Orphée (St. Pierre et Miquelon) - Venant du même rocher 1978

The Territorial Collectivity of Saint Pierre and Miquelon is a group of islands in the North Atlantic as close as ten kilometres to the Canadian island and province of Newfoundland. It is the only remnant of the old north american french colonies that still belongs to France, an accident of history a bit like the Falkland islands. There have been many groups called Orpheus or similar in the history of music but none have been as undeservedly rare as this one.

A typical product of seventies progressive rock with a very sunny bright sound, it reminds me of australian Pirana or canadians Ungava, it has a kind of California sound perhaps to make up for the coldness of the origins, like an antidepressant-treated Dionysos. It is very likely they were the only prog band on St. Pierre et Miquelon. I think I would put a lot of money on that, or at least the cost of this vinyl.

The title of the album means "Coming from the same rock" and all the songs appear to be connected to the history of the islands, having to do with the explorers who crossed the oceans. The quality of the songwriting is what makes this album so unfairly forgotten. Several tracks use double guitar riffs a la Allman, all are upbeat, singable, enjoyable. Wouldn't it have been great to dance to this music in the days of disco? OK maybe not, but our headphones can still dance to it.

The lines on the cover say:

One day St. Pierre will be
One day Miquelon will be
One day our islands will be
One day our cities will be

Link follows a random number of comments, thanks to the guy who asked where the link was after ten seconds
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