“Si on Avait Besoin d'une Cinquième Saison,” on L’Appelle Harmonium: Prog Review #36

Harmonium - Les Cinq Saisons

I did not expect to see a French Canadian band on the Rolling Stone list, but I did expect to love it once I found out about Harmonium’s “Si on Avait Besoin d'une Cinquième Saison” (1975, “If We had Need of a Fifth Season,” often shortened to Les Cinq Saisons")

Sounds Like Home

One of the presets on my car radio is a French station, Énergie 104.1, which in the evenings plays French rock that always feels trapped in the early 90s in the best possible way.

On top of the slightly bluesy pre-grunge stripped down hard rock stylings, Francophone rock, in my experience, embraces a little bit of silliness foreign to most Anglo rock. This quality of humour is to me best represented by Têtes à Claques, a comedy website, and later TV show, where big-headed characters have funny conversations loaded with very specifically Quebecois references. The site was founded in the mid-2000s, around the same time that I discovered Les Cowboys Fringants, a band that combines traditional French and Celtic music with hard rock, detailed political arguments (that go over my head given my merely textbook knowledge of French), and absurdist, referential humour. Add to this some occasionally silly instrumentation along the lines of car honks and accordion. The peculiar combination of rock, social commentary, and farce to me characterizes my very limited exposure to Francophone music, and this perception has recently been enhanced by finding out that the station I listen to has a daily 3-hour block of comedy that includes funny songs and parodies.

“Le Willi Waller,” One of the most popular Têtes à Claques videos.

This is the baggage I bring to listening to Francophone music.

Familiar Harmonies

Harmonium, a prog band from the 70s, of course sounds somewhat different from what I hear on the radio, but I am very pleased to notice a small connection in the use of Francophone slang and whimsy. Examples occur on the first two tracks in the use of wordless vocalizations. These are often your "lie-lie-lies" "da-da-da-dat-da-as" and the like, but they also devolve into looser bubbling sounds and a rimshot mimic.

These may be the only real moments of something approaching more recent Quebequois humour on the album, though. For the most part, Harmonium, as you may have guessed from their name, aims for pleasant melodies and a soothing mood. This they do quite well with an album that swings between jazzy instrumentals and elaborate melodies featuring acoustic lead supported by judicious use of flute, piano, and synths. Lead singer Serge Fiori fits beautifully into the mix with his warm and plaintive baritone.

And what a delight to hear Franglais ("Excuse-moi d'casser ton fun") and French Canadian pronunciations (of "mway" instead of "moi," for example) in my journey through this list of albums. As someone who teaches writing and studies language, listening to the lyrics in a language I'm only somewhat capable in has given me some appreciation for the richness of idiom in songwriting.

C'est moi qui est tombé en pleine face / Qu'est-ce qui faut que je fasse

(I’m the one falling on my face / What must I do?) - “En Pleine Face”

The title of the third track, "En Pleine Face," is a phrase that can mean different things depending on context, and its use in the song seems deliberately ambiguous. The chorus contains the line "C'est moi qui tombe en pleine face." Since "en pleine face" literally means "in/on the face" but figuratively can mean "obviously" or something to that effect, the lyric means both "clearly, I'm the one falling" and "I'm the one falling on my face." A musical pratfall? I could chalk this ambiguity up to being reflective only of my limited familiarity with spoken French, but given the propensity for wordplay and humour in other Francophone music, maybe it is intentional despite the somber, aching tone of the song.

With the exception of the whimsical "Dixie," the album lives in the realm of sadness characterized by "En Pleine Face." The two longest tracks, "Depuis L'Automne" ("Since Autumn") and "Histoires Sans Paroles" ("Wordless Stories") derive a melancholic forward momentum through multiple sections driven by a variety of plaintive instruments, most notably my celebrated mellotron.

"Histoires Sans Paroles" is the album’s tour de force, a slow dirge that builds to a piano concerto-like interlude followed by the return of abstract vocalizations as operatic lament. The song then moves onto something jazzier, with sharp clarinet playing over a tense acoustic guitar that gets more and more aggressive as the woodwind takes a pause to make room for a more foreboding synth and a reassuring transition to flute and piano.

The album, and this last track especially, is full of exciting, always harmonious, dynamic shifts. Even at its darkest, the music makes room for something positive and optimistic, creating an overall uplifting and cathartic listen.

Rolling Stone Rankings

1. Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon

2. King Crimson - In the Court of the Crimson King

3. Rush - Moving Pictures

4. Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here

5. Yes – Close to the Edge

6. Genesis - Selling England by the Pound

7. Jethro Tull - Thick as a Brick

8. Can - Future Days

9. Genesis - The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway

10. Yes - Fragile

11. Rush - Hemispheres

12. ELP - Brain Salad Surgery

13. Pink Floyd - Animals

14. Genesis - Foxtrot

15. King Crimson - Red

16. Gentle Giant - Octopus

17. Mike Oldfield - Tubular Bells

18. Frank Zappa - One Size Fits All

19. Premiata Forneria Marconi - Per Un Amico

20. King Crimson - Larks’ Tongue in Aspic

21. Camel - Mirage

22. Rush - 2112

23. Tangerine Dream - Phaedra

24. Magma - Mëkanïk Dëstruktïẁ Kömmandöh

25. The Mars Volta - Deloused in the Comatorium

26. Van Der Graaf Generator - Pawn Hearts

27. Supertramp - Crime of the Century

28. Opeth - Blackwater Park

29. Dream Theater - Metropolis, Pt. 2: Scenes From a Memory

30. U.K. - U.K.

31. Renaissance - Ashes Are Burning

32. Kansas - Leftoverture

33. TOOL - Lateralus

34. Caravan - In the Land of Grey and Pink

35. Banco - Io Sono Nato Libero

36. Harmonium - Si on Avait Besoin d'une Cinquième Saison

ASK Rankings

1. Genesis - The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway

2. Supertramp - Crime of the Century

3. Genesis - Foxtrot

4. Caravan - In the Land of Grey and Pink

5. Camel - Mirage

6. Yes – Close to the Edge

7. Renaissance - Ashes Are Burning

8. King Crimson - Red

9. Gentle Giant - Octopus

10. Dream Theater - Metropolis, Pt. 2: Scenes From a Memory

11. Genesis - Selling England by the Pound

12. Harmonium - Si on Avait Besoin d'une Cinquième Saison

13. Rush - 2112

14. Jethro Tull - Thick as a Brick

15. ELP - Brain Salad Surgery

16. U.K. - U.K

17. Rush - Moving Pictures

18. King Crimson - In the Court of the Crimson King

19. Kansas - Leftoverture

20. Banco - Io Sono Nato Libero

21. The Mars Volta - Deloused in the Comatorium

22. Premiata Forneria Marconi - Per Un Amico

23. King Crimson - Larks’ Tongue in Aspic

24. Pink Floyd - Animals

25. TOOL - Lateralus

26. Frank Zappa - One Size Fits All

27. Yes - Fragile

28. Rush - Hemispheres

29. Tangerine Dream - Phaedra

30. Magma - Mëkanïk Dëstruktïẁ Kömmandöh

31. Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon

32. Can - Future Days

33. Mike Oldfield - Tubular Bells

34. Van Der Graaf Generator - Pawn Hearts

35. Opeth - Blackwater Park

36. Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here