Clearlight - Rainbow Music - Best Of 1975 - 2000

Year of Release: 2000
Label: Clearlight 888 Music
Catalog Number: C8M-100
Format: CD
Total Time: 68:03:00

This compilation album of Clearlight (Cyrille Verdeaux) music is a subset of the entire Rainbow Box Set, which comprises 6 CDs. All the disks are associated with a colour and each colour is associated with various attributes. Track three is a beautiful, symphonic piece with majestic piano and a soaring synth ? the colour is Red, which is the "auric color of for life and vital energy." Energetic it is, the track is taken from the album Messenger Of The Sun.

While I like track 4, "Dream Train," often it seems as if the notes are running over each other, as if Verdeaux is in a hurry to get through the composition. This gives the track an awkward feel, and doesn't represent Verdeaux's best performance. But it is followed up by the beautiful "Le Bon Sens," which is very spacey - as in space, as the wide open space of the sky?maybe a few clouds here and there, but otherwise clear. This track is taken from Nocturnes Digitales, and the associated colour is orange, which is the "auric color for family, procreation, and sexuality." Birds are chirping in the background ? yes, this borders on the "new agey" - a glance at the liner notes will reveal word phrases like "alpha brain waves," "relaxation" "counteract ?stress and tension?" But, there is a little more "heft" here than in the more airy "new age" compositions.

"Keep Up Berlin" is one part techno-house one part ? well, I thought of Herbie Hancock's "Rockit," though it only bears mentioning for some slight stylistic similarities. There a bit of a reggae groove in there, too. There's no mention of the album Kundalini Opera, from which this track is taken, and no one colour associated with it, but rather ALL the colours. It's different from the rest of the album that's for sure. The bit of "scratching" that appears on this track annoyed me, but your mileage may vary.

Listening to "Vibrato" (from Messenger) I'm brought to mind of a the guitar solo in a particular Allman Brothers track that I can't name at the moment, but seems to crop up now and then, most recently on a Oldsmobile commercial.

"Clearlight Symphony II" goes from gentle to searing by its conclusion with harsh guitars and attacking piano ? like "Full Moon Raga" which closes the album, except there it is Didier Lockwood's violin that takes on the lead lines ? well, before it ends with a tour-de-force percussion workout.

Track two, "Terre Australe," stands out as much as "Keep Up Berlin" (track 8). Here the track shifts back and forth between very subtle, to warm, dark and earthy, to parping. The album Ethnicolors is a tribute to "indigenous people throughout the planet." The first bit of vocalization threw me at the first listen, because it seems to come from somewhere other than your speakers?like in the room with you somewhere. What sounds like a didgeridoo forms the second of the two shifts, and it sounds very guttural - or as I said above, warm, dark and earthy. The keyboard parping part is nice, but the other sections are more appealing, more natural.

This is a great sampler of the Clearlight/Verdeaux oeuvre, and serves as good introduction to the many moods of Verdeaux. A little something for everyone. Recommended.

Tracklisting:
Spirale D'Amour (5:19) / Terre Australe (4:58) / Ouverture (5:51) / Dream Train (7:21) / Bon Sens (7:54) / Clearlight Symphony II (4:54) / Amazon Cora Zone (5:42) / Keep Up Berlin (4:01) / Vibrato (7:54) / Agadir (6:00) / Full Moon Raga (10:51)

Musicians:
Cyrille Verdeaux and guests...

Discography:
Symphony (1973)
Forever Blowing Bubbles (1975)
Delired Cameleon Family (1974)
Les Contes De Singe Fou (1977)
Clearlight Visions (1978)
Offrandes (1980)
Nocturnes Digitales (1980)
Prophecy (1981)
Flowers From Heaven (1983)
Piano For The Third Ear (1983)
Journey To Tantraland (1984/1999/2001)
Complete Kundalini Opera Box Set (1984) (6 cassettes)
Messenger Of The Son (1985)
Rhapsody For The Blue Planet (1988)
Symphony II (1990)
In Your Hands (Les Contes De Singe Fou) (re-recording, 1994)
Impressionist Musique (1995)
Tribal Hybrid Concept (1998, w/Menestreyl)
Ethnicolours (1998, w/Menestreyl)
Best Of Rainbow (1999) (sampler of box set below)
Complete Rainbow Box Set (1999) (6 CDs)
Aerobix 99 (1998)
Mosaique
Best Of Kundalini Opera (1999) (sampler of box set below)
Complete Kundalini Opera Box Set (1999) (7 CDs)
Infinite Symphony (2003)
Impressionist Musique (tba)

Genre: Symphonic Prog

Origin FR

Added: August 1st 2000
Reviewer: Stephanie Sollow
Score:
Artist website: www.clearlight888music.com
Hits: 2520
Language: english