Well, it appears they parted L'Orkestre des Pas Perdus as friends, if the "merci" offered up to five previous bandmembers on the CD package is any indication. Bandleader/composer/trombonist Claude St-Jean views 2011's L'Âge du Cuivre, the hyper-energetic brass band's fifth CD, as "a little different" but the changes come in the personnel more than anything else. French horn player Joël Brouillette, saxophonist Yves Turgeon, tubaist Philippe Legault, and drummer Martin Auguste are newcomers to the lineup, while saxophonist Marc Villiard returns after his OPP debut on 2007's Projet 9. Those thanked for their previous service to St-Jean's vision of brass band futurism include three musicians -- drummer Rémi Leclerc, sousaphonist Jean Sabourin, and saxophonist Jean-Denis Levasseur -- who were there from the group's debut recording of T'Auras Pas Ta Pomme in 1996 through Projet 9; the only OPP member on the first CD still present on L'Âge du Cuivre is St-Jean himself. (Baritone saxophonist Roberto Murray and trumpeter Maxime St-Pierre have been been supporting St-Jean since 1998's Maison Douce Maison, and it's good to still have them around here.) Yet OPP -- thanks of course to their leader -- have remained consistent, bursting with both exuberance and creativity as a sextet on their first three discs, expanding to a nonet on Projet 9, and now pared back a bit to an eight-piece for this welcome return. After a four-year absence and despite the newcomers on board, St-Jean and OPP have clearly not lost their form.

1		Suspense en suspend
2		Maux croisés
3		Morceaux de robots
4		Douze huîtres
5		Carpe Diem
6		Boogaloo bungalow
7		Bizarre bazar
8		À vos risques et périls
9		Fidèle castor
10		À bras raccourcis
11		11 papapaw !

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