An interview with Cyrille Verdeaux from Clearlight

An interview with Cyrille Verdeaux from Clearlight.

Who is that, may some of you say ? The band profile is here and many of us regard this band as one of our favorite bands. And so will many of our readers in the coming years too. The interview is long and regard it as what it is: A historical document of sorts and a reference source for everything regarding Clearlight. A big thank you to Cyrille for seeing the value of PA and it's/our database. 

All my questions in bold letters and all answers from Cyrille in Blue Italic 

So with no further ceremonies, I give you Cyrille Verdeaux. 

What are you up to these days ?

Hello, dear reader…Glad to share this moment with YOU. I am now 60 years old, so my activities are shrinking, against my will but you know how useless are (wrongly) considered peoples over 60 in our western civilization. So most of my creativity now exists because I decided so but nobody seems to care much. So thanks for this interview’s opportunity ! Here is where I stand right now in 2010.

~I made a new album, Shamballa. Recorded independently partly in France, in California and in Brazil, wherever I could find a protool software to work. The fact to have these digital files to carry around instead of these heavy magnetic tapes are really a plus for a composer-producer travelling a lot such as myself...When I eventually finished it, none label was interested in the distribution, so I released it independently as digital files on CDbaby, a site devoted to indies prods.

~ With a musical partner, Frances Key, we made a DVD with her songs and my music and videos concerning present World issues (and they are important, I think…). Nobody was interested to distribute it, so we decided to put it on youtube. Everybody can start this journey through his/her emotions with this link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYMi1tS90RY&feature=channel

~ I also just ended a serie of concerts in Brazil, thanks to the fact that 2009 was the year of France in Brazil. And it helped me to put some money in the bank for a change ! Because with this new fashion of free download platforms, you imagine what impact it has on indies as myself that depend on CD sales to pay the right to breeze on this planet ! So I was happy to represent culturally my Country for the occasion and of course I spent a nice year for this matter. But for 2010, my agenda is still dramatically empty…And so are my pockets again...

Where was you born and where did you live up ? How did you become a musician and who were your inspirations ?

This time, I am born at the American Hospital of Neuilly/Seine, near Paris…Maybe because of that first fact, my heart has been divided between France and the US, because I considered this Hospital as American territory. And my parents gave me as godfather an American citizen German born and yet WW II hero in the US Army, Klaus Bauer that was living in LA. Few blocks from the Berverly Hill Hotel and Sunset Bvld. Not the worst part of this huge city ! I had a bicycle and made wonderful rides in this area.

Klaus is dead now, of course, RIP…But thanks to him, I could discover LA in the 80’s…

My birth happened only 4 years after the end of the worst plague ever perpetuated by a part of mankind against the other part, (I include Hiroshima and Nagazaki in this black list) so the best and safest hospital around Paris was this one and my father, a young doctor at this time, had the great luck to work there full time, thanks to the relation. It was July 31^st 1949, in the middle of the hotest summer of the decade, said my mother…

For this reason, I guess, my favorite time has been when I was in South California, Arizona, desert of Rajasthan and now Brazil, where exist only 2 seasons : spring and summer !

Sweat lodges and swedish saunas are my friends…

How did you become a musician and who were your inspirations ?

I didn’t become a musician. I was born musician ! Don’t ask me how I learned music, I don’t remember.

It was within me by birth, probably…Clear, easy, obvious. I remember when I learned how to write, to count, to read, bi, bé, ba, bu, etc., but I don’t remember to have learned music. My mother was a scientist but also a singer amateur and she had a half grand piano at home…As soon as I was tall enough to reach the keys, I began to hit them…

First it was kind of messy, but little by little I began to seek for harmony. Seeing this, my mother registered me to a piano music class at age 5. (it was impossible before this age anyway).

At age 8, I was playing on a radio show called “Le royaume de la musique” (Kingdom of music) some easy pieces of Tchaikovsky, Mozart, Chopin…

The traditional school programs never interested me much (especially math, physique, geography, latin...I had a better interest in French literature and history and with music, I had no problem at all…

At 13, I registered to enter in the French National Conservatoire of Music and got my green pass with 97 out of 100 possible points…With a perfect pitch within your genetic codes, this was quite natural, in fact.

There I could study all the chords, the modes, the scales, the surprisingly infinite combinations between the 7 notes, in fact 12 with the half tons, the rhythmical patterns, the orchestration, etc…It is like a full language with infinite possibilities…The language of Harmony. As there are 12 notes, there are 12 main astrological signs.

How to find the right chord for the notes to get along well together ? The law of harmony between the 12 notes answers to it. In fact, it is the same law ruling the relationship between individuals.

When ones studies music, ones studies life as well…And life has feelings…And these feelings go to the soul and the soul can express its music, completing the cycle. For this reason, I advise all parents to orient their children towards the kingdom of Music and Harmony. It is good for the neurons of the child.

At the age of 14, you started studies at the well known French National Conservatory of Music studying composition, harmony, and piano. You won some prizes there before you were expelled in 1968 for revolutionary activities during the student uprising. 

The time came where I could actually learn new elements about music and its hundreds of rules. By gift, you can discover some of them, but to study the ancient music masters is really a specific experience that nature can’t give you. It needs to be studied, as the chase game or a foreign language. No limits in all these Arts.

But I put my own limits, accidently…The riots of all the students of France in May 1968 and my natural attraction for changes and mutations caused me my scholarship in Paris. Until then I had gained 2 prices already, in solfege and harmony. But in May 68, I became a member of the strike comity. There I gained my first price of megaphone and free speech but it wasn’t figuring in the official program, so all my partners at the Conservatoire’s students strike comity have been fired for the new scholar year…

I also was harshly hurt during these riots, as thousands of fellows students. Hand broken, head smashed…I run a lot during this month of May but one evening I didn’t run fast enough, I guess…

It was one of the last days of the national riots, so I could participate to 90% of these unforgettable events, at least. It has been the only little war I had to be involved in. All my ancestors had to make war with their neighbors, but this doomed time is over in Europe now, thanks God (+ Schumann and Monet).

In July 68, I was looking like Ramses II with all my bandages and it was quite dangerous to walk in the street like that because of the police, still looking after young rebels, so my parents decided for my safety to send me to a good family friends living in Stanford, CA.

Thanks to this good idea, I could continue to participate to what was going on in 68 in the US, the democratic convention in Chicago, the same Police’s repression than in France, Jerry Rubin, Abbie Hoffman, Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, the concerts in Berkeley and so forth !

Plus, being like a revolutionary hero with all my bandages, superb tanned blond girls were looking after me, so it has been one of my nicest summer ever…And it gave me a good test of what California was all about. This is why I decided 15 years later to adopt the CA State as my second Country and this is why my daughters are born in Santa Cruz, near San Francisco and are still living there 27 years later ! And I can’t…green card regulations…Tougher immigrations laws, etc…

You still got a Masters diploma from Nice Conservatory. Please tell us more about those years.

