Customer Reviews

Phantasmagoria

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The first Curved Air song I heard -- "It Happened Today -- left me decidedly unimpressed. Yet good word of mouth by real music fans convined me to give this album a chance. And I'm glad I did.

It's got all the familiar staples of the British prog LP: odd time signatures, historical and literary references, instrumental experimentation and prowess, and (of course) a sprawling multi-movement suite. All which gels quite nicely: "Phantasmagoria" is a classic from the somber opening moments of "Marie Antoinette" to the joyously upbeat ending of "Once a Ghost Always a Ghost."

The haunting acoustic piece "Melinda (More or Less)" replaces the standard guitar solo with a gorgeous violin solo over delicate acoustic picking. If the tragedy Sonja sings of doesn't get to you, this solo certainly will. The electric violin is in fact all over this album (check out "Cheetah") and gives it a fairly unique sound. The synth-piano keyboard instrumental "Ultra-Vivaldi" speeds to an impossibly fast climax and holds up well against the contemporary work of the Wakemans and Emersons of the world. Which leads us to the centerpiece/magnum opus: the four part "Phantasmagoria" suite that is the entire second half of the album. Like the best multimovement suites in the prog genre, it holds together as a musical whole over the course of four different thematic changes. And the concept -- Lewis Carroll set to music -- is a refreshing change of pace from the sometime overwraught epics of the more well known prog bands.

You can't really go wrong with an album that ends: "Nobody will know you're there / unless you care to sneeze / head in arm and hand in hand / we'll haunt the seven-seas." All-in-all a nice compliment to any record collection that already contains Close to the Edge, Foxtrot, Brain Salad Surgery, and/or Thick As A Brick.

The third album follows the tradition with some refinement. 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 had surfaced from the psychedelic mold, and Curved Air was still making mega-leaps in song construction and complexity. Personnel change for this album brought Mike Wedgewood in as Bassist. From the beautiful Marie Antoinette to the straightforward pop tune Phantasmagoria to relentless Cheetah, the quality just kept coming. The complexity and continuous changes in tone and beat set the mark for other Prog Rock groups to emulate in songs like Over and Above with its multiple layers of sound. More electronic and synth experimentation on this album than the others - Ultra Vivaldi and Who's Shoulder Are You Looking Over Anyway? - Highly recommended, of course.

This is without a doubt the most elaborate album Curved Air had released at that point. Here the band included strings and horns to their music. The band had problems keeping bass players too, they were now to their third bassist, Mike Wedgwood, who would later be a short-time member of Caravan (for the album Cunning Stunts and Blind Dog at St. Dunstans). Phantasmagoria was basically the final album with the original lineup (more or less, save the bassist, of course). The first couple of songs are not too far off from Second Album, like "Marie Antoinette" and "Melinda (More or Less)", both stunning ballads, the former obviously dealing with Marie Antoinette who was beheaded during the French Revolution. These two songs are no doubt enhanced by the vocals of Sonja Kristina, who without a doubt became quickly one of my favorite female vocalist. "Not Quite the Same" features lyrics that I am unable to mention here. "Cheetah" is an instrumental piece dominated by Darryl Way's violin, while "Ultra-Vivaldi" was obviously Francis Monkman doing Vivaldi on the VCS-3 synthesizer (although the band did explore Vivaldi on Air Conditioning, their debut, so this wasn't exactly new for the band). The second half of the album finds the band being more experimental. "Whose Shoulder Are You Locking" is a strange, Francis Monkman electronic experiment with what sounds like Sonja Kristina speaking through a vocoder (I understand this involved some sort of computer and someone who worked for Electronic Music Studios, the company responsible for the VCS-3/Synthi "A" synthesizers, as well as later on, vocoders). I am not totally clear on how this experiment worked. "Over and Above" finds the band going even further in jazzier territory, with vibraphones and xylophones, horns, strings, passages that at times might remind you of Zappa or Gentle Giant, as well as tons of cool jazzy passages dominated by vibes. "Once a Ghost Always a Ghost" continues in Curved Air fashion, with lots of horns with a quirky bent. Although their previous album (Second Album) is easier to get in to, Phantasmagoria proves that Curved Air was a band deserving just as much attention as their prog contemporaries like Yes or ELP (although Curved Air did received moderate UK success). Wonderful album that's truly essential.

