Agapè – Le Troisième Seuil (The Third Level)

Agapè AG-2001 (1972)

The styles of the “Jesus Music” era varied from group to group, reflecting the popular music of the era. The concept was that the music “become all things to all men, so as at all costs to save some.” (1 Corinthians 9:22 TCNT) The old rockers celebrated then (and still do now) the emergence of real Christian rock music. And, of course, there was a lot of folk music out there.

But one genre that was under-represented was progressive music. Probably the best known example of this in the Anglophone world was Reflections’ Sounds of Salvation. Another one which pushed the envelope in that direction was Outpouring. But the Francophone world shouldn’t be left out from this contest. Just as Les Reflets took Christian folk to a new level in the “old country” so also a group of Québec based musicians did for progressive music with this album, justly titled The Third Level.

This album was primarily the brain child of Fr. André Dumont, who was the artistic director for the RM record label. His idea was to present the Christian story in a new way, and to that end he assembled a very diverse group of musicians to produce this masterpiece, with its varying styles yet consistent message.

For this album to have seen daylight after all these years I am indebted to Sébastien Desrosiers at Patrimoine PQ, whose blog on the music of Québec in the same era is one of the most fascinating music blogs on the web. His original posting of this album (with more details on its production) is here.

The songs: