| L'encre s'est mise à couler - Your Harmonium Emails | |||||||
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| David Zelcer | |||||||
| How unusual to find another harmonium fan who speaks English. it's a terrible thing to go through the few websites on the band and struggle to understand what's being said. | |||||||
| Clark Jensen | |||||||
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Well, I can't believe it, another English Harmonium fan! I've been a fan since about 1980 when I went to Quebec about a year after finishing high school in Alberta. I ended up staying for almost two years and one of the best things I brought back with me was the first Harmonium album. I wasn't the only English person who knew about them. A buddy of mine from Kentucky, of all places, really got into it when he was living in Montreal, and I remember sitting on a ski lift in Utah with him in 1983, singing "Pour Un Instant" in perfect harmony (or so we thought!) and all these people looking up at us wondering what on earth was going on! Here's what I know about Harmonium: Harmonium only released 3 studio albums, then one live album was released after they split up. I found the first one on Compact Disc a few years back and I couldn't believe my luck - it had a bonus track (100,000 Raisons) on it! I found Cinq Saisons on vinyl about 10 or 12 years ago, and a bit later I found a book with sheet music for the first two albums in it. I've never heard L'Heptade, but I did hear the live album, "Harmonium en Tournee" back during the Christmas/New Years break of 1981 - 1982. The live album, as it turns out, is just a live rendition of L'Heptade. But I haven't heard it since. I have also found 3 songs from L'Heptade on Napster. I've actually found them all, but some I can't get to download. Harmonium also put out a video, produced by the National Film Board of Canada, called Harmonium en Californie (Harmonium in California) taken from the same tour that produced "En Tournee". I've never seen it. Serge Fiori made an album with Richard Seguin called 200 Nuits a L'heure (200 nights per hour) which I just found out is available on CD and which I hope to pick up this week. It's supposed to have a lot of Harmonium influences and sounds on it. Well, that's about all I know. If you're interested in hearing some other French Canadian music, may I recommend the group Beau Dommage, Robert Charlebois, Michel Pagliaro (he had a few hits in English back in the 1970s), Cano (a bilingual group with songs in both English and French) and Offenbach (a great blues-rock outfit with a few English songs as well). These artists are all from the 1970s and early 80s, but that's all I know since I haven't been back since for any length of time, just a few short vacations. Hope to hear from you soon! Take Care, Clark | |||||||
| Robert | |||||||
| Yes....an amazing band. L'heptade is my favorite. You have translated one of thier songs....is it possible that you could translate that album? Been listening for years and while I agree that I don't need to understand it to appreciate it, I have always been curious as to what the subject was....it is so beautiful. Thaks for your site Robert | |||||||
| Dan | |||||||
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Dear Alon, I just came across your web page regarding the Canadian 70s rock group Harmonium. Thanks for making some information about this great band available in English! My question is brief: have you been able to find their album "L'Heptade" on CD? I've been trying to find it, but I've been unable to? Perhaps you've come across it on some Canadian music website? If you have any ideas, I'd love to hear about them. Thanks! Dan | |||||||
| Kosta Constantakis | |||||||
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I'm also stunned to find english Harmonium fans!! I was introduced to
them back in '92 when a francophone buddy of mine who moved to Ontario
from Northern Quebec brought me a tape to school saying I really gotta
listen it. It was their first album. He figured since I played the
guitar, I might actually find their music interesting and might get to
like it. So I brought the tape home and half-heartedly placed it in my
stereo, pressed play and basicly ignored the whole thing as it played.
But, since I had promised my friend to listen to it carefully, I played
it back 3 times, completely ignoring it each time. So I brought the
tape back to school with me the next day and handed it back. He stared
me right in the eyes and said "wo wo wo, take it back and listen to
it!" So I said sure, whatever, french music, blah... About 8 months later, we're sitting in class and he asks me out of the blue: "hey Kosta, do you still have my Harmonium tape?" What, me, his Harmonium tape??? Of course not ;-) I only spent every single day in those eight months trying to figure out every single guitar part note for note on that album!! It was litterally the most incredible music I had ever heard and I couldn't believe how I loved EVERY song! I don't know about you, but that's pretty rare! And the same goes for their subsequent 2 albums, each one getting progressively better and better! As the story goes, I'm now a HUGE Harmonium fan, and have been trying to get others into it as well. I still don't know how to play all their songs on the guitar (they're nice and complex, just the way I like it), but that won't last for much longer! Ciao, Kosta ps, my buddy did eventually get his tape back! Daniel Moran |
Dear Alon, | I just came across your web page regarding the Canadian 70s rock group Harmonium. Thanks for making some information about this great band available in English! My question is brief: have you been able to find their album "L'Heptade" on CD? I've been trying to find it, but I've been unable to? Perhaps you've come across it on some Canadian music website? If you have any ideas, I'd love to hear about them. Thanks! Dan Moran Omar Abraham |
Hi, I just happened to find your homepage about
Harmonium while searching for some information about
this band, and as I saw that you were kind of amused
by knowing about other english-speaking people who
really liked this band, I thought you would be even
more surprised to know about someone in Mexico who's
happened to know about them and like their music. The
album I know is the cinquiem saison, because of an LP
my grandmothe had and didn't even know where it came
from (someone must have given it to her), so I
borrowed it and liked it's songs, specially "Depuis
l'automne" and "Histoires sans paroles". Well, it's
nice indeed to be one of the few fortunate ones to
know about such a good group with such beautiful
music, and thanks for the link to the Harmonium page.
I hope I didn't bore you too much with this mail.
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