So, in 1969, when I went back from Stanford, my parents sent me to the Cote d’Azur, at the National conservatoire of Nice, where a cousin of my family, Pierre Cochereau, was the director.

In Nice, I spent my real first 3 years of pure bliss and felicity thanks to my first serious relationship with a young Spanish met in Paris during the barricades that followed me in Nice, the freedom to live for the first time by my own, etc.…

Also, the teachers in this Conservatoire were showing a high quality level and I continued my studies there very smoothly, going deeper and deeper in the enigma of harmony laws, the connection between the melodies, the chords changes and the links with the human soul. In 1972, I felt the need to stop studying and look for a place in a band, and I decided to go back to Paris to look for one…End of my official musical studies…

About my source of inspiration :

It is in Nice, with my new freedom and a tape recorder linked to a good radio that I began to really listen seriously to a lot of Composers and take them on tape. I developed a lot of interest and pleasure to hear and stock on my tapes the great romantic repertoire : Rachmaninoff, Krieg, Wagner, Tchaikovsky, Chopin, Listz , but also JS Bach and the baroque and this has been the base of my symphonic rock attitude.

Because in the other hand, I was listening Cochran, Bo Didley, Chuck Berry, Muddy Waters, Ray Charles, the Beatles, Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, the Who, the Them (glooo-ooriaaa), Emerson Lake and Palmer and a lot of others, fast to disappear after 1 or 2 hits.

Please tell us more about your first band Babylone.

It was not exactly my first band. I used to be in several little bands before, from 1965 to 1970. My very first band was called “the fancy goods” and our singer was a giant American (over 7 feet tall). The drummer, the guitarist and myself were in the same private school for rich kids…

With them I could learn the basics of a life within a rock band…I learned to push an old VW vans with flat batteries, to play on broken keyboards or to try to guess which cable is the broken one among 50, or not to get paid for my efforts by indelicate promoters, to carry my Wurlitzer organ (220 pounds of wood) in narrow stairs, etc., etc.

But Babylone was my real first band with serious musicians and professional goals…

Our first meeting in 1972 has been rather simple : I was reading an add in a tea shop in Paris, where Indians and Afghani cloths, jewels and other new age stuff were sold. This add was asking for a keyboardist…I was free, I answered and got the job pretty fast.

At this time, I had never composed anything, only playing classical repertoire or songs of Wilson Pickett, Otis, Aretha, this sort of gospelish groove with my previous bands. But Babylone introduced me to a new music, the Canterburry school, with Caravan, Matching Moll, King Crimson, Soft machine, Gong, Lol Coxhill, Jefferson, Cream, Jimi, etc….

Christian Boulé, the guitarist and composer of most of the songs of Babylone’s repertoire was the leader of this band. The drummer was René Paul Solers, the exact same look than Franck Zappa and the bassist-lead singer, Polo Martinez, both French from North Africa were taking care of the rhythmic section. Antoine Duvernet was holding flute and sax. He joined later on Gilbert Artman’s “Urban sax”.

The owner of the Indian shop became friend of the band and let us use his old country house for a few months in the center of France. There, we worked 8 hours per day our repertoire to get ready for a few concerts lined up in Amsterdam and France.

I liked this first serious experience a lot and could blend quite easely with this style. Babylone was also my first experience of working on totally genuine material.

Unfortunately when we went back from this tour, some musicians split for other activities and Babylone ended under this form after one year of intense experiences. Most of the music we were playing can be found in the album Photomusik that Christian Boulé and I released by Polydor a couple years later, after the success of my Clearlight Symphony and Clearlight Visions albums.

What was your musical vision/idea for Clearlight ? 

I had no specific ideas after the end of Babylone…I was only 23, just followed the flow, didn’t plan anything at first…

Everything began one night of full moon in the Country House of my parents. I had there my acoustic grand piano. This night I also had a tape recorder revox borrowed by a friend and I felt like trying to improvise something, here and now, just for the fun.

I was all alone this evening, and I recorded a good part of the night my improvisations with nobody to distract me…The full moon was keeping me awake, I guess. This detail literally changed my life.

When I was playing the piano, I was hearing inside me all the symphonic orchestration that was going with it…I never experienced this before…I was the first surprised…

The best of this night’s recording that I didn’t delete later on became the clearlight symphony. I didn’t write a single note of it but just learned by heart what I had recorded and kept.

This has been how came to life my first personal composition, received during a full moon night of special inspiration in 1973…This music is far to be perfectly recorded. I believe it will only reach 100% of its potential if played with a rock band + a symphonic orchestra. As Mike could do his Tubular Bells with the London Philarmonic orchestra.

So far, my recent Infinite symphony was just the continuation of this first symphony. I hope to have time to record and perform it with a full symphonic orchestra, but without a major label to back it up, I think it just won’t ever happen…

How did you join up with Richard Branson's Virgin Records ?

It has been a step by step process guided by coincidence or fate…Or both…

First, while touring with Babylone, I developed some friendship among journalists of the musical press, doing reviews for live events and stuff.

After the recording of my full moon impro, I visited one of these friends, JP Lentin (RIP) and let him hear the tape, with 2 songs of 20 minutes non stop each, and he spoke to me about a new best sellers called “Tubular Bells”, a long piece like mine released by a new English label, Virgin. It was about at the same period and I didn’t know anything about this Virgin label or Mike Oldfield. But JP advised me to present this tape directly to Virgin records and he gave me the address…Vernon Yard, somewhere in London.

I remembered I have the address of a squat in London where a member of Gong, Tim Blake, was living.

And Gong had just signed also their first music with Virgin. I had my connection right there !

So I took my tape under the arm, took a boat+ train to get there (no channel under sea at this time) and I went straight to Tim Blake’s squat. A French guy, room mate of Tim opened me the door when I knocked at the door.

He quickly agreed to become my agent and road manager…Jacques Reland is his name. He still lives in London as I write these lines…

With Tim and him, I went to Virgin and meet Simon Draper, the vice prez of Virgin. He listened to my piano’s demo and said ok for a contract…They had such a big hit with tubular Bells, also long pieces of music as my symphony was, so I guess he thought it could be an other best seller. Tim proposed to help me by producing the album and the week after I met Richard Branson to sign a 3 years contract and 3 LP albums. He was looking physically exactly how he looks now, 35 years later! Same hair cut, same bard, same face…Same weight probably…Impressive…

With the contract’ s signature I got 3000 $ in advance on royalties. I was so happy and proud of myself at this time…My first real check as a musician composer…Waow !

But I didn’t know at this time it also would be my last check from Richard !

Clearlight Symphony is a great album and is rightly highly revered in our community. Please tell us more about this album.

