First of all, a confusing point must be cleared up: yes, this album contains all the material previously released by Fonovox in 1998 under the title Live Montréal 1974-1975, Enregistrement Inédit, although its title mentions only the 1975 show. First up on this 78-minute disc is
Maneige's performance at L'Évêché, a concert hall in Montreal's Hotel Nelson, on November 22, 1975. The show was broadcast live on CKVL radio. To "1-2-3-4-5-6" and "La Balloune" (two pieces the group never recorded in the studio), Live à l'Évêché adds three tunes the group would record for its next album, Ni Vent...Ni Nouvelle. Thus, here listeners have the only known performances of "Mambo Chant," "Les Épinettes," and "Bullfrog Dance" with founding member Jérôme Langlois still in the lineup. This 50-minute set captures the group at a turning point, a time where the tension between Langlois' complex blend of contemporary, progressive, and improvised music and Alain Bergeron and Gilles Schetagne's happy-side-up jazz fusion had escalated to the point of no return, as illustrated by the unbridgeable gap between the tuneful "Mambo Chant" and the epic "La Balloune." "Le Rafiot," which was the only live track from 1974 included on Live Montréal 1974-1975, Enregistrement Inédit, is tucked at the end of the album and offered as a bonus track, along with the previously unreleased track "Manège," a spirited tune serving as an overture for the epic from the group's first album. So here you have it: a group at the very end of its first phase, with most of its members ready to move on to a more commercial sound, captured as it fuels on those members' inner tension -- and in decent sound (though less good on the new tracks). The conspicuous absence of anything from their second LP, Les Porches, is still irritating, but mere nitpicking considering the strength of these performances. A must-have until
Maneige's first two LPs get reissued (if ever). ~ François Couture