Curved Air - Live

Prog for the taxman Not only did this short-lived

Curved Air reunion feature four original band members, Sonja Kristina, Darryl Way, Francis Monkman and Florian Pilkington Miska, but it ultimately found itself preserved for posterity on this live album. Live was recorded in December 1974 at Cardiff University and Bristol Polytechnic during a three-week UK tour put together to take care of a huge unpaid VAT bill.

Compiled from recordings from both shows and rush released on Deram in February 1975, this survives as a document born of hard times. Appropriately, given that fourfifths of the original line-up are in attendance, the repertoire is drawn from the first three albums, Air Conditioning, Second Album and Phantasmagoria, all released before the band fragmented. Built around virtuoso displays from electric violinist Darryl Way, guitarist/keyboardist Francis Monkman and their interaction with the exotic Sonja Kristina, on their more spun out excursions (most notably Darryl Way’s Vivaldi showcase) Curved Air’s improvisational instincts find them straying into the thenfashionable jazz-rock world. It’s ironic, though, that their last hurrah should have come about at the behest of the taxman.

4 stars 4 stars 4 stars 4 stars

Esoteric | ECLEC 2067

Reviewed by Grahame Bent
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