Always shape-shifting, London’s Curved Air were thrilling exponents of the then-burgeoning rock/classical crossover on early LPs such as Air Conditioning and Second Album. As former students of The Royal Academy Of Music and Royal College Of Music respectively, keyboardist Francis Monkman and violinist Darryl Way were well placed to explore that area.
But Curved Air also had a not-so-secret weapon in Sonja Kristina, a former actress, folk singer and Playboy Club croupier who brought a wonderful musical theatre sensibility to songs such as Jumbo, and a sensuous charisma to the band’s gigs.
Way and Kristina are the original line-up’s only surviving members, and Kristina still fronts an incarnation of Curved Air today. This sprawling set assembles the six out-of-print Rarities Series volumes to tap different eras of the band’s history – some of them vital, some of them not so much.
As Prog editor Jerry Ewing writes in his sleeve notes, there are two Curved Air experiences on offer here: jam band or practitioners of exquisitely-arranged songs. The first disc, Tapestry Of Propositions, packs 16 different live improvs on the same rapid-fire riff and is probably only for completists. But disc four’s document of the line-up that made the underrated Phantasmagoria playing live in Germersheim, Germany in 1972, is hugely impressive.
Elsewhere, discs two and three house the band’s very decent, almost entirely improvised 2016 studio albums Curved Space and Infinity (the latter largely driven by Monkman’s successor on keyboards, Robert Norton).
Pleasing, too, that discs five and six tap the unforgettable show Curved Air played at Chelsea FC’s Under The Bridge venue in September 2015 while celebrating the 45th anniversary of Air Conditioning.
The set cherrypicks the best of the band’s catalogue including timeless UK No.4 single, Back Street Luv, while added poignancy comes from the presence of since-departed Curved Air greats Florian Pilkington-Miksa and Ian Eyre.
The Rarities Series box set is on sale now via Spirit Of Unicorn.