First of all, I am convinced that this very music is a gift of the angels to help me to survive on this planet. It was my first experience of composition and it also has been the most effective in term of fame for my next projects.

And this symphony can be endlessly developed because its structures are timeless. Half is based on permanent rhythmical structures and the other half is for free form improvisations.

For some reasons, this music speaks to the soul of many listeners. From the piano demo, I first rerecorded the piano part at the Manor recording studio. Tim could arrange 12 hours for me to do so. When it was done, for money reasons we moved to David Vorhaus experimental recording studio where I recorded all the mellotrons and organs and Tim recorded his synthi EMS cosmic sounds. David had a 8 tracks transformed into a 16 tracks, so I could lay down 16 tracks of keyboards ! The Symphony was born !

After this first row of recording, Simon Draper agreed to grant me an other week at the Manor with 16 tracks, so I could record drums, bass and guitars on top of all these keyboards.

So I used French musicians for one side and Gong musicians for the other side, to keep a balance.

It makes 2 sides quite different, like the yin and the yang.

By inexperience, I kind of didn’t perform the best mix of these 16 tracks into 2, as if I could have done it now days, but if you guys like it the way it is, it’s fine with me !

Please tell us more about Delired Cameleon Family and the movie it is the soundtrack for.

In a Parisian party where artists meet and gather, I could cross Pierre Clementi’s path. A friend of mine, the guitarist Yvan Coaquette, introduced me to him. Pierre was just released from jail for cannabis smoking in Italy…At one point of the party, I could put my recent virgin album on the turn table and he liked it. Since he was in the process of finishing the shooting of a personal movie, he asked me if I was interested to record the sound track. Of course I said yes ! With Yvan, we decided to take care of that together. We found a label interested to finance 4 days of recording studio, Pathé Marconi, a subpublisher of Virgin in France. Then I called all the musicians I knew in Paris to record a track. This is why a lot of names appear on this album. The fine fleur of the French prog music scene in 1975…

The vinyl features Joel Durgenot, Christian Boulé Gilbert Artman, Francois Jeanneau, Joe Padovani, Yvan Coaquette, Ariel Kalma, Valerie Lagrange,Tim Blake and other space travelers.

Based on wild jams, the music is alternately hallucinatory, soothing and 'nightmare' provoking. Featuring a cover with a chameleon eating pot leaves the overall concept can only be described as subversive surrealism, totally what Pierre wanted. We recorded 3 days (and nights) and used the last day to do the final mix. With what was on the tracks, I could have done several mixes totally different from each others…I chose this one as I could have chosen other versions…But in one day, not a lot of time for experiments, right ? I was not like Pink Floyd with unlimited means, otherwise, I think I could have also here done a better job.

In 1990 with a friend, we tried to convince Pathé Marconi to have the original 16 tracks back to do other mixes, but these ass holes refused. For no reasons at all…Just “ no”. I could even not use my own music to redo a different mix…This is what the Major call “ freedom of creation”, I guess.

Let’ s face it, this album has been a commercial flop for the masses, but it figures now in the list of timeless opus in the Museum of Georges Pompidou, Paris.

Please tell us more about Forever Blowing Bubbles.

After the good success of Clearlight symphony, the time came to do my 2^nd album. This time, I wanted to do something quite different and I asked a collaboration with the bassist of Zao, Joel Dugrenot, that wasn’t anymore in Zao and was looking for a new band. He brought some rhythmical rigueur in my compositions. I was also recently friend with a Greek drummer, Chris Stapinopoulos and an excellent flutist and guitarist, Jean Claude d’Agostini (RIP). With all these musicians and our girl friends we went to the Manor of Branson and recorded the album in 15 days…No time to enjoy the yet superb English country side. Just work, work, work…

The girl friends of the bassist, the guitarist and mine were all pregnant around the same time : 4th month. Unfortunately I have no more pictures of us at this time ! It would have been a great add against birth control !

Your band toured with Gong in that period. What is your memories from that tour and how was your band on stage ? 

After the recording of You, Virgin wanted to make a tour with GONG and they had to choose among different Virgin bands for the opening act. Due to our close bonds, Daevid Allen picked up Clearlight…

As soon as I knew that, I started to organize some rehearsals in Paris. Drummer Gilbert Artman was busy with his group, so I found an other drummer for the occasion, called Coco Roussel.

He had a style close from Bruford and was therefore perfect for my repertoire. We were playing a combination of the Clearlight symphony’s first mvt and the best pieces of Forever blowing bubbles, like Without words, Ergot trip, Chanson…

Also, I was hosting during this period in my house an argentine violinist, a little crazy, Jorge Pintchevsky. He was a very good violinist and he was happy to say yes when I asked him if he wanted to go on tour with Clearlight !

François Jeanneau was taking care of flute, sax and synthesizer ARP2600. Joel, bass and D’Agostini, guitar were completing the Clearlight Sixtet.

After one week of daily concerts, the first reviews were published in English music magazines. They were good, too good even, because one of the review was saying that Clearlight was more interesting to listen than GONG !

The day after, half of the microphones had disappeared around Coco’s drums set and GONG’s Sound man was a lot less nice to give us a good overall sound…

And at the end of the tour, GONG asked to Pintchevsky to join them behind my back and he said yes ! Thank you Cyrille for everything and ciao…I was kind of shocked by these practices from good friends like Jorge, Daevid and Steve…But it is a jungle…The stronger eat the small. This tour has been the only tour I ever did in my life…It was very fun and I would have gladly continue but after the release of Forever Blowing Bubbles and the UK tour, Richard Branson asked me to move to London on a permanent basis if I wanted to have a decent promotion and have a real opportunity to grow among the English scene. At this time, my wife was 8 months pregnant and refused to leave Paris, the hospital was booked, etc... Of course, I didn’t insist and said to Richard that I couldn’t move before at least one year because of my new born. So he said “too bad”, and ended my contract right on the spot! This closed my 2 years with Virgin. Too short, I agree.

Please tell us more about Les Contes du Singe Fou.

Originally, this project was supposed to be the third album done for Virgin. Having no more contract with anybody, I used my free time to work on my third project. This time I wanted to do an opera saga with spiritually meaningful lyrics to bring a message to the World. The lyrics of “The Key”, and “time Skater”, have even been amazingly prophetic for my future life ! When the demo was ready, a French little label, Isadora, signed me and produced the recording. Again, I asked to Joel Dugrenot to assist me in the recording and rhythmical section. He called some friends of his to play drums and guitar, an English singer, Ian Bellamy and Didier Lockwood, 18, a young genius of violin playing at that time with Magma (Christian Vander’s).

We recorded it in a little 16 tracks studio in Paris. It was in 1976. My son Jonathan was just born a few months before and you can feel it in the energy of my piano play !

