L'Infonie - L' Infonie

L'infonie's first record, eponymous (but also known as Vol. 3, since the following records will be titled Vol. 33, Vol. 333 and Vol. 3333), was trying to capture every side of the band's multiple facets. The first half of the album, a 15-minute suite titled "Ode à l'affaire" (Ode to the thing), is typical Infonie. Through six sections, the music goes from absolute chaos to cheesy '70s grooves, with an a capella section in the middle where all members of the band answers questions from the catechism, replacing every theological term with "l'affaire" (the thing) in a Smurfs-like manner. The second half of the record is a mixed bag that shows leader Walter Boudreau's eclectic tastes: a couple of dance numbers, a very sober arrangements of The Beatles' "She's Leaving Home," and Johann Sebastian Bach's "Agnus Dei" and a demented reading of Antonio Carlos Jobim's "Desafinado" introduced by one of Raôul Duguay's trademark rants. This last track is a showcase for drummer Ysengourd Knohr (wrongly credited as Isengourd Knohn) and saxophonist Walter Boudreau, and the treatment it gets heralds Ivo Perelman's version of the same tune on his CD Brazilian Watercolours, over 20 years later. Apart from "Ode à l'affaire," which remains an interesting curiosity, this first effort was not very convincing. ~ François Couture, All Music Guide