Air Conditioning

Curved Air | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (August 8, 2000)
• Original Release Date: 1970
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Collector's Choice
• ASIN: B00004W5KY
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Vinyl  | 
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #199,668 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. It Happened Today

2. Stretch

3. Screw

4. Blind Man

5. Vivaldi

6. Hide and Seek

7. Propositions

8. Rob One

9. Situations

10. Vivaldi With Cannons

Editorial Reviews

Import reissue of the British progressive rock outfit's 1970 debut. 10 tracks including 'It Happened Today', 'Stretch','Screw' and 'Blind Man'. Standard jewelcase. --This text refers to an alternate Audio CD edition.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The air is always curved if you choose to see it, September 14, 2005

By 

Steve McMullen "chronosynclasticinfundibi" (Upland, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Air Conditioning (Audio CD)

Born from the British group Sisyphus in 1968, the core of Frances Monkman (Guitar), Florian Pilkington-Miksa (Drums) and Rob Martin (Bass) met up with another visionary, Darryl Way (Violin, Keyboards) to form Curved Air. Very shortly, they were joined by Acoustic Guitarist/Singer Sonja Kristina. A milestone in the Progressive/Folk Rock genre was surfacing from the psychedelic mold, as Curved Air made mega-leaps in song construction and complexity. An impressive first effort. Song by song description is not necessary. They are all cutting edge for 1970. Highly recommended. It is unfortunate that this band didn't get the recognition it deserved in the U.S. The same fate as Gentle Giant. Look for the 4th album, AIR CUT. You can find it on CD elsewhere on the internet. Personnel change brought Eddie Jobson (from Roxy Music) on Keyboards and Violin. The tune Metamorphosis is well worth a listen.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars How's the sound quality?, February 12, 2007

By 

kireviewer (Sunnyvale, Ca United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Air Conditioning (Audio CD)

Released in 1970, this is Curved Air's first album. It is 44 minutes long. The original album came as picture disc (the picture on the cover was actually printed on the record). It was supposedly the first rock picture disc in history. It was also the first release by Warner Brothers of a British rock act.

There are two versions of this CD. I have the Warner Brother's version and the sound quality is fair. It is flat and muted. I was debating to give this a 4 or a 5 star rating but settled on 4 stars because fo the sound quality. This version is from Collector's Choice Music. I don't know if the sound quality is any better. I remember not being impressed with other CCM releases.

Curved Air was one of those groups that added "art rock" to "progressive rock", like Yes, the Nice and Emerson, Lake and Palmer. There were many progressive rock bands that did not have that art rock sound, like Caravan and Camel.

This might be Curved Air's best stuido album. It has a number of very good songs on it. None of the go bombastically overboard (like Marie Antoinetted on a later album).

Curved Air's sound and Sonja Kristina vocals could be harsh at times, but then the band could break into some wonderfully beautiful music. The first track, It Happened Today, is a prime example. It starts out with a hard driving, punchy vocal and ends up with a mellow violin solo. It sounds like Disneyland stole it for the theme music to the ride Soaring Over California.

Curved Air was a volatile group of some amazing musicians. There was never a steady bassist. Francis Monkman (keyboards and guitar), Darryl Way (violin) and Florian Pilkington-Miska (drums) left after the third album and would could back every once in awhile. Sonja Kristina was Sonja Linwood for the first two albums. Mike Wedgewood would play bass on a couple of ablums before moving on to Caravan. Eddie Jobson would join later before going on to Roxy Music, UK, Jethro Tull and Frank Zappa. And this was Stewart Copeland's first band before forming the Police.

Francis Monkman has a great album of instrumentals called Jam that were recorded during one of the later Curved Air reunion sessions.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good debut album of psychedelic/prog rock by Curved Air, August 19, 2007

By 

Jeffrey J.Park (Massachusetts, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Air Conditioning (Audio CD)

Released in 1970, Air Conditioning marks the emergence of Curved Air as a force within the realm of progressive music. Although it did not thrill me as much as Second Album (1971) or Phantasmagoria (1972), this is still a great Curved Air album and would make an excellent addition to the English psych/progressive rock collection. In spite of my griping however, it was the track It Happened Today that got me into Curved Air in the first place.

The musicians on Air Conditioning include Sonja Kristina (lead vocals); Darryl Way (electric violin and vocals); Francis Monkman (electric guitar; Hammond organ; mellotron; electric harpsichord, special effects, VCS3 synthesizer, and piano); Robert Martin (electric bass; backing vocals); and Florian Pilkington-Miksa (drums and percussion). All of the band members are fantastic and Daryl even received formal musical training at the Royal College of Music. Both individual and ensemble virtuosity is high, which was characteristic of the English progressive rock bands in general. Although there is some superb keyboard work on the album, there is also a lot of hard-edged electric guitar work that seems to me to be more of a 1960's psychedelic holdover than anything else. With time however, the emphasis on the electric guitar would fade away and by the time of Phantasmagoria Francis would favor a more keyboard dominated approach. Sonja's lead vocals are superb and really contribute to the unique Curved Air sound, although they are not featured as prominently as on later albums by the group. Curved Air would have a revolving door when it came to bassists and Rob was the first of many - interestingly however, he did contribute a lot to the writing and has at least two co-writing credits with a third composition that he wrote alone (Rob One).

The ten tracks range in length from 1:35 to Darryl's track Vivaldi (7:28). Musically, this is a heady mixture of psychedelic rock, progressive rock, classical, and experimental approaches along with some delicate acoustic moments (the soft track Blind Man is a good example). Perhaps the most 1960's sounding track on the album is the jam-heavy Propositions, which is dominated by heavy/spacey/psychedelic electric guitar work and excellent drumming. Darryl's instrumental piece Vivaldi features the violin as a solo instrument with a thunderous accompaniment by the entire band. My favorite tracks include the acoustic piano led track Situations (Francis does a great job on the piano), Screw, and Vivaldi, although the entire album works for me as a complete whole.

This CD reissue by Collector's Choice Music is extremely skimpy and does not feature any liner notes or other extras. The sound quality is not that hot and the overall sound levels of the different tracks seem to vary.

All in all, this is another great album of progressive rock by Curved Air that is highly recommended along with Second Album and Phantasmagoria.