When I finished the recording, I did a quick rough mix to show to the producer what had been done so far…And he said “it sounds good like that and I have no more money anyway, so we’ll release it the way it is ! I was angry because in my opinion, this music had need for more extra work and a final mix but it has been impossible to convince the guy to find more money and the album has been released like that, kind of naked…I wish I could have had a couple more days…

But after this experience, plus the Virgin cancellation, I decided from now on to be my own producer and to depend on nobody from the show business, period.

Please tell us more about Visions.

With the money earned with the precedent album, I decided to record my first prod. I found near Paris a good but cheap studio 16 tracks, Studio Manderly, and I booked it for 15 days…

I invited some musicians to play, such as the 2 Didier, Malherbe and Lockwood, Jacky Bouladoux, (drums) an other bassist, Serge Melkonian and of course Christian Boulé…It was fun to lead all these sessions. Starting the morning at 9 and finishing at 4 the next day…

2 engineers were taking relays but I was on the spot 18 hours a day, both as artistic producer and musician.

This first personal production at 100% has been selected to be in the All time best 100 albums, list made by the billboard guide for progressive music. I am also the only French to figure in this list. A good reference, I think.

However, I would have nominated Magma and Ange as well to represent the French prog touch.

In this album dating of 1977, I began to use natural and new age sounds. I never stopped since…Birds, ocean, rain, wind, etc., are part of the Symphony of our sphere. I am proud to have been a pioneer in this matter also, covering the Yang side (prog rock) and the yin side (prog new age).

I say ¨prog new age¨ because the californian new age intelligenzia didn’t accept my new age music as new age music, claiming the music was too intense to be labeled new age. Of course, the progrock people found it way too soft, the classic world too jazzy, the jazz world too classic and so on.

As a result of this lack of classification in a specific category, these superb CDs are now stocked by hundreds in a garage in South California. But it is timeless music. It may interest peoples after my death, who knows ? When a real freedom of expression will be rewarded and appreciated as such.

The artwork on your albums from the 1970s ('Symphony to Visions) is excellent. Who did the art-work and what was the ideas behind them ?

Jean-Claude Michel (RIP) did my 3 first covers. It was a good friend before my contract with Virgin and I was appreciating a lot his precise style and creative imagination. At the time of the signature with Branson, he was working on an anatomic school book. He just changed a couple details to make it psychedelic. When I brought it to Virgin, they were very impressed by it and did a good job on its international promotion. This cover also figures in the book of best of pictures of the 70*s.

I had no merit but to be friends with genius artists...

Les contes du singe fou has been painted by Jean Solé, a real good and famous French cartoonist. For this cover, I had my idea and he just brought it perfectly well to life, with symbols illustrating the initiatic lyrics.

Concerning Visions, I was friend with a Brazilian cartoonist, Sergio Macedo, one of the best painter with airbrush and I asked him to draw a translucid goddess (the muse) floating in th cosmos with the chakras shown, pyramids in crystal, etc. The result is timelessly brilliant, I think.

Lately, Paul Whitehead (Foxtrot, Genesis) took care of 2 of my recent albums, Solar Transfusion and Infinite Symphony.

Between Visions and the next album (Piano For The Third Ear) in our PA archive, there is a five years gap. You very tragically lost your son and released two albums (Offrandes and Nocturne Digitales) in that period. Please tell us more about this period in your life.

This horrible event happened february 15^th 1981. I was giving a 2 keyboards concert this day with my partner Frederic Rousseau and while still on stage saluting the crowd clapping at the end of the concert I saw the mother of my son Jonathan in the audience, with red eyes from crying...

One minute after, I knew he was dead-dead, drawn in a river near the house where his mother and himself had moved 5 days before this tragedy. I heard that the German big stupid dog of the owner of the house had accidently pushed my 5 years old boy in the river...These dogs are supposed to save children, not to kill them. Wrong place, wrong time. I got 2 twin daughters since but no more son. I wish I could experience a full life with a son but it won’t happen, I guess. As many other dreams that won’t come through. Tough planet for dreamers. Ask to John Lennon…

But as soon as I understood and realized it, I ceased to take it personally and relaxed about it !

But back to this tragedy and after one night of meditation and prayer, I decided to leave France and to begin Yoga in an Ashram, somewhere. I already had some experience in Tibetan meditation and it has been a precious help for me to keep my mental sanity. But having lost everything in one week, family, joy, illusions, musical projects, I figured that an Ashram was the best place to start a new cycle from scratch. Fate or coincidence, I found the right place in Tucson, AZ, with the 3HO peoples, teaching there high grade Kundalini Yoga.

After a few months of intense yoga practice (5 hours/day) I was again at my best, mentally and physically. I went back to France, decided to forgive my wife her terrible failure as the body guard of our child. She invited me for her birthday in September 1981 and this is where I met the future mother of my twins, born in America 2 years later !

But before, I went back again into the Arizonian ashram and I could meet this time some local new age musicians, owners of the label Soundings of the planet. We became friends, made concerts together and we meet the head manager of Fortuna records, a new age new label that wanted to give us a shot and boost his young catalogue.

I also became friend with Bernard Xolotl, a French guitarist living in San Francisco, very inspired by Terry Riley and Steve Reich. He had interesting pedals and echo effects and the first prototype of guitar plug in a synthesizer.

We both recorded the album Prophecy, the night of December 24 1981 in San Francisco, just for the fun.

In the middle of the recording, an earthquake happened...Magnitude 5 something, enough to shake the TEAC 4 tracks we were using but fortunately the machine didn’t fall down or stopped and it was a real good thing. As we were playing, it wouldn’t have been possible to edit this long impro and match with the same sounds. Because of the shaking, I missed a couple of keys and it can be heard in the mix. It gives one little strange second, but nothing more. For an earthquake, the side effect was not too bad, all thing considered.

I was using a synthesizer named prophet 5 for all tracks, this is why this album is called Prophecy.

Later, in 2000, I released it also as CD but without the guitar of Bernard Xolotl, just the prophet 5’s tracks as 2^nd chakra of the Kundalini Opera with the new title Journey to Tantra land.

I proposed to Fortuna to release all this music on cassette (Offrandes, prophecy and Nocturne Digitales). I also had more music recorded ready to go, but too intense for them, recorded in the living room of my parent’s house with rental material co-paid with Frederic Rousseau and Jean Philippe Rikyel. Christian Boulé was the other guest star, as usual.

I could release this first homemade master piece 3 years later on the label of Fred Catero under the title Messenger of the Son. A friend, becoming my manager for a while, Josh Goldstein (RIP), former manager of Happy the man, made the interface between Fred and me.

Unfortunately, Fred refused to pay his due to the local mafia controlling the record distribution system and he was pushed to bankrupt after 6 months by lack of distribution. Sales were too low to pay his credit in time...Exit Fred Catero label. It was yet a honor to have been selected as one of its first releases because he has been over 20 years chief engineer of CBS studios. He recorded and produced Bob Dylan, Blood sweat and tears, Chicago, etc...

