The first time I heard this band I could not define what they sounded: a somewhat acidic folk interpolated with fusion dyes and sound academicism, psychedelia and glam with nuances of baroque music, in short. The main characteristic of the band at least in their first three albums (the ones I have heard) are the electric violin and of course the voice of Sonja Kristina, lead vocalist of the group and one of the first female vocals in progressive rock.
Curved Air (CA) was formed in the late sixties by the creative minds of Darryl Way (violin) and Francis Monkman (keyboards), these individuals took the last two words of Terry Riley's famous minimalist work, A Rainbow in Curved Air to name the group. Note that "vivaldi", a composition that appears in Air Conditioning, CA's debut album, certain minimalist and baroque nuances are perceived ... the one who has listened to Glass or Riley will notice its influence.
With this second album, the group feels more mature in the compositions, although its lyrics are still somewhat lavish, it is much more orchestrated and they also make use of the VCS3 synthesizer and the electric piano, changing the sound that characterized them in their first record. The best known hit of the band is undoubtedly "back street luv" included here.
It is still important to highlight the figure of Sonja in the progressive arena of those years in which practically the woman did not have an important vocal role more if in the performance of instruments, an example of this is the first drummer in rock, Maureen Tucker of the Velvet Underground or the great multi-instrumentalist Lindsay Cooper who played with Henry Cow and gave his best on the Western Culture album. Obviously Annie Haslam (Renaissance) would become the best voice in the most fruitful years of the RPS.
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