Clearlight Symphonies The Collected Recordings- Progressive Voyages Review

As most regular readers will know I grew up in Sutton Coldfield north of Birmingham as incidentally did Gregory Spawton of Big Big Train. Amongst other notable musicians and celebrities, Roger Moore and Cozy Powell were both residents at one stage.

I used to spend a lot of time scouring the city's many records shops, In doing so I would frequently come across the Original Clearlight Symphony but tended to generally dismissing it, which in retrospect was an unwise decision as I missed out on what is a truly innovative and groundbreaking album. Much to my shame as now It had been reissued as part of this comprehensive set of Recordings made by Cyrille Verdaux during the 1970's. Along with his 2014 album Impressionist Symphony,

All the albums have been Remastered for this release and are enclosed in a tidy clamshell box, .So it is a 5cd set of generally instrumental music with some very notable collaborators, including most of Gong, David Cross and other notable French musicians like Ian Bellamy (Zoo) and ex Magma member Didier Lockwood.

What is unusual here is that Cyrille takes a fresh approach for each album not wishing to be stereotyped, This means that each album is very different in style to what has gone before, This is for me a significant decision and a forward thinking one at that.

The initial album Clearlight Symphony was according to the booklet not released as it was intended to be heard. As it comprises of a session recorded in France and a later one recorded at the Manor Studio with various members of Gong etc, When it was originally released by Virgin they swapped the running order, It was to have a part of the second movement to open the album, That original version is now here on this release. The original planned version. Which can now be heard as originally intended, As to what that does to the whole album I can't answer as I never heard the lp version maybe a reader here might voice an opinion?

Second disc is the second Clearlight album Forever Blowing Bubbles from 1975 and his second and final virgin records release, this uses a totally different set of musicians and also shorter tracks (8 on the original album bolstered by 5 extra tracks on this reissue, These additional track come from different sessions though but remain largely similar in the style of the album.

I like that this has shorter tracks which have space in them it works really well the track Way especially strong with its seemingly moving backing speed is highly memorable.

Third cd Les Contes Du Singe Fou is again totally different in that it has songs and is a Space Opera based on a story Cyrille wrote and was interpreted and produced by Joel Dugenot, the album was translated by Francis Mandin and Anglo French is the Singer (for Zoo) for the album the album is very interesting and rhythmic, The title means Tales Of The Mad Monkey, it was supposed to have been on the virgin label but Richard Branson firedcCyrillecwhen he refused to move his young family to England, So Cyrille found a different label It finally emerged in 1977 on the French Isadore label.

This was followed a year later Cyrille had more music memorised, (He doesn’t write it down just memories it to record). The results of which were the Visions album released by Polydor in 1978, for this album Cyrille blended his growing interest in Eastern mysticism and western music very effectively too, although some felt it a little too New Age for their liking, It certainly is an impressive listen,

The final album of this set is the far more recent Impressionist Symphony dating from 2014, in this album Cyrille offers an album of music inspired by French Impressionist artists he admires, As it was 40 years since the Original cleallight album he once again reached out to members of Gong to assist and several of them rose to the challenge, Including Tim Blake and Steve Hillage, Again mainly shorter tracks apart from Monet Time Duet and Gaugin Dan's LAutre which are both nine minutes plus.

The music is gracious and swirling and is a fitting finale to this wonderful collection of varied music.

My only issue is why did I miss out on all this at the time of its release?

I strongly urge you to discover this fine music for yourself, I think you might enjoy it,

Info here: clealighr reeordings, 5CD Clamshell https://share.google/pirHudv7waZl0rUn2

Author John Wenlock-Smith Friday 1st May 2026