I have been sad for his failure, for me but also for him. His label based on quality would have been saved by internet. But in 1985, it didn’t exist. He lost a lot of money in this idealistic gesture. Why ?

So during these 5 years, I was basically travelling a lot between USA-France-India and didn’t have much time for recording new stuff. I had enough music ahead anyway...

Visions from 1978 is listed in my source Wikipedia as the final Clearlight album. But some Subsequent albums is still listed as Clearlight albums while other albums is listed as your solo albums. Please clear this up for us.

I have one other album, Infinite symphony, called as a clearlight work after Visions. Released in 2004 with Clearlight888music. Between these 2 dates, my prog music activity was completely stopped.

Thanks to internet and my friend-manager Dan Shapiro, the producer of Infinite symphony, I could renew a bit with this powerful style. Unfortunately (again !) the drummer of this project, decided to hang himself to death 3 days after the last session for a bad family affair and this new tragedy ended my attempt to make a real comeback CD + live Clearlight concerts. What I have done after Clearlight was more like a personal affair than a prog rock band’s work. So I decided to use my real name. I like it, even if it has been always very difficult for you guys to pronounce it correctly. Between cereal, surreal, siriel, sybille, very few could nail it the right way.

And I even don’t mention how uneasy it is to add VERDEAUX after. A life’s drama in radios when they call my name.

Back to the 1980s. Can you give us a presentation of each album from Piano For The Third Ear (with the exception of the two 'Symphony albums) until today ?

1980-1983: OFFRANDES, NOCTURNE DIGITALES, PROPHECY   (Fortuna Records) My first new age recordings serie. A lot of natural sounds are balanced with vintage synthesizers
1985: LP MESSENGER OF THE SON (Catero Records) Progressive music with a lot of drums and keyboards. Features Frederic Rousseau and Jean-Philippe Rikyel. My first home studio production. 1986: REMEMBER JONATHAN  Windham Hill Records PIANO SAMPLER 86. This piece written as a requiem for my Son Jonathan has been my all time best seller. 9 pianists were sharing this album. It gave me a 3’40” piece heard by more than one million peoples... 1988: RHAPSODIE POUR LA PLANETE BLEUE Emen Records This has been my second attempt to use the music of our planet blended with the music of my soul. One of my best music to go in a deep relaxation state with headphones. It has been tested with EEG !

1992: Remix of Clearlight Visions + 6 new Bonus tracks by Patrick Meynier for his Label Legend Music. (RIP).
1993: CLEARLIGHT MOSAIQUE  Legend Music. A kind of remake of Les Contes du singe fou and bonus tracks with my Californian friend singer, Gunnar Amundson and some other friends living in the area. Done in his home studio in Santa Cruz, CA with all his E-Mu material. Produced by Patrick Meynier. A lot of good moments in this album... 1995 SOLAR TRANCE FUSION Clearlight888music This album is the result of the meeting between the wife of the owner of Legend Music, Geneviève Meynier, violonist teacher, and myself. I just had the new sampler of E-Mu and some CDs of rhythmic patterns, going from House to techno, goa and other grooves done also by E-Mu factory. I also just had a new computer mac working with a new musical software, cubase, and this album is the result of this change in technology. Patrick never released it, by lack of money or interest from the French majors, I didn’t really know, so I decided to release it myself 10 years later under my own label and to use it as 3^rd chakra of the K.O. 1996-1997 : TRIBAL HYBRID CONCEPT et ETHNICOLOURS Clearlight888music These 2 albums are the result of the association between Pascal Menetrey (RIP), a fan and owner of a great collection of natural sounds and sampled sounds and my wish to dedicate an album to all these ethnical groups facing extinction because of the senseless greed of heartless Industrial lobbies and corrupted politicians. Hundreds of samples of chants, instruments and animals have been used for this album. I think we could be in the Guiness book of records on this project !
1999: PIANO FOR THE THIRD EAR CD, solo piano. Clearlight888music An idea of Dan Shapiro : to pay 48 hours of sessions in a recording studio in LA to cut some solo piano pieces, in order to make an up to date release of the Piano for the third ear in addition of the best moment of the first project done in 1984 with Josh Goldstein and never released. 2000: JOURNEY TO TANTRALAND Clearlight888music I used half of the track of Prophecy and completed with track of a live concert performed with lyriconist and Indian bamboo flutist Dallas Smith in Santa Cruz, CA. These 2 musics were both in a perfect mood for tantric activities, so I joined them into one CD for the 2^nd chakra of the Kundalini Opera.
2001: .I WILL REMEMBER YOU in collaboration with Frances Key. Indie released. Frances and I had meet in June 2001 to realise a demo for a project of her, a concept album called “There is a way” . 2 months after, the terrible event happened and we decided to release There is a Way but to change the title as “I will remember you”. And I added a requiem that I composed for this sad occasion. My 2^nd requiem after the one for Jonathan. I hope it will be my last also...I don’t like this style much, all things considered. 2002: FLOWERS FROM HEAVEN Clearlight888music For the 4^th chakra (heart chakra) I wanted an album with music focusing on the emotions produced by this chakra. I just had finish to record 4 beautiful songs with a female singer, Leah Davis, that I had meet in LA in 1995 . I also had a couple of beautiful songs recorded with Gunnar Amundson and a couple other romantic songs by Frances Key. All these songs put together give Flowers from Heaven, a collection of beautiful and spiritual songs for the heart chakra. 2003: THE INNER PEACE CONCERTO Clearlight888music This is the YIN version of Infinite symphony. Only featuring myself and my dozen of kurzweil 2600 keyboards tracks. 2004: INFINITE SYMPHONY Clearlight888music When the Inner peace concerto has been finished, Dan and I continued the production by adding drums, chants, sax, flute, violin, guitars...I talk more about this album in an other part of the interview. 2006 SHAMBALLA not released yet 2007 : AEROBIX, FUTUR ANTERIEUR not released yet 2008 : QUI VA PIANO VA SANO A live piano concert. not released yet 2009 : Musical and pedagogic videos with Frances Key www.youtube.com/franceskey

Clearlight Symphony II is a continuation of the first Clearlight Symphony album. What is the …?

Clearlight Symphony II was my first experiment with a computer, a musical software, sampled sounds... I just did it for the fun, redoing mostly the same themes than the 1^st Symphony, added with some new ideas but played only with an other guitarist this time, Richard Prezlin. All the other parts being played with my E-Mu keyboard, from the drums to the flutes, cellos, choirs, bass, trumpets and tablas. When done, it has been released by Mantra, a very little French label. Nothing much to say about its impact compared to the first one...

I consider it more as a demo than an official release. For collectors, it is a precious item and can be considered as a bonus track of the original Clearlight Symphony.

A third instalment in the Clearlight Symphony saga is called Infinite Symphony (released in 2003). Please tell us more about this album and it's connection with the two first instalments in this saga.

