June 25, 2008
The Musical Box: One more time in Québec...
After the remarkable success of their last great show at the Bell Center a few weeks ago, and after the news that the band was moving on to a new tour and a new lineup, The Musical Box in its current incarnation will perform one more time, for what may be their biggest and greatest show... they are going to fill the slot left vacant by Yes at the Quebec Summer Fest!

The famed Genesis tribute band will perform their "Black show" of the Selling England by the Pound tour, a rarely seen, highly captivating version of their regular "white" show, with different costumes and a slightly different setlist. The Musical Box is composed of François Gagnon on acoustic and electric guitars, Sébastien Lamothe on bass, bass pedal and guitars, Gregg Bendian on drums, percussion and vocals, Dave Myers on keyboards and piano and Denis Gagné on vocals and flute. The band will be on the Bell Stage (the vast outdoor stage on the Plaines D'Abraham) of the Summer Fest, Saturday July 12 2008 at 9:30 PM, right after the California Guitar Trio.

We all recall earlier this spring when Yes singer Jon Anderson suffered a severe asthma attack and because of that unfortunate health scare, the entire Yes 40th anniversary tour has been officially cancelled, including their long awaited performance at the Summer Fest.

Dweezil Zappa and his glorious Zappa Plays Zappa team will be at the fest on Sunday, July 6 2008 and also on that same day before ZPZ, none other than the Adrian Belew Power Trio!

Other invited artist include Fanfare Pourpour and Feist on the 5th, The Blind Boys of Alabama on the 6th, Classic canadian rockers Honeymoon Suite on the 9th, Les Batinses, Great Big Sea and The Secret Machines on the 10th, California Guitar Trio with Tony Levin and Pat Mastelotto on the 12th. This year's edition will be held from Thursday, July 3 to Sunday, July 13 2008, at various locations in the heart of Quebec City, including the gigantic stage of the "Plaines d'Abraham". Access to the festival, as in previous years, will be possible with the purchase of a $20 badge, valid for the entire duration of the festival.

June 25, 2008
Steve Howe in Montreal: More dates
Steve Howe, the legendary guitarist of Yes, will visit Canada for a couple of dates this fall. He will present a solo performance in Montreal on Saturday, September 27, 2008 at the Oscar Peterson Hall of Concordia University (7141 Sherbrooke Street West, Montreal). Tickets for this show are available right now through Admission.

He will also present two solo performances in Quebec City at the Petit Champlain Theater (68 Petit-Champlain Street, Quebec City),on Monday, September 29 and Tuesday, September 30 2008. Tickets for these shows are available right now through Admission.

And then Steve will be joined by his acclaimed drummer son Dylan Howe on drums and Ross Hanley on Hammond for a series of trio performances, including one in Montreal, on Tuesday, October 7 2008 at Le Théâtre Plaza (6505, rue Saint-Hubert). The show will begin at 8:00 PM and tickets will be available soon.

Steve's trio will also appear in Ottawa on Wednesday, October 8 2008 at Barrymore's Music Hall (323 Bank Street - (613) 233-0307). The show will begin at 8:00 PM and tickets will be available soon.

Along with new material from Steve, the band will play a mixture of blues, jazz, and of course, a few Yes numbers all specially arranged for the trio format.

June 15, 2008
Single day tickets for FMPM now on sale!
Like last year, 1-Day Tickets for Le Festival des Musiques Progressives de Montréal are being made available in limited quantities, at $69 plus taxes and fees, entitling holders to reserved seating at all shows either on Saturday September 13 or Sunday September 14. These tickets will help accommodate fans who are unable to attend both days due to work or other reasons, and are available exclusively at www.admission.com. Regular weekend Tickets can still be purchased at www.progquebec.com and at Admission, whereas only a few Gold Tickets are left entitling holders to center seats in the first 10 rows, available only at www.progquebec.com.

May 27, 2008
Amorphis at Les Foufounes!
Expect a rockin' evening on Friday October 3 2008 at Les Foufounes Électriques (87 Ste-Catherine East) with Finnish death/prog metal band Amorphis, accompanied by Leaves Eyes, Samael and Virgin Black.

Amorphis is composed of Tomi Joutsen on vocals, Tomi Koivusaari on guitars, Esa Holopainen on guitars, Niclas Etelävuori on bass, Santeri Kallio on keys and Jan Rechberger on drums. Their great discography spans more than 10 releases over a period of 16 years. The show begins at 6:00 PM and tickets are $20 - $25 (+ service charges), available at the Foufounes Box Office (514-844-5539), at all Admission outlets and online at www.admission.com.

