This was Pink Floyd's second soundtrack for a film by director Barbet Schroeder. They had previously worked with Schroeder on the soundtrack for the film More. Though the movie was called La Vallee, the album was retitled Obscured By Clouds after the pulsating instrumental theme that provided an irresistibly atmospheric opener for Pink Floyd's concerts as well as the record and film.

Pink Floyd recorded Obscured by Clouds at the famous Chateau d'Herouville (Honky Chateau) near Paris, France. It was recorded in less than two weeks, and indeed, on several numbers the lack of studio polish revealed a seldom heard side of the band: the tightly knit band of rock 'n' rollers who simply get down and play.

Free Four and Stay were produced as a single, which was released on July 10, 1972 in the U.S. only. Free Four was also included later on the Pink Floyd compilation album Works.

America's FM-radio programers responded to Free Four's snappy tempo by giving it more air play than any previous Pink Floyd track.

The film La Vallee was released on August 27, 1972 at the Venice Film Festival. The movie was well received in France and was later released in the U.S. with english subtitles. A video was released in 1991 by Warner Home Video.

The plot of the film is set around a diplomat's wife, Viviane, who is searching for rare bird feathers for her Paris boutique. She joins up with a group of adventures who are traveling through the New Guinea jungle searching for a hidden valley that is not on any map. They have many unusual experiences on their trip before finally reaching the valley at the end of the movie.

Obscured by Clouds became the first Pink Floyd album to crack the Top Fifty on Billboard's American charts.

The cover of Obscured By Clouds is an out-of-focus film still of a man in a tree, who appears to be trying to reach out for something, perhaps a goal. The blurred points of light could be a reference to early Pink Floyd light shows. In 1996 when Obscured By Clouds was repackaged Jon Crossland suggested using infra red landscapes as backgrounds.

The first time Pink Floyd had used any kind of synthesizer was on this album. An EMS Synthy.

When You're In is also an instrumental song. The title was a catch phrase used by former Pink Floyd's Road Manager Chris Adamson. When asked about a repair, he would respond "I'm in. And when you're in you're in." When You're In was similar to Obscured by Clouds and often the two songs were played as one throughout 1973.

Burning Bridges is one of three, joint compositions co-written by Richard Wright and Roger Waters. The other two are Stay and Us And Them.

Wot's... Uh The Deal - For the first half of the song David sings over a simple tune played on an acoustic guitar, which is later joined by the drums and bass guitar. Richard Wright adds a piano solo.

Mudmen was the only song in Pink Floyd history, until Cluster One on The Division Bell album, in which David Gilmour and Richard Wright shared full writing credits. Mudmen is an instrumental that features two guitar solos, which would set the style that David Gilmour has used on many albums and songs throughout his career.

Childhood's End was written and sung by David Gilmour. This title is said to have been taken from the sci-fi classic by Arthur C. Clarke. The strict drum pattern laid down by Mason during the second minute would resurface on the song Time from Dark Side of The Moon album.

Free Four was written by Roger Waters and is his first direct reference to the wartime death of his father. The title comes from the jokey "one-two-free-fowah" count-off, and the tune itself is just as irrepressibly jaunty. This song marks the first appearance in a Pink Floyd song of the phrase "on the run" - "run" to become a byword, in Water's lexicon, for "paranoia". Free Four has minor lyrical differences between the soundtrack version and the album version including a third verse which is not mentioned in the album, which was very reminiscent of the lines about 'taking a slice' in Money:

So take my advice
And cut yourself a slice
And try not to make it too big
Cos things are hard to grow
And I can tell you cos I know
It's better not to make yourself sick

Stay, sung by Richard Wright, was a song about temporary relationships and has a twist at the end when the singer can't remember the name of the woman he awoke with. Stay was included on the Free Four single.

Absolutely Curtains was co-written by the band members. The closing two minutes are taken up by a religious chant performed by the film's New Guinea natives, the Magupa tribe.- Pink Floyd was ahead of their time with "World Music".

"I thought it was a sensational LP, actually." -Nick Mason

"I love that album. Yes, it was really fast, rapid stuff without any great need to make a concept out of it. That was when we'd just got the very first synthesizer ever invented, and we were playing with it, the EMS Synthy. And all you could do was tune it up to play a note, and then press it for it to play the note, like you couldn't play notes with a keyboard, not at that juncture. Or if you could, we didn't know how to. That was the first time we ever used any form of a synthesizer, was on "Obscured by Clouds." -David Gilmour

"We were very pleased with our music. So I don't see where's the problem, if there's one. Going back to our music, it was, in our mind, a succession of songs. It wasn't a Pink Floyd album, but a group of songs. But still, the whole was balanced, with different rhythms and tempos. I agree when it's said it didn't have the strength of Dark Side of the Moon or Meddle. However, it was a great success and became, most of all in France, a disco classic." -Nick Mason