The Infinite Symphony (or Clearlight Symphony III) has been done thanks to a dream of Dan Shapiro, great fan of my symphony years before our first meeting. He dreamed to be the producer of a new up dated version. Having already done the CS II, I was kind of reluctant, favoring a production for new material, but he insisted, saying he would pay for everything I need, so I focus on this command. I added 25 minute of new music and themes, divided the opus in 6 mvts instead of 2, bringing the full timing to 67 minutes. Dan had the idea to write a vocal part for the third Mvt. Our drummer for this project was Shaun Guerin (RIP), but he was also specialized in Genesis repertoire and had a voice amazingly close from Peter Gabriel’s organ. This 3^rd Mvt has also be selected to figure in the Finnish Kavelàva triple CD project.

We worked with protool and AIFF files, so I could record Didier Malherbe’s doudouk and sax in Paris and send the file by internet to Dan in California. He just lined it up with the other tracks and this is how we could work with Didier from 2 different sides of the planet, from a home studio to an other. Technology is definitely a plus for poor independent composers...

For the guitar, extra flutes and the violin parts, Dan hired local musicians with a good level of interpretation. Dan was also bassist, Richard Hardy, Cory Wright (wood winds) Peter Mc Carthy, John Thomas (guitars) and Trevor Loyd (electric violin) completing the musical staff.

All my keyboard parts have been played on a Kurweil 2600. A remarkable instrument for true pianists. Plus thousands of excellent stereo sounds of all the orchestra... It was a real treat to work on this project, the magic of the Symphony operating ones again.

Paul Whitehead made the cover and ones can find a luxurious booklet inside with everything ones needs to know concerning this album.

The only sad thing concerning this project, but it was a huge one, has been the suicide of Shaun (for other reasons) 2 days after the last day of recording. It also ruined our project to bring Clearlight back to touring from prog fest to prog fest. Dan and I had a lot of reasons to be pissed by this foolish act. Shaun also let behind a 18 months old boy at the time. For my personal story, it was really hard to understand...

Now, when I go on stage by myself, I use a backing tracks Cd with Shaun’s drums, violin, guitar and some synthesizers tracks and I play live my piano part on top of it. This way Shaun is still alive somehow..

Please also tell us more about the album you also did with your brothers.

Ah ! This is certainly Z collector item for those following my musical production...Title : Petites Annonces. (little adds). 

We are 4 brothers. Each brother playing a different instrument and my brother Bruno, 8 years younger than me and drummer, was always eager to do what I was doing. So 8 years after the release of my firs album, in 1983, he got the idea to record his musical ideas the same way I recorded Messenger of the Son. Our parent country house, 2 X 8 tracks renting material, use of the acoustic piano, Frederic Rousseau taking care of the synthesizers parts and the ingeneering.

The oldest brother, Laurent Verdeaux, jazz fan from his teen age was playing trumpet, Jerome the youngest was playing congas and African Djembe, Bruno the drums and the compositions and me on acoustic piano. 2 friends of Bruno (known through an add in a newspaper, which explains the title) for bass and sax were completing the crew. Sorry I forgot their name. It was before the invention of CD, so there are only a few hundreds of vinyls around somewhere. I remember it was kind of fun and rhythmical but I forgot how it sounds in detail...25 years after. Bruno must have kept a few of them, but without a turntable...

You started out on Virgin Records and some other labels, but you eventually went your own way. What was the advantages and the problems being on your own ? What is your experiences from the industry; business and money wise ?

At first I was very happy and proud to be able to exhibit my superb albums. I even didn’t read my first contract. I should...the virgin contracts were very good for the owner but very bad for the musicians. Henry Cow, Gong, Klaus Schulze and many others were literally starving under Virgin’s management. Only Mike Oldfield was wealthy, being #1 in the World for years thanks to Tubular bells and the massive success of the movie The Exorcist.

The system was simple : Richard was taking advantage of our eagerness to see our album in the stores. So we were signing a contract where all the costs of the albums, including the renting material, the other musicians fee, the daily fee of the Manor studio, the plane tickets, were on the musician’s back. Virgin was just loaning the money in advance on royalties. But Virgin (and all the others) were taking their money back, not on the price of the album, but only 7% of its value.

So with this system, the musician is like a producer but with the % of an artist only !

I was needing to sell at least 200.000 albums to just get even with Virgin and begin to actually make money ! I sold only 160.000 and I still should give them money, according to their royalty statements. The only check I saw from Virgin was the first, given at contract’s signature. 3000 $. Period. For 160.000 albums sold World wide. How do you call that ? Richard Branson could become very very rich with this system. But his musicians didn’t. Except Mike Oldfield, of course.

After, I got ripped of with Pathe Marconi, Isadora (Les Contes du singe fou), so I decided to fly with my own wings...Also, I can’t stand when somebody wants to teach me how my music should sound. So the only producers I could work with after these bad experiences have been 2 Clearlight fans that were trusting me : Josh Goldstein (RIP) in the 80’s and Dan Shapiro for this century.

No doubt that Internet saved my ass from a total and final eclipse. Thanks to my site www.clearlight888music, I could maintain the contact with the prog World (as evidence, this interview’s request) and take all my music in charge to sell it myself. Unfortunately (definitely a key word in my destiny) the free download platforms put my material life in danger. My albums are avalaible at CDbaby.com, but I sell a few units per month only. As a result I had to sell one per one all my equipment to pay for my basic needs, so now, I have no solution to continue to work in decent conditions. A MIRACLE IS NEEDED HERE !

You have moved from France to Brasilia, the capital of Brazil. When did you move and why did you move there ? How is life in Brasilia ?

Before Brazil, I moved from France to the US, after Jonathan’s death. My daughters are born in Santa Cruz, CA and live now in San Francisco. So I turned the page with France long time ago. They never understood my music, the politicians I am voting for are never elected, nobody needs me in France, my brothers give me a hard time also when I come, (We are far from the spirit of 1983 and Petites Annonces) so I feel like a foreigner everywhere I go, anyway. Without a green card, impossible to stay anymore in the US...

In 2002 I had already internet, and one day I had some time to kill, I got the idea to check AOL contact and read some adds...

After having read a couple dozen adds, I was attracted by one, in French, coming from a brasilian woman, Maria de Fatima. She had spent 4 years in Paris for her post doctorat in Physique and wanted to find a French correspondant to keep her French alive. After a couple months, she invited me to visit her in Brasilia, saying she was divorced for 2 years and was living alone with her dog in a big flat. I was thinking about it, wondering if I should accept or not this nice invitation, when the coincidence made me zap the same day on a tv reportage about Brasilia.

It was showing a very spiritual and modern city with an interesting avant garde conception. I take it as a sign to go and I bought the plane ticket the next day. It was in April 2002.

