Miriodor

As of 2009 and the release of Avanti!, Montreal avant-prog group Miriodor are still carrying the flag they first hoisted 30 years earlier as one of the first groups on the "rock" side of the Quebec-based musique actuelle equation. At their inception, Miriodor could also be viewed as North American practitioners of the Rock in Opposition (RIO) style pioneered by such European groups as Henry Cow, Etron Fou Leloublan, Débile Menthol -- instrumental prog rock with the requisite technical skill and virtuosity but none of the pomposity that dragged down better-known prog outfits. Thanks to a quarter century of continued support from the Cuneiform label, Miriodor have documented their steady artistic growth on one CD after another, without the need to compromise their music according to popular tastes in the rock music marketplace. The band was founded in Quebec City by keyboardist Pascal Globensky and multi-instrumentalist François Émond (violin, flute, clarinet, keyboards) in 1980 and went through a number of personnel changes before stabilizing as a sextet in 1983. This lineup, which included drummer Rémi Leclerc, saxophonist Sabin Hudon, keyboardist/bassist Marc Petitclerc, and bassist/guitarist Denis Robitaille, recorded the first Miriodor vinyl LP, Rencontres, as well as a cassette-only release, Tôt ou Tard, which featured the quartet of Globensky, Émond, Leclerc, and Hudon joined by original sextet members Petitclerc and Robitaille on three tracks. By the fall of 1984 Petitclerc and Robitaille had dropped out of the band and the remaining foursome moved to Montreal to continue the Miriodor saga. However, by 1987 the Miriodor story was beginning to look like "the Incredible Shrinking Band," as group co-founder Émond departed and Globensky was now the only Miriodor...