April 11, 2008
ProgtoberFest final lineup!
As mentioned in a previous announcement, this year's ProgtoberFest will be held on Saturday, October 18 2008 in the beatiful 225-seat Salle Jean Desprez auditorium (25, Rue Laurier • 819-243-8000) in Gatineau, which is just across the river from downtown Ottawa.

instrumental/symph/fusion trio Talisma have agreed to play at this year's Progtoberfest. Hailing from Quebec City, the Unicorn Digital recording artists are the final act to be comfimed for the festival. Samples of their latest release Quelque Part can be found here: http://www.unicornrecords.com/mp3.html

The other bands featured this year are:
From Quebec City, Interference Sardines, avant leaning folk infused RIO, from Winnipeg, Mahogany Frog, canterbury influenced space jazz... and Ottawa-based fusion legends Spyral Jones, reforming this year after a very long hiatus and featuring bass player Donald Prince (Nathan Mahl). For those that like to rock, there will be a Friday night pre-show ( October 17) that will be held at Mavericks (221 Rideau Street, Ottawa) featuring shred monster Stéphane Lévesque aka Mr. Rubber Finger and Ottawa-based Widow's Walk with their complex progressive metal goodness! One more band announcement to go! Tickets will be available in late summer, more detailed info soon.

April 10, 2008
FMPM 2008 NEWS!
The 2008 edition of the FMPM will take place September 13th and 14th of next year at the Salle Pierre-Mercure of the Pierre Peladeau Centre, in Montreal. Musique ProgresSon (ProgQuebec) and Unicorn Digital are now pleased to present the complete lineup for this year's edition, which includes four international groups: Banco del Mutuo Soccorso (Italy), Univers Zero (Belgium), Riverside (Poland), and Knight Area (Holland), and three groups from Quebec: Charles Kaczynski, Spaced Out, and Interference Sardines, all performing on Saturday September 13 and Sunday September 14, and also Premier Ciel who are performing on Friday September 12, as part of the FMPM pre-show.

Regular tickets for FMPM 2008 are on sale through the ProgQuebec online store, as well as through www.admission.com. Gold tickets have been on sale since February 15 and there are just a few left. Visit FMPM's Tickets page for details. The official FMPM schedule has been released: visit FMPM's Schedule page for all the information concerning band order and concert showtimes on the FMPM weekend next September.

PREMIER CIEL TO PRESENT HARMONIUM AT FMPM 2008
Le Festival des Musiques Progressives de Montreal (FMPM) is pleased to announce that Harmonium tribute band Premier Ciel will perform on Friday September 12th, 2008 at the Centre Pierre Peladeau as the pre-show of this year’s festival. Formed in 2002, Premier Ciel has gained increased renown for its authentic live renditions of the Harmonium repertoire, and is the only ensemble authorized by Serge Fiori to publicly perform this legendary group’s works. Premier Ciel’s current line-up includes seven world-class musicians, with the same configuration as the L'Heptade live tour. The group will perform material from all the Harmonium albums including L’Heptade, in two distinct sets. Please visit www.premierciel.com for more information. This unique performance is a co-production between Premier Ciel and Musique ProgresSon. Tickets to the Premier Ciel show are sold separately on FMPM's Tickets page.

INTERFERENCE SARDINES TO REPLACE UNEXPECT
Quebec City's Interference Sardines will be replacing UnexpecT who have received an opportunity to tour the Southern US during September. This has given FMPM the chance to invite one of Quebec's finest experimental groups instead. With a style combining rock, musique actuelle, improv, folk, jazz, and everything else, most progressive rock fans would most easily classify them as avant-progressive. The band has just released their third album, Spot de Rue, and their entire catalog is available on Wayside Music.

KNIGHT AREA REPLACES MAGENTA
Some bad news and good news with the FMPM line-up. Rob Reed of Magenta is going to be a father in September, which unfortunately means no gigging for the group at that time. Although we had already signed the contract with the group, we did not feel it was reasonable to ask them to perform in a situation where they would not want to be here. We wish Rob all the best with the new album and his family, and hope to work with Magenta in 2009.

Luckily for us, Dutch modern symphonic rock group Knight Area has agreed to join the FMPM line-up for 2008. This was a group we had hoped to work with this year and were having trouble finding a way to make it work, which now becomes possible with Magenta's withdrawal. Knight Area released their first album, The Sun Also Rises, in 2004. This album featured old and new material from the band members, some dating back to the 1980s, and quickly made a splash in the progressive rock community leading to an appearance at NEARfest 2005. As promising as the first album was, 2007's Under a New Sign takes the group to the next level, with an approach and quality very comparable to British group (and past FMPM headliners) IQ. These days with many modern/neo progressive groups changing to heavier or poppier styles, Knight Area unapologetically shows a mastery of the conventions of symphonic rock, and will delight their growing fanbase in Montreal this coming September.