The tv was saying the truth (for a change). Brasilia is a city where it seems that nothing bad can happen. It doesn’t represent what Brazil is all about. No favelas or street war with the police in Brasilia. When you cross a street, your life is not threatened, cars stop. Most of them respect the traffic lights. Police is discreet. In 8 years I haven’t be controlled even a single time yet.

The weather is always between spring and summer. 3000 feet high, the air is pure. This city is limited in population growth and buildings by State law. No real traffic jams, no heat waves, no earthquakes, no hurricanes, no wild fires, no flood, no pollution, no riot of hunger are affecting the life here. Even the H1N1 flew didn’t do any damage here !

Interesting enough, an Italian Saint from the XIXth century, Dom Bosco, had a dream-prophecy concerning a city that will be built in the future between the 16^th and 17^th parallele and will have a great impact on the wealth of the country, saying it would be the city of milk and honey.

One century after, between the 16^th and 17^th parallel is born...Brasilia ! And I can only confirm what Dom Bosco said about it. In 2006, we decided to get married to give an official dad to her dog, Boris, a superb caramel spagnol english cocker.

The food is excellent, like it is in Europe (minus the French cheeses), I have internet, international cable TV to keep track of what happens in France and US, facebook to keep track with my friends and children, and as long as my wife is ok to support me, I see no reason to leave this Sangri-la.

What is your personal philosophy, religion and outlook on the world ?  

Sweet Jesus, this is a large topic! Having began my spiritual quest in 1968, I had to change my direction many times before I was able to find MY truth and the right answers to MY questions. Such as: Does God exist? Does Jesus exist? Do the angels (including Lucifer) exist ? If yes, what is wrong with them? From where come miracles such as Joan of Arc’s story or the Roman Empire’s conversion to Christianity? What is wrong with Men? What is wrong with the politicians? With the scientists? With the industrials? With the banking system, the cancerous food industry, the banking offshore system, the Will of Yaweh, the Will of Allah, the Will of Jesus-Christ, the endless conflicts with parents, children, brothers and sisters, the show business, the karma, the pedophile priests and hundreds of other questions. I can’t tell you all the details of my quest- I would need a book! What I can do is to give the name of the book where I could find intelligent and scientifically logical answers to most of my questions. The answers I didn’t find in the Bible or the Koran, I found in this book : the Urantia book. For those interested, they can begin the journey with this link: http://www.urantiabook.org Some will prefer to continue to believe in Earth, Purgatory, Hell and Heaven as the only alternatives to death and nothingness, but this book teaches a far more complex Universal organization than the simple stories shown in the Bible, the Koran, the Bagavadghita, the Talmud, the Book of Mormons, the teachings of Buddha, Guru Nanak, the 4 gospels, etc., etc. concerning the origin of the Universe, the human race, the angelic network, etc..

They all have elements of truth but also a lot of 2^nd degree elements that need to be interpreted. And this very fact is causing all these wars between religions. So what is the point? The best is to make your own search of God within, called the divine parcel, the soul… Meditation techniques, yoga practice, spiritually enhanced music, and to be unconditionally in love, are good habits to be one day able to enter into contact with our divine parcel and feed our soul to make her grow. After all these years of quest, what I can answer to your question is this: in my opinion, God exists, but not the God usually known through the books or the institutionalized dogmas. Lucifer also exists, and his stinky network of servants also. His is a very powerful network, rich in money and talented in mind control. On the other side, you have the loyal angelic network working with human volunteers to keep the balance between evil and goodness. The entire planet would be in the same chaos as Haïti without this loyal angelic organization to resist against the army of Lucifer’s servants… for example, the numerous people who use the name of God to do the opposite of God’s will! The 10 Commandments are very clear and I believe in its authenticity. Why? Because it was far in advance of the traditions of 5,000 years ago. YOU SHALL NOT KILL! YOU SHALL NOT FOOL AROUND WITH SOMEBODY ELSE’s SPOUSE. Ah ah ah! Even now, who is obeying to this list of 10? This is why I think it is the more genuine divine (therefore timeless) document of all those published in the bible. Jesus’s teachings are timeless also, evidenced by how difficult they are to follow, even 2,000 years later…

You are regarded as one of the pioneers in the New Age music scene. Clearlight Symphony was not New Age in my view though. Please give us an insight in your musical journey from the 1970s to this day. 

When came into my head the Clearlight symphony, I believe the new age music didn’t exist yet. The closest music evoking this kind was Indian music, German Rock (Tangerine dream, Klaus Schulze, etc.) and Terry Riley, Steve Reich in the US…All these musicians were influenced by the oriental musical moods, usually instrumental.

I could only understand the new age roots when I experienced India, in the late 70’s. At the time of the Clearlight Symphony, I was seeing myself more as a classic-rock musician, so no reference for new age can be found in my first albums.

It is only after the death of Jonathan and my first yoga trip to Arizona and my meeting with the Sounding of the Planet’s staff and then California with the apparition of all these labels Fortuna, Windham Hill, etc. than I began to be interested by this musical expression, joining music and spirituality, body and mind, yin and yang...

My first opus in this sense has been Offrandes (1978) and Rhapsodie pour la planète bleue (1981).

But my vision of new age is in fact too progressive for the traditional new age mvt and for this reason, even as a pioneer, I am quite isolated in my little ivory tower but what else to do ? I receive this music that I record and I have no other choice.

Later, since I was appreciating to listen to music while practicing the yoga, I got the idea to compose the kundalini opera, a music designed to tune the chakras, 1 hour for each chakra. 7 chakras, 7 hours. Each chakra being different from the 6 others, I used 7 different styles, from the intense to the mellow, from the romantic to the mystical…

I have not a lot of feedback about the K.O. (very poor distribution) but when I get some, they are always positive…Just for that it was worth the try !

I also worked on different pieces for piano solo. Piano for the third ear represents the 6^th chakra of the K.O. for instance. Ethnicolors the 1^st, Journey to tantra land the 2^nd, Solar trance fusion the 3^rd, flowers from heaven the 4^th, Rhapsodies for the blue planet the 5^th, and Inner Peace concerto, the 7^th.

When the samplers appeared and favored the use of natural sounds, even human, I got the idea to do Ethnicolors (Yin face) and Tribal Hybrid Concept (yang face), a blend between sacred chants and instruments coming from tribes facing extinction with my modern orchestration chill out or tribal. My last work has been a modern adaptation of middle age chants and should be released soon.

Tech talk: Please take us through your instruments since you started as a musician.

Due to my now long career, I can say that I tried them all. I began in 1966 with an electric Farfisa. Horrible sound but back then, I didn’t know !

Then my mother bought me for my 20st birthday an organ double keyboard Wurlitzer. He had already some little effects such as the one used in the Who’s next album title, Baba O’Riley.

I had a fascination for the mellotron, so I had to use it for my Clearlight Symphony.

