This is the third disc from the great but under-recognized Quebec-based progressive band Rouge Ciel. After hearing their first two discs and seeing them live at Guelph, I was excited to receive their new one earlier this week. What I dig about this disc is that it is filled with passion and creativity, not any of that complexity for-its-own-sake stuff. This sounds as if it was recorded in the mid-seventies since they use those vintage keyboards like (Hammond?) organ, electric piano & synth. Mr. Del Fabbro plays some great wah-wah violin on Imbroglio, now there’s a sound we haven’t heard in a long while. Agitato has a most majestic sound with lovely cascading violin & piano swells. A few of the melodies used here have a warm, folky sort of resonance which is most charming. Just when you think you have this band figured out, they head for darker, more turbulent waters. Antimemoire has a great, churning quality that builds to a grand conclusion. Classic progressive music has a mythic quality like a soundtrack for an animated journey that we are swept away by. That’s what we find here. You got to love that central pounding drum on Bryologie, a strong blend of eastern and other progressive elements. There is no singing on this disc for those who need to know and it is delightful gem throughout, like a long lost treasure from the olden days (of the seventies). I would hope that Michel Levasseur from the Victo Fest would be wise enough to book this great quartet for a future fest. Both Rouge Ciel and Victo are from the very same province — Québec.