Obscured by Clouds

平克佛洛伊德两度为Barbet Schroeder（*日后曾以【亲爱的，是谁让我沉睡了】一片入围奥斯卡最佳导演）所执导的电影担任音乐创作，一部是1969年的【冬日的葬礼More】，另一部就是1972年的【La Vallee】（直译：山谷），后者剧情描述驻澳洲的法国大使夫人前往新几内亚寻找罕见鸟类的羽毛时，意外的与居住在当地的嬉皮男子结缘，两人一起前往未知的山谷部落的故事。电影传达了西方人想要在原始部落中找寻慰藉的迷思。乐团在1972年春季搁置了筹备中的专辑《The Dark Side Of The Moon》的录制工作，一行人前往法国为电影《La Vallee》创作音乐，乐团利用半个月的时间，运用合成器制造厂EMS所生产的携带型类比合成器VCS3（*具备超强的电子乐效果与外在声音处理功能）完成作品，后来，乐团为电影所创作的原声带变成了乐团的第七张专辑《Obscured By Clouds》。专辑在迷幻摇滚之外，也融入英国60年代重节奏的流行摇滚、蓝调摇滚、布基摇滚、世界音乐等元素，专辑登上法国流行专辑榜冠军，晋升英国流行专辑榜第六名。专辑中的代表作是Roger Waters抒发个人在面对父亲过世后的情绪反应的歌曲〈Free Four〉。

Commissioned as the soundtrack for Barbet Schroeder's 1972 film The Valley, Obscured By Clouds actually holds up rather well on its own terms. The title track is a trippy, cinematic instrumental that features some searing guitar work from David Gilmour, but full-fledged songs like "Free Four" (which sounds like a morbid inversion of Norman Greenbaum's "Spirit in the Sky"), and the folksy "Wot's...Uh the Deal" are the real highlights of the set. Essentially a transitional work, Obscured By Clouds has long been dwarfed by Dark Side of the Moon, the album which came immediately after it. In fact, the funky "Childhood's End" and the ethereal "Burning Bridges" could well be dry runs for the Dark Side tracks "Time" and "Breathe," respectively. In all, it's a priceless snapshot of a band on the verge of immortality. --Dan Epstein