Curved Air

As a callow youth I remember the impact of Curved Air when they hit the scene in 1970. The likes of them hadn’t been seen before and some in the Progressive scene dismissed them as their combination of Progressive rock, classical, jazz and folk influences was taking them well away from the norm.
Others in the Progressive community adored them for exactly those same traits as well as their lead singer, the magnificent Sonja Kristina, vocal stylings, strong in the vibrato and with a huge range.

This box set is made up of their first four albums and it was fascinating, returning to them after a good few years, to see whether they had aged well or were sounding dated or trite.

Starting up the first of the four – ‘Air Conditioning’ – what actually struck me was how fresh and lively they sounded. Darryl Way’s violin is a great weapon and it is used as a counterpoint to the guitar rather than taking the whole of the lead and so it never gets overbearing or exhausting. Francis Monkman on lead guitar and keyboards provides a strong classical element (as does Way who studied at the Royal College of Music) and Kristina brings in her folk roots. Bass is handled by Robert Martin and on drums they had the impressively titled Florian Pilkington-Miksa. Standout tracks are ‘It Happened Today’ and the quasi-classical jam of ‘Vivaldi’ but the whole album has a strong presentation and there isn’t any filler.

A year later they cam up with their ‘Second Album’ with Ian Eyre replacing Martin on bass. The album spawned their biggest hit single ‘Back Street Luv’ and certainly increased their audience but as a band they didn’t change direction – as so many other bands did – and continued to develop as a band. Interesting note: although there is no violin on the track, Darryl Way played Clavinet on it. The album isn’t only about ‘Back Street Luv’ though; there are a few fine and very different tracks to enjoy, especially ‘Jumbo’ which has a showtune quality to it and the mammoth ‘Piece Of Mind’. At this point it was becoming clear that Monkman and Way were beginning to view their music very differently with Way writing songs that were structured and strongly melodic while Monkman was investigating music or a more ‘organic’ nature – longer extrapolations built around jams – and on ‘Second Album’ and their third ‘Phantasmagoria’ their music occupied different sides of the vinyl.

‘Phantasmagoria’ saw a new bassist arrive – Mike Wedgwood – and the sound of a band resolute in noy standing still. There are a lot of new instruments added, extensive use of the VCS3 synthesiser and guest musicians. Personally, I find it the most interesting of the four albums and the standard of writing and playing is exceptional. Kristina seems to be having more influence on the songwriting and tracks such as ‘Melinda (More Or Less)’ definitely seem written to suit her vocal particularly. ‘Ultra Vivaldi’ hearkens back to the first album but is entirely played on synth, while ‘Phantasmagoria’ itself has a strong Progressive groove, especially in the organ sound. It’s a fascinating album.

The fourth album is a bit of an anomaly and the band had split up after ‘Phantasmagoria’ and only Kristina remains from the original line up. It is a much rockier album than before but musically still interesting.

The remastering is, as usual, excellent and the package is well worthwhile.

A terrific release