Release Date: March 11, 2014
Label: Gonzo Multimedia

The reasoning behind Impressionist Symphony is to take the influence of some classical composers, such as Ravel, Debussy and Satie, the ethos behind the French impressionist painters and the progressive musical background of Cyrille Verdeaux and see where it led.
Clearlight apparently only became known as Clearlight
following the release of Clearlight
Symphony, the third album, 40 years ago, and as then, Cyrille has utilized
the skills of some of the musicians from the legendary band, Gong. On this
album, the musicians involved are, Cyrille Verdeaux (piano, synths), Steve
Hillage (guitars), Didier Malherbe (wind instruments), Craig Fry (violin),
Vincent Thomas Penny (guitars), Paul Sears (drums, percussion), Linda Cushma
(bass), Chris Kovacks (synths), Remy Tran (synths) and Tim Blake (xils synths,
theramin).
Impressionist
Symphony is an 8 track album with a total playing time of around
64 minutes. The shortest track on offer is track 7, “Lautrec Too Loose” with a
playing time of 5:28 minutes, and the longest track is “Gauguin’s Dans L’Autre”
with a running time of just over 11 minutes (11:07). There also seems to be a
bit of a play on words in the titles as well.
The opening track, “Renoir En Couleur” (8:03) is a simply
cracking track, starting with a fairly meandering introduction, with lots of
synths, some guitars and then a superb violin cutting across everything. Slowly
building, the drums drive the track along until there is a crescendo around the
2:50 minute mark when the sound drops away leaving a tinkling piano, sweeping
synths and the gentle sound of the wind instruments painting a beautiful aural
soundscape. 4:30 minutes sees that excellent violin joined by a superb guitar,
eliciting smooth riffs then more jagged riffs until the tracks gains a more
majestic passage with some amazing synth sweeps. From around the 7:00 minute
point, the track is beginning to make its exit with some free-form bits and a
little guitar flourish whispers “bye bye.”
Following this track, “Time Is Monet” (9:43), kicks off
with some superb violin, wind instruments, piano and sweeping synths, “Pissarro
King” (6:27) has a more spacey style introduction, still with the synths and
piano, but also a cutting guitar passage for this more up-tempo track, “Degas
De La Marine” (7:53) continues this spacey feel with the recognizable classical
theme deep in the mix and a much more dramatic feel to the sound and then “Van
Gogh’s Third Ear” (6:39) builds almost from the start of the track with some
very classically sounding piano then guitar and, not forgetting, the synths,
before merging into a driving track with the instruments bowling along and
ultimately almost tripping over each other to escort the track out.
“Gauguin Dans L’Autre” (11:07) is the longest piece on
display and enters with some beautiful wind instruments setting the scene with
excellent piano accompaniment. Pictures of gentle winds moving leaves and birds
soaring are conjured up in your mind. Synths generate the “wind” sounds before
the piano and the synths raise the volume of the track when it then just as
quickly moves back to the gentle breeze interlude again. As the track approaches
the 6 minute mark, the song becomes very classically styled with little
interjections from synths, and to a lesser extent, the guitar. An almost
storm-like scenario is built up with the “wind” threatening before the violin
superbly brings the epic rack to a wondrous close.
The penultimate track, “Lautrec Too Loose” (5:21) seems
to remain overshadowed by the brilliance of the previous track, and although
very pleasant, fails to show any of the more memorable moments that seem
prevalent in other tracks.
Winding up Impressionist
Symphony is “Monet Time Duet” (9:22), which is another very classically
tinged piece of music. Slow, but never ponderous, it glides along gently on the
wings of piano and violin, carrying the listener along with it. Never varying
in tempo much, this track ebbs and flows beautifully and certainly seems to end
long before its stated 9+ minutes (9:22).
Having heard nothing from this band since Clearlight Symphony back in 1974, Impressionist Symphony is a very
impressive album. There are certainly no new groundbreaking moves angling off
in different directions, instead what we have is solid classics/prog
collaboration. This will probably requires several listens, but well worth the
time invested in this album, and just falls short of gaining the all-important
“One to Buy” sticker.
4/5
Stars
Key
Tracks: Renoir En Couleur, Gauguin Dans L’Autre, Money Time Duet
Tracks:
Renoir En Couleur
Time Is Monet
Pissarro King
Degas De La Marine
Van Gogh 3rd Ear
Gauguin Dans L’Autre
Lautrec Too Loose
Monet Time Duet
Tracks:
Renoir En Couleur
Time Is Monet
Pissarro King
Degas De La Marine
Van Gogh 3rd Ear
Gauguin Dans L’Autre
Lautrec Too Loose
Monet Time Duet
April 30, 2014
Review
Provided By Prog Rock Music Talk
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