L'Heptade

L'heptade is the third and final album from Harmonium, in which the band made a serious foray into progressive rock. It was released as a double-LP in 1976. It remains one of the best-known popular music double albums in Quebec. L'heptade is composed of seven core songs, in order: Comme un fou (Like a mad man), Chanson noire (Black song), Le premier ciel (The first heaven), L'exil (The exile), Le corridor (The hallway), Lumières de vie (Lights of life), and Comme un sage (Like a wise man). These seven songs were mainly written by band founders Serge Fiori and Michel Normandeau. The title, heptade, is the compound of two Greek affixes, hept- (seven) and -ade, which expresses both the notion of group (décade, pléiade) and epic movement (as in Iliad). Fiori mentioned, at the beginning of the live album of L'heptade, that the album, framed in seven songs, was evoking the journey of a man in one day through seven levels of consciousness; a rapid sigh of a man waking up, followed by steps on a cracked wooden floor can be heard in the prologue, the first musical movement preceding the first core song. A man preparing to sleep can be heard in the finale of the album. Each of the seven core songs includes from two to six different melodies, often with lengthy solos. Serge Locat performs on synthesizers, especially at the end of "Le premier ciel", and on piano in "Lumières de vie".