L'Infonie＜限定盤＞

SMCQ他、カナダの現代音楽/作曲家の大家Walter Boudreauと、ケベック文化シーンの重鎮となった詩人Raoul Duguayを中心にモントリオールにて結成された、ケベック音楽シーン屈指の伝説的アヴァンギャルド/前衛音楽グループによる'69年ファースト・アルバムが欧Endless Happinessより'24年アナログ・リイシュー!

オーケストラ・セクションまで含む総勢33名が参加したと云われるそのサウンドの巨大さと、ポップスからジャズ/現代音楽まで跨る音楽ジャンル、そして舞踏/演劇まで包括した前衛的総合芸術作品として仕上げられた、完全にイってしまった狂気の一枚!!交響曲と舞台劇が交錯し、ブロードウェイ・ミュージカルとミュージック・コンクレート/コラージュが融合した、正に当時の時代の最先端を捉えたケベック版Zappaとも言えるその内容は、アヴァンギャルド・ミュージックファンならば必ず聴くべし!と断言出来る驚異の傑作です!

L'Infonie's first record, eponymous (but also known as Vol. 3, since the following records will be titled Vol. 33, Vol. 333 and Vol. 3333), was trying to capture every side of the band's multiple facets. The first half of the album, a 15-minute suite titled "Ode a l'affaire" (Ode to the thing), is typical Infonie. Through six sections, the music goes from absolute chaos to cheesy '70s grooves, with an a capella section in the middle where all members of the band answers questions from the catechism, replacing every theological term with "l'affaire" (the thing) in a Smurfs-like manner. The second half of the record is a mixed bag that shows leader Walter Boudreau's eclectic tastes: a couple of dance numbers, a very sober arrangements of The Beatles' "She's Leaving Home," and Johann Sebastian Bach's "Agnus Dei" and a demented reading of Antonio Carlos Jobim's "Desafinado" introduced by one of Raoul Duguay's trademark rants. This last track is a showcase for drummer Ysengourd Knohr (wrongly credited as Isengourd Knohn) and saxophonist Walter Boudreau, and the treatment it gets heralds Ivo Perelman's version of the same tune on his CD Brazilian Watercolours, over 20 years later. Apart from "Ode a l'affaire," which remains an interesting curiosity, this first effort was not very convincing. ~ Francois Couture