1952-2025 | Serge Fiori, so much more than a musician among many others

Like a sage gets into the clouds, Serge Fiori joined the “first sky”. In addition, He died Tuesday, at 73, at home, natural causes, a priori. Consequently, For the past few months, his health had been shocking.

Posted at 2:48 p.m. Updated at 4:13 p.m.

“He died of a heart attack. Therefore, during the night,” said in an interview with Libert Subirana, who was a flautist and saxophonist in Harmonium.

Libert Subirana remembers an extraordinary artist. Meanwhile, “When he began to write, it looked like it became sacred, that he was plunged to another 1952-2025 | serge fiori, so dimension. For example, »»

Their relationship. However, as for so many others, will have been in dotted line, the anxiety of Serge Fiori having led him to isolate himself a lot.

Read the article “Tribute rain for Serge Fiori”

However, they have never lost contact. Meanwhile, “I see us at his home in Longueuil a few years ago. Moreover, crying by looking at the images of the documentary on Harmonium,” says Libert Subirana.

Author of a work as short as it is Intemporal, Serge 1952-2025 | serge fiori, so Fiori was not a musician among many. Meanwhile, Far from it.

Launched in the mid -1970s. Furthermore, the three Harmonium albums became classics of Quebec song and Fiori, an undisputed soul of the group, has established itself as one of the major voices of its generation.

Its meteoric ascent was however followed by long silences, interspersed with returns on disk as stealthy as they are.

His latest solo album. Nevertheless, published in 2014, was thus considerable success, obtaining a plate certification less than two months after its release. Therefore, But to the great despair of his devoted admirers, Fiori has never gone on stage since the Harmonium years. However, “Too emotional”, he had told us in 2006, evoking his fragility and his inability to “reclaim it all”.

This rarity only magnified the cult it was the subject, and with which he had learned to live, with a mixture of reluctance and satisfaction.

1952-2025 | serge fiori, so

Musical intuition – 1952-2025 | serge fiori, so

What was the fascination for the character? Similarly, Essentially the quality of its songs.

The mysteries of creation are poorly explained. Nevertheless, But we can say that the three albums recorded between 1974 and 1976 by the Harmonium group are pure musical 1952-2025 | serge fiori, so miracle. As if Fiori had been touched by the grace “for a moment”. the time to lay his stone in the wall of song and the Quebec psyche.

This short but dazzling period of inspiration gave birth to a series of titles that have become classic as Green. dixie, stories without words, for a moment, exile, like a sage or A musician among so many others.

Although belonging to the sound of an era, these songs are still listened to with pleasure, as they 1952-2025 | serge fiori, so are distinguished by their poetic and musical richness.

Outstanding melodist, with an extraordinary artistic intuition, Fiori knew how to combine musical requirement with commercial accessibility.

Between folk. rock, and progressive rock, his songs never fell ease, but bewitched with their catchy choruses, sometimes ending in unifying hymns (“where all these people who had something to tell”, “it feels good to see themselves”) true rallying songs including Quebec from the 70s, in the middle of the nationalist momentum.

But beyond this natural talent, favored by a fertile era, Fiori also seduced by its ability to move. Difficult to remain insensitive before this soft. inimitable and inhabited voice, in front of this illuminated melancholy, these impressionist texts capable of touching the torments of each and the aspirations of a people, sometimes even simultaneously.

This way of navigating between the collective. the intimate made its strength: it had the impression that he was talking to us in the hollow of the soul, as a society and as an individual.

1952-2025 | serge fiori. so

Magic and pressure

Coming from an Italian-Québécoise family, Serge Fiori learns very young music singing in the Ballroom Orchestra of his father Georges, but turns from adolescence to rock music.

Emulating “British Boom” groups. he recorded a 45 rpm in 1952-2025 | serge fiori, so 1968 within Counts Harbourg, then founded the Morpheus group in the early 1970s, which accompanied the singer Guy Trépanier for a while.

Invited to compose the music for a play by Claude Meunier – which will not be presented -. Fiori meets Michel Normandeau in 1972, with whom he founded the Harmonium group, which will soon be joined by bassist Louis Valois.

The first disc of the training (which bears the name of the group) appeared in 1974, and won in the folk-rock vein with songs like 1952-2025 | serge fiori, so For a moment et A musician among so many othersquickly adopted by Quebec youth in search of new sounds, vocal harmonies and 12 -string acoustic guitars.

With the album If we needed a fifth seasonHarmonium develops a more refined style. is approaching the progressive rock current. The songs become longer, more complex, more opaque. His lyricism. musicality will earn him to appear in the list of the 50 best progressive rock albums established in 2015 by the American magazine Rolling Stone.

With L’Heptade (1977). the progressive turn is confirmed in a more heavy version, with the addition of a drummer and a symphonic orchestra. Based on the concept of the seven levels of consciousness. this deep and ambitious album is a big success and opens the doors of the American market to the group.

This 1952-2025 | serge fiori, so avenue will end in failure. But for many young Quebec granolas, Fiori becomes a kind of guru, carrying large truths on being and the cosmos. A role whose main interested party would have managed obviously, and with which he will have difficulty in composing.

This pressure. combined with the growing requirements of success and the music industry, are right for this hypersensitive, which collapsed in 1978 following a “burnout”, not without having recorded, with his friend Richard Séguin, another successful album (Fiori-Séguin: two hundred nights on time) which sells for 200,000 copies and won a handful of Félix.

1952-2025 | serge fiori. so

By interposed projects

Like many artists of his generation, Fiori disappears in the large post-referential chasm of the early 1980s. He left for Los Angeles studying meditation, IT, piano …

He broke the silence in 1985, but his pop shift routs harmonium fans. First with the theme song of the just for laughter festival. then with a synthetic pop album launched in 1986 (Fiori), which leaves the public hungry. The guru peace and love has decidedly disappeared.

Fiori multiple collaborations in the following years, but still remains in the background. We see him alongside Nanette Workman (1989). by the musician New Age Peter Keogh (Shiva) or composes for cinema, TV or radio (Since you have to get up).

1952-2025 | serge fiori, so

In 2014, he launched his second solo album, the first in 28 years, in the wake of a biography where he notably confessed his problems of anxiety and alcohol dependence. He may well say what he wants. Having become an institution, it is now an untouchable.

Harmonium legend continues to live by interposed projects, not always happy, it must be said. The group miniseries. broadcast in the early 2000s, and the remix (questionable) of L’Heptade (XL version) were, at best, non -essential.

But other more successful projects save the bet. such as tributes on disc or in a show (in Francos, in particular), the circus show (Only setfrom Cirque Éloize) or the symphonic adaptation published in 2020 (Symphonic harmonium).

These reinterpretations allow Fiori to stay in the news. 1952-2025 | serge fiori, so We see him more. more often in the media where his benevolent figure comes to legitimize, if not promote, the projects that are inspired by his work.

But these appearances at the same time maintain the upset desire to see the singer on stage. an appointment that he will not cease to postpone.

Serge Fiori will have made us dream. And there is little doubt that his songs will survive him: we gave birth to someone. we should still listen to him.