At home, I also bought an electric piano Wurlitzer. It was easy to carry around, but other than that, it was not really fun to play on it.

Then came the synthesizers. I got first an ARP Odissey. I used it for Clearlight Visions. Then during the 2 years were Frederic Rousseau was working as my assistant, we used the ARP 2600, the mini moog…Then came the sampling machines. My best friend was working at E-MU, so I could use even the first prototype. Amazing experience…I also uses as soon as I could the Kurzweil K 1000. A wonderful acoustic piano sound with only 80 pounds to carry. The dream of all pianists !

Now, I am in love with the Kurzweil 2600, and I realized all my last productions with it in a recording studio, but not enough money to purchase one for myself !

What do you regard is being your personal style as a musician ? 

In term of musical style, I am a self made man, and so with my own philosophy. Since I believe in the 7 chakras, I was seeking for a particular style for each chakra. This is how I ended with 7 different styles, so I don’t even know if I have one specific style. 

In acoustic piano, my pleasure is to play beautiful and romantic themes, but I am not against some swing as well…I would put my own pianistic style between Frederick Chopin and Keith Jarrett, with a little less virtuosity than these Masters of keyboards.

Please tell us more about your company Clearlight Music, Kundalini Opera and Chakra Art.

These Companies are independent little structures, mainly to stay alive after the dumping of the record Cies.…When internet became a serious tool for independent musicians, an old friend of mine and good amateur of prog music, Dan Shapiro, proposed to make a joined venture with me to create a label with the aim of remastering, making and distributing all my titles. It was in 1999. The good side to be producer of your own music is that you can use it the way you want without having to ask permission to anybody.

Since I had 2 different categories of music for sale, the prog rock Clearlight and the yoga music’s stuff, I decided to split in 2 different websites, Kundaliniopera.com being focus on my 7 CDs selected for the K.O. and Clearlight888music taking care of everything else.

The chakra art is an idea of Dan. I don’t follow much how it goes…probably very slow.

But the free download platforms and their success put our little business to bankrupt. Thousands of CDs are still in Dan’s garage in their boxes…

I decided to only keep the website clearlight888music and kundalniopera.com as show-room. But now CDbaby.com is taking care of my CDs, when some honest and true fans prefer to buy me a CD than to rob the music…By the way, CDbaby is the only site that pays me royalties. So please, thank you to purchase only here and nowhere else. It will help me to continue to survive in this cruel world.

What kind of music and which bands do you enjoy listening to now ? 

Usually composers of music focus mostly on their own music to avoid influences from the others. I don’t make an exception…I used to listen a lot of music last century, but now I essentially listen to my own music, especially when I play it to others. It can happen that I some times listen to some friends music, but my cycle of listening others from morning to evening is over. 

It is a long time a genius like mc Laughlin didn’t record a music that would make me change my mind !

But don’t worry, I have music broadcasting 24/7 in my head anyway…

Your label is called clearlight 888 music. What means 888 for you in this musical context ? 

I talked to you before about the reality of entities vibrating at a higher frequency than ours, therefore invisible to our eyes and indiscernable by our physical ears. Beware, the following sounds like Sci-fi, but know that reality is even far more complicated than the craziest sci-fi movie.Because one element is allowing our 2 species to communicate together in spite of this difference in frequencies: the telepathic waves from mind to mind. The pineal gland at the center of the brain, known in the Orient as the “third eye” or 6^th chakra, is the device used by human as receptor-sender of mental waves. Our prayers leave our mind by this gland, for instance. Artistic, scientific, philosophic inspirations arrive by this gland also. One of the functions of the human brain is to operate as a nano Hertz wave radio. If you can learn how to tune your consciousness to the channel 888, then you will have access to the angelic channel working for the loyal Universal Forces. Through this channel, you can feel the individual love of God and the angels as clearly as you can feel the sun on your individual skin at the beach during a sunny day.As usual in this “fair and balanced” Universe, God allows Lucifer to fulfill his fate of Universal rebel and revealer of personalities. The existence of Good and evil is forcing each of us to choose clearly in which camp he wants to serve. This freedom of choice system seems to be the only way that God found to know who each of us really is. Very complicated system, but our human life is just the beginning of a very long Journey, where the last (us) will be the first (Gods). And the wisdom of God, based on the fact that Time and Space, beginning and end, etc., are relative notions, is not easy to understand for human beings believing in death and having their focus on the short term.As the right inner channel to capture the will of God is the channel 888, the rebel forces have also their access code to the human brain.Their frequency of broadcast is the channel 666If you ask to Georges Lukas what was his aim when he wrote the scenario of this saga, with dark side of the Force, Jedi’s teachings and so forth : he was describing this fight that does exist between the army of Lucifer and the servants of the dark side and the army of God and Goodness with all the pure beings that also exist on this planet and the Universe.Without their work, a guy like Hitler and his servants would have won WW II and established his absolute control upon the World for 1,000 years as it was planned. His army of mass murderers was on the edge (a matter of weeks) of being able to use the first atomic bomb when Patton ran through Germany with his shermans to interrupt their evil job. The first city to receive the first bomb was scheduled to be Paris. The cathedral of Notre Dame was the target. So thank you guys!In fact, each single human brain is hosting a battle between the channel 666 and the channel 888. The first is the channel of the bad ideas and the 2^nd the channel of the good ideas. A bad idea is when one or several peoples will suffer and lose unfairly something because of it. A good idea is when one or several peoples will feel good thanks to it and will gain something. Simple...Knowing that the brain is a computer with advanced technology that exceeds our understanding, able to receive and send telepathic waves through the pineal gland exactly like a walkie-talkie, you know now how the loyal and/or the rebel angels enter into contact with us. It is of course better for our karma to turn the knob of our consciousness on the frequency 888. This is the frequency used by most of the genius, all arts, science and thoughts combined. But when a murderer explains that he killed, raped, tortured or anything ugly you can imagine, because he heard a voice ordering him to do so, it is not at all a figure of speech. This person says the truth. He was just channeling the channel 666. So Clearlight being the spiritual state of Nirvana, 888 being the angelic frequency and musician being my function, it enables you to know from which source is this music coming. Thank you for your time and attention. Namasté

Thanx a lot for this interview Cyrille and all the best. 

I hope you readers of PA will find it informative and useful.

Edited by toroddfuglesteg - February 11 2010 at 08:10

Great stuff Toro, well done!

Yes, it is very good and nice to hear from him!

I love these interviews from people we don´t hear of as often as we should "ahem" - I think that "Clearlight Symphony" is up there with the big guns of the genre, even though it hasn´t got vocals in it. Sounds like a ridiculous statement, but if you check the top symphonic list you´ll get a lot of vocals in the mix.

Great insight, especially the concept of other dimensional musical parallels as CV so strongly believes in.Too true!  Thanks for sharing. Music of the Ainur.....