FOREVER BLOWING BUBBLES

"Forever Blowing Bubbles" is the second full-length studio album by French progressive rock act Clearlight. The album was released through Virgin Records in 1975. It´s the successor to "Clearlight Symphony" from earlier the same year. It may seem like Clearlight were being extraordinarily productive during the year of 1975, but "Clearlight Symphony" was actually recorded in 1973-1974, which makes it a more normal release schedule. Clearlight is the brainchild of keyboard player/composer Cyrille Verdeaux and all other musicians playing on "Forever Blowing Bubbles" are session players. Verdeaux is not solely responsible for composing the material on the album though (which he was on the debut album), as bassist Joël Dugrenot is credited for composing "Chanson" and "Way".

"Forever Blowing Bubbles" opens with "Chanson", which is a track featuring vocals, which is a first for Clearlight, as their debut album was fully instrumental. "Forever Blowing Bubbles" is also predominantly an instrumental release, but there are in addition to "Chanson" a few other tracks featuring vocals. While the debut album featured only two 20 minutes long compositions, "Forever Blowing Bubbles" features seven more "regular" length tracks (2 to 8 minutes long). The overall music style is similar, although the shorter song lengths make these tracks a bit more concise and also more easily accessible. Psychedelic rock, symphonic progressive rock, meditative new-age atmospheres, and louder more energetic jazz/rock influenced sections. That´s what you get on "Forever Blowing Bubbles".

The album features a detailed, organic, and overall great sounding production, where all instruments and the sparse vocals are audible in the mix. Upon conclusion "Forever Blowing Bubbles" is a pretty eclectic progressive rock album for fans of ethereal atmospheres but also jazz/rock energy, and psychedelic excursions. A 3 star (60%) rating is warranted.