Curved Air-Phantasmagoria (1972)

Curved Air's third album defined the artistic rock sound of this important progressive jazz-rock band. "Phantasmagoria" is the follow-up to the exciting "Second Album", released the previous year. This third effort contains some of the group's best compositions and showcases their most advanced progressive passages. The lineup that recorded this album consisted of the classic Curved Air lineup: Sonja Kristina, Francis Monkman, Darryl Way, Mike Wedgwood, and Florian Pilkington-Miska, plus a large contingent of jazz musicians playing flutes, trombones, trumpets, vibraphones, and percussion. The jazzy touches of the opening "Maria Antonieta", the experimentation of "Whose Shoulder Are You Looking Over Anyway", the solid, intricate musicality of "Melinda" and "Not Quite The Same", the progressive musical extravagance of "Cheetah" or the powerful energy of "Over and Above", have enough personality to be considered one of the essential albums of this influential British group.