listened to all his music and I can say there are great songs sprinkled throughout here and there, though I think he hit another high point with 1982's It Could Happen to You, curiously.  In this case there is no evidence whatsoever that musically we are in the territory of the 80s, thankfully.

Returning to mother Focus, I mentioned that I was shocked when I 'completed the discography' past the original brilliant 70s albums we all know and love, they continued to make really wonderful progressive music up until recently.  Consider for ex., the Amok in Kindergarten track from the X album (2012):

Or Mare Nostrum from the XI, from 2018:

Honestly, I think I spent the whole of last summer listening to all these 'new' CDs (new to me) and enjoying over and over again the intricate ideas they put into their so-original music.

I would also mention the Live at the BBC album and Ship of Memories, both of which I had overlooked in the decades ago when I first heard this band.  These are stuffed with obscurities and unreleased tracks, recorded in the 70s, that have some really interesting moments.

Also, the cover for the Mother Focus album with the surreal ship is one of my favourite album covers of all time.

A few from Thijs van Leer

You might recall I posted Thijs van Leer's Pedal Point which recycled some of the music from Oh My Love, one of my favourite progressive albums of all time. Later I mentioned him as the arranger of the stunningly beautiful Beauty of Bojoura record which I ripped.  Actually when I reviewed the whole of the Focus oeuvre, which continued on until the recent year of 2018 (!) I was surprised they continued to craft incredibly creative progressive music all the way until 3 years ago.  That last one, which is numerically Focus XI, absolutely blew me away, and I take it most of the composition was from Thijs as well.  It's an album that surely would sound completely appropriate springing from the heyday of the progressive rock of the seventies. If anyone wants I have the whole 1-11 set to upload.

Throughout most of the 70s though he made mostly flute-played classical LPs which I recognize was very popular back in the days when people still had an appreciation for this style of music.  Well, you could say they were brainwashed into enjoying it, because it's really difficult for us 'moderns' to understand what is the appeal of the simple Mozart or Bach tunes or the dreadful zombie music of Vivaldi's Seasons that is played over and over again, the same melodies along the lines of the jazz standards.  I guess that's what humans are like.

In 1978 he made the Nice to have met you album with the somewhat ridiculous cover and branched out very slightly into fusion though I must say it's quite generic in comparison to the music he made with Focus, which I guess was used as a channel for the inspired ideas.  The 1985 album he made with Akkerman is great, obviously the latter is another artist who also carried on making wonderful music all the way down to the present day after abandoning his bandmates.

Amazingly back to the NTSU with Lab '81

I never would have thought I'd return to this series, but here we are.  Good thing I did return, because this one is good.  Showing I should have pursued it farther and not given up.  A couple of 'throwaway' standard charts and the remainder very strong fusion-big band composition with some really intelligent ideas, all on 2-LP set.  Many, many thanks to the ripper!

Evening in Lucerne:

Lovely stuff.