This is lovely stuff; it's a minimalist, happy set of curious soundscapes, performed mostly on clarinet, harp, tinkly noises and bassoons. The production is very simple - it seems to have been recorded is a disused dance hall, and the sound is quite appealingly raw because of it - and although it's naughty to do so, it sounds even nicer if you add a lot of reverb.
The sleevenotes are as copious and ample as a nurse's bosom, and have a couple of photographs of the sadly late Vernon Elliot and lots of photographs of the clangers (plus two drawings). Elliot kept bees, and the impression I get throughout is of frightfully well-educated, clever types who became enthralled with stop-motion animation and children's television. It's fortunate that Elliot and series deviser Oliver Postage turned their talents to something harmless, rather than inventing poison gas or self-igniting petrol bombs or what-have-you.
I have to give it five stars, because it does exactly what it sets out to do; what appears to be all of the original music from the series, untouched and unaltered. To listen to it's quite pleasant as background music, and would work brilliantly coming out of an old valve radio at moderate volume, but it's rather monotonous, and the "Clangers opera" - which is essentially a short Clangers story without the visuals - doesn't really work, although if you leave it on in the background whilst entertaining guests they will probably ask you about it, and that could start up a conversation which might lead to romance and eventually marriage.
Of course, as I am not yet thirty the Clangers were years before my time.