GET SPACED OUT AT FMPM 2008
World-class fusion trio Spaced Out will hit the stage this September at FMPM 2008. Formed by bassist Antoine Fafard and originally having the name Cortex, several different line-ups came and went before the group were signed to Unicorn Digital to release their first (self-titled) album in 2000. They were the first band on Unicorn Digital, apart from label founder Michel St-Père's own Mystery, and are to this day one of its most popular and best-selling groups. Drummer Martin Maheux has been there since 1998, while guitarist Mark Tremblay has been with the group since the live dates following their second album, entitled Eponymus II. Two studio albums have followed in recent years, 2003's Slow Gin and 2006's Unstable Matter, which was the heaviest to date, allowing touches of metal to fuse with the jazz and rock influences already present. During this time the group has stayed active in a live setting, performing at NEARFest, as well as the Crescendo Festival in France. Two live DVDs are available to demonstrate their prowess. The music of the group is a heavy instrumental fusion that is compared to everything from Return to Forever to Planet X, with Fafard's own bass style reminiscent at times of Jaco Pastorius.

CHARLES KACZYNSKI TO PERFORM AT FMPM
Charles Kaczynski was a violinist with the pioneering musique actuelle group Conventum in the late 1970s. After leaving the group, he released his solo masterpiece Lumière de la Nuit on which he played more than a dozen instruments. An obscurity long treasured by collectors, it was finally reissued on CD by ProgQuebec in 2005. Featuring a heavy string presence, with piano, guitar, woodwinds, and percussion, this mostly instrumental suite has elements of folk and chamber music and is reminiscent of Mike Oldfield, l'Engoulevent, Flarick, and others. Charles has stayed active in music performing in a variety of settings and styles, and has worked as the musical director and performer with the Cirque Éloize. This September Charles will give an hour-long performance of the suite, which will be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to witness one of the highlights of the 1970s progressive music scene in Quebec.

UNIVERS ZÉRO TO HEADLINE FMPM
Belgian chamber rock group and original Rock in Opposition member Univers Zero will headline the Sunday portion of FMPM 2008. Formed in the mid-1970s by drummer and leader Daniel Denis, Univers Zero has undergone several transformations during its existence, from dark acoustic chamber music inspired by Béla Bartók and H.P. Lovecraft, to a more electronic sound with use of synthesizers in the 1980s, and finally a more melodic, refined chamber-rock for the new Millennium. The ten CD releases that catalogue these three periods are acclaimed by followers of new music and Univers Zero have influenced countless other groups being practically the blueprint for chamber-rock. After avoiding live performance for decades, the modern incarnation of Univers Zero embraced it, with powerful appearances at festivals in Europe and a headlining performance at NEARFest 2004. Their first ever live album was released on Cuneiform Records in 2006, and their first album 1313 is to be reissued by Cuneiform in mid-2008. The current line-up of Univers Zero features Daniel Denis (drums), Michel Berckmans (woodwinds), Andy Kirk (keyboards and guitar), Martin Lauwers (violin), Eric Plantain (bass), and Kurt Budé (clarinet, sax). Univers Zero is currently working on a new studio album.

RIVERSIDE FOR THE FIRST TIME IN CANADA
Poland’s Riverside has made a name for themselves over the past five years with the “Reality Dream” trilogy of releases. From 2003’s Out of Myself (on the Laser’s Edge label), 2005’s Second Life Syndrome and 2007’s Rapid Eye Movement (both on the InsideOut label), they have developed a growing following with a melodically attractive, sometimes heavy, sometimes psychedelic sound. Crunchy guitars, atmospheric keyboard passages and Mariusz Duda’s powerful vocals have combined to make Riverside one of the most popular groups straddling the line between progressive rock and progressive metal. The music on these albums has been compared to groups as diverse as Porcupine Tree, Opeth, Pink Floyd and Pain of Salvation, but one also hears similarities to the Polish neo-progressive school of Collage, Satellite, Quidam, and others. Riverside performed for the first time in North America at NEARFest 2006, and they have played a number of art rock festivals in Europe. After supporting Dream Theater on European dates earlier this year, they are now touring in support of Rapid Eye Movement. FMPM 2008 will be Riverside’s first ever performance in Canada.

BANCO HEADLINES FMPM 2008
Performing for the first time in Canada, Italian symphonic rock group Il Banco del Mutuo Soccorso will be a headlining act at the 2008 edition of the FMPM. Existing since 1969, Banco has released some of the undisputed classics of the progressive rock era, including Darwin!, Io Sono Nato Libero, and ...di Terra. With beautiful classically oriented compositions and the powerful vocals of Francesco di Giacomo, Banco is considered by many to be the greatest Italian progressive group. Renowned for their live performances, Banco has been to North America only a handful of times, and the FMPM will feature a different set of classic prog than what they have played on the continent until now.

A great, varied lineup! Gold and Regular tickets are available right now through ProgQuébec !

©2005-2008 Robert Dansereau - Tous Droits Réservés - All Rights Reserved