Maneige was a Québécois

progressive rock Progressive rock (shortened as prog rock or simply prog) is a broad genre of rock music that primarily developed in the United Kingdom through the mid- to late 1960s, peaking in the early-to-mid-1970s. Initially termed " progressive pop", the ...

and

fusion jazz Jazz fusion (also known as jazz rock, jazz-rock fusion, or simply fusion) is a popular music genre that developed in the late 1960s when musicians combined jazz harmony and improvisation with rock music, funk, and rhythm and blues. Electric gui ...

band from

Quebec Quebec is Canada's List of Canadian provinces and territories by area, largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, ...

. The instrumental ensemble was one of the Quebec progressive rock scene's longest-running bands, performing regularly for several decades.

History

Maneige was founded in 1972 by Alain Bergeron and Jérôme Langlois. Bergeron played

flute The flute is a member of a family of musical instruments in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, producing sound with a vibrating column of air. Flutes produce sound when the player's air flows across an opening. In th ...

and

saxophone The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed instruments, sound is produced when a reed on a mouthpiece vibrates to p ...

, while Langlois was a

keyboardist A keyboardist or keyboard player is a musician who plays keyboard instruments. Until the early 1960s musicians who played keyboards were generally classified as either pianists or organists. Since the mid-1960s, a plethora of new musical instru ...

. They were joined by

drum The drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophone. Drums consist of at least one membrane, called a drumhead or drum skin, that is stretched over a ...

mer Gilles Schetagne,

percussionist A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Ex ...

Paul Picard and

bassist A bassist (also known as a bass player or bass guitarist) is a musician who plays a bass instrument such as a double bass (upright bass, contrabass, wood bass), bass guitar (electric bass, acoustic bass), keyboard bass (synth bass) or a low br ...

Yves Leonard, to form the initial quintet. The band played a few concerts in the early 1970s, opening for the

Dutch Dutch or Nederlands commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands ** Dutch people as an ethnic group () ** Dutch nationality law, history and regulations of Dutch citizenship () ** Dutch language () * In specific terms, i ...

progressive band,

Ekseption Ekseption was a Dutch rock band active from 1967 to 1989, playing mostly-instrumental progressive rock and Classical crossover, classical rock. The central character in the changing roster, and the only band member present on every album, was con ...

and for

Soft Machine Soft Machine are an English Rock music, rock band from Canterbury, Kent. The band were formed in 1966 by Mike Ratledge, Robert Wyatt, Kevin Ayers, Daevid Allen and Larry Nowlin. Soft Machine were central in the Canterbury scene; they became o ...

on the 15 February 1974 at CEGEP Maisonneuve. They released their first two

album An album is a collection of audio recordings (e.g., music) issued on a medium such as compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl (record), audio tape (like 8-track cartridge, 8-track or Cassette tape, cassette), or digital distribution, dig ...

s on the

Harvest Harvesting is the process of collecting plants, animals, or fish (as well as fungi) as food, especially the process of gathering mature crops, and "the harvest" also refers to the collected crops. Reaping is the cutting of grain or pulses fo ...

label A label (as distinct from signage) is a piece of paper, plastic film, cloth, metal, or other material affixed to a container or product. Labels are most often affixed to packaging and containers using an adhesive, or sewing when affix ...

. Their eponymous debut release contained a side-long track and established their experimental approach. Jerome's brother, Vincent Langlois, was added as a second keyboardist and a

wind Wind is the natural movement of atmosphere of Earth, air or other gases relative to a planetary surface, planet's surface. Winds occur on a range of scales, from thunderstorm flows lasting tens of minutes, to local breezes generated by heatin ...

player, and an array of

percussion instrument A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a percussion mallet, beater including attached or enclosed beaters or Rattle (percussion beater), rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or ...

s, some tuned, were used. Guitarist Denis Lapierre had been added to the lineup. In 1975, ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...

'' described the band as " pop avant-garde", writing that "they mix

musique concrete Musique is the French word for music. Musique may also refer to: Music *Musique (disco band), a 1970s studio band produced by Patrick Adams *Musique, a British dance act consisting of Moussa Clarke and Nick Hanson best known for their 2001 song ...

in a style between early Zappa and

Pink Floyd Pink Floyd are an English Rock music, rock band formed in London in 1965. Gaining an early following as one of the first British psychedelic music, psychedelic groups, they were distinguished by their extended compositions, sonic experiments ...

", and noted that the album "brought success beyond exepectations". The band signed with

Capitol Records Capitol Records, LLC (known legally as Capitol Records, Inc. until 2007), and simply known as Capitol, is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group through its Capitol Music Group imprint. It was founded as the first West Coast-base ...

in 1974; their second album, also released in 1975, was ''Les Porches''. After these two initial albums, Jerome Langlois left due to differences in opinion concerning the band's musical direction, and Vincent Langlois took over sole keyboard duties. Paul Picard, from the original lineup but absent from the first two releases, rejoined the band. The next two studio albums were more focused, with shorter compositions. ''Ni vent... ni nouvelle'' and ''Libre Service'' were the next two releases, and both were reissued on CD in the early 1990s. The band toured in Canada, including a performance at the Winnipeg Heritage Festival in 1978. A

live album An album is a collection of audio recordings (e.g., music) issued on a medium such as compact disc (CD), vinyl (record), audio tape (like 8-track or cassette), or digital. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early 20th centur ...

followed in 1979, entitled ''Composite''. Two more albums came in the early 1980s, which were more of a jazz rock styling. In the late 1990s, ''Live Montreal 1974-1975'' was issued featuring recordings from the early version of the band, including the side-long "Le Rafiot" from their first album, as well as the unreleased "1-2-3-4-5-6". In 2005, ProgQuébec reissued some archive material, and issued the previously unreleased early composition "Manège". In 2022, the original members reform the group and play a handful of shows, most notably at the

Montreal International Jazz Festival The Festival international de Jazz de Montréal is an annual jazz festival held in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The Montreal Jazz Fest holds the 2004 Guinness World Record as the world's largest jazz festival. Every year it features roughly 3,000 ar ...

on July 7, 2023.

Discography

*1975: ''Maneige'' *1975: ''Les Porches'',

, EMI Of Canada: ST 6438 *1977: ''Ni Vent...Ni Nouvelle'' *1978: ''Libre Service - Self Service'' *1979: ''Composite'' *1980: ''Montréal, 6 am'' *1981: ''Images'' *1998: ''Live Montréal 1974-1975'' *2005: ''Live à l’Évêché 1975'' *2005: ''Live'' *2006: ''Les Porches Live''

References

{{Authority control Musical groups established in 1972 Musical groups disestablished in 1983 Musical groups from Montreal Canadian progressive rock groups 1972 establishments in Quebec 1983 establishments in Quebec Avant-pop musicians