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Electronic Meditation
Thursday February 1st, 2018 with Sean McFee
Cyrille Verdeaux / Clearlight

If you like mid-70s Gong, you have to hear Clearlight. Excellent piano/synth led music with influences of jazz, space, raga, and art rock. On tonight's show we explore the music of Clearlight, some later solo work of Cyrille Verdeaux, and some nice complementary music from Michel Madore.
Second Movement
Clearlight - Symphony - Virgin Japan
Two more releases in 1975, one a soundtrack resulting from studio jamming, under a different name likely to get around the contract with Virgin. Then "Forever Blowing Bubbles", which dispenses with the sidelong tracks of Symphony and adds some vocals.
Novavanna
Delired Cameleon Family - Delired Cameleon Family - Clearlight Music
Without Words
Clearlight - Forever Blowing Bubbles - Virgin Japan
Off the Virgin label, Clearlight releases two more albums in the 70s. Les Contes du Singe Fou is a conceptual art rock album "about humanity's spiritual quest for higher perfection". On Visions they are back to a mostly instrumental approach and are aided by Didier Lockwood on violin, as well as the returning Didier Malherbe and Christian Boule.
Soliloque
Clearlight - Les Contes du Singe Fou - Clearlight Music
Spirale d'Amour
Clearlight - Visions - LTM/Celluloid
In the 80s Cyrille increasingly explored New Age spiritual themes and music. Messenger of the Son gets a bit of due from Clearlight fans, but Ethnicolor's is really under the radar and I've always had a soft spot for it.
Vibrato
Cyrille Verdeaux - Messenger of the Son - Musea
Terre Australe
Cyrille Verdeaux / Pascal Menestreyl - Ethnicolor's - Clearlight Music
Michel Madore's first album gives me a similar vibe to mid-70s French scene (at least the Clearlight/Gong/Carpe Diem axis), so here's Side A.
Calligraphie
Michel Madore - Le Komuso à Cordes - Barclay Canadian
Ballade
Michel Madore - Le Komuso à Cordes - Barclay Canadian
L'avant dernière
Michel Madore - Le Komuso à Cordes - Barclay Canadian
We'll close with part of the Inner Peace Concerto, which fittingly enough is Cyrille and his trusty Kurzweil K2600 recreating themes from the first movement of Symphony.
1st Movement
Cyrille Verdeaux - Inner Peace Concerto - Clearlight Music
2nd Movement
Cyrille Verdeaux - Inner Peace Concerto - Clearlight Music
Interactive CKCU