A Rainbow In Curved Air

Introduction

I stole the title from the Terry Riley minimalist piece, but this was kicked off because I saw a post by the band's original violinist, Darryl Way, in a Progressive Music group that I am a member of here:

I don't know if Curved Air took their name from the Terry Riley piece, but it is a wonderfully surreal name.

So here we go with some of my favourite Curved Air songs, with a few notes about them, if I can remember something that might interest you. I chose "Phantasmagoria" as the main image, and looking at the songs on that album, it may be my favourite album of theirs.

Curved Air are an English progressive rock group formed in 1970 by musicians from mixed artistic backgrounds, including classical, folk, and electronic sound. The resulting sound of the band was a mixture of progressive rock, folk rock, and fusion with classical elements. Along with High Tide and East of Eden, Curved Air were one of the first rock bands after It's a Beautiful Day, The Flock and the United States of America to feature a violin. Curved Air released eight studio albums, the first three of which broke the UK Top 20, and had a hit single with "Back Street Luv" (1971) which reached number 4 in the UK Singles Chart.

The band are still touring and producing new music

A Symphony In Curved Air

"Back Street Luv" from "2nd"

This was my introduction to the band, a brooding, brilliant single, and I saw them on Top Of The Pops with Darryl Way's perspex electric violin, and I was immediately hooked and bought the single, which led me to investigate further.

I love the cover of the album with it's layers which take you deeper into it until you find the record. I made a short video of it that you can see below:

"Vivaldi" from "Air Conditioning"

This is relentless and I included a live version from Beat Cludb so you can see Darryl Way playing. Although it is seven minutes long, it was avaible on single and I found it on a Young Farmers' Pub Jukebox. When I put it on they were not too happy with iit but I thought, and still think it is brilliant.

Many people believe this to be the first ever picture disc but I believe it was preceded by a German Elektra compilation. When the disc is filmed playing it seems to go backwards and you can see the effect in this article here:

This is the German Compilation which I believe to be the first ever Rock Vinyl Picture Disc on Metronome/ Elektra

"Marie Antoinette" from "Phantasmagoria"

This is a magnificent opener from the album composed by Darryl Way and Sonja Kristina Linwood. Six minutes of history for you which some stunning music. Listening to this I believe Genesis took a lot of cues from Curved Air.

"Whose Shoulder Are You Looking Over Anyway?" from "Phantasmagoria"

This is an incredibly eerie piec composed by Francis Monkman using computer generatated voices before seguing into the next song. This definitely creepyily brilliant.

"Ultra Vivaldi" from "Phantasmagoria"

"Vivaldi With Canons" from "Air Conditioning"

These are two short pieces, the one from "Air Conditioning" a sequence from the original with sonic extras. The one from "Phantasmagoria" a Way/Monkman collaboration which gets faster and faster until it disappears in the sonic distance.

"Young Mother" from "2nd"

A stunnning opener and a fine way to wrap up this playlist. It is worth visiting Curved Air's YouTube Channel to hear more of their music or even buy some of their albums.

I hope you have found something you enjoyed and thank you for reading and listening.