That wonderful progressive British band Curved Air, featuring that delicious, sensual singer Sonja Kristina, released their third album in 1972. Called Phantasmagoria (and reportedly inspired by the Lewis Carroll poem), this album boasted world-class playing and state of the art electronics. (Today, some of the electronics don't seem so state of the art as they did in '72; ah, well, life goes on and all that!) "Marie Antoinette" is an absolutely gorgeous, moving epic about the French Revolution and the queen who lost her head; this song starts slowly by design and moves relentlessly toward it's final climax; Darryl Way (violin and keyboards) and Francis Monkman (guitar and more keyboards) are especially good on this number."Melinda (More or Less)" is Curved Air's most achingly beautiful song and has a pastoral feel; here, Sonja heightens the young woman's internal struggle by playing down the vocals. Sheer Perfection! "Not Quite the Same" is a swift, horn-laden ditty that Onan would love! (Look it up!) "Cheetah" is even swifter and features Way's "whirling dervish" violin. Fabulous! "Over and Above" is the highlight of the "Phantasmagoria Suite" and features the band at their most mature with a jazzy, classical epic that sums up the album's themes to perfection. All the players are incredible here, especially the horns and percussion! Sheer Excitement! "Once a Ghost, Always a Ghost" is nothing more than a ghoulish cocktail party. What delightful fun! In short, it doesn't matter whether you get this album in this life or the afterlife, just get this album! It's truly Phantasmagoricalirific!!!

When listening to this, the final album made by the first incarnation of Curved Air, it's important to remember that it was made in 1972: sound technology has improved incredibly since then. It's a very experimental album, that also has a fair amount of humour. Ultra-Vivaldi, on the original vinyl, was the last track on side one, and its final drone ran on into the lift-out groove, so it repeated indefinitely. Listen carefully to the words of "Not Quite the Same"...

Most experimental track is "Whose Shoulder..." which consists solely of Sonja Kristina's voice reciting an excerpt from a Lewis Carroll poem. Her voice is run through various synthesisers, cut up and distorted, making a perfect bridge between the precision-pop of the title track and the thunder of "Over and Above" which features a number of extra musicians. These three tracks make up the core of the record, a fifteen minute suite which on the original vinyl was presented as a single track.

As a result of enjoying Phantasmagoria I went on to discover both baroque chamber music (via the harpsichord on "Melinda")and ambient and experimental music (via "Whose Shoulder...") - there aren't many records that are capable of pushing someone in such disparate directions!

His name is Mike WEDGWOOD! (no "e").

Curved Air's difficult third album, mostly recorded at Air Studios, divides and unites fans in equal measure. The reviewers so far have pretty accurately highlighted its strengths and weaknesses. Always, and I mean always, the contribution of newcomer Mike Wedgwood and drummer Florian Pilkington-Miksa is underestimated: Mike's dextrous bass and immaculate vocal harmonies, with Florian's sparse and beautifully accurate drumming, are about the only consistency in the whole record.

Sonja Kristina's two main songs, Marie Antoinette and Melinda More or Less, are both good, the former being more like the "old" Curved Air, the latter really being a "folk" song that she could carry off well with just an acoustic guitar (which she plays very well indeed, by the way) if needs be. "Never quite the same", a curiously tastless song about masturbation, has a lovely orchestral introduction but is uninteresting after that (apart from Wedgwood's running bass) and "Once a Ghost" is really just a filler. Francis Monkman's long piece that takes up a lot of side two is musically complex and very well played (fantastic drummimg from the consistent Florian Pilkington Miksa) - but, again, is it interesting enough? Darryl Way's violin piece "Cheetah" is quite stirring but is, again, not hugely interesting. The "Ultra Vivaldi" sequenced piece could either be mantra-like attractive or maddening. Most find it maddening.

Nobody for a second questions the musical ability of these people and if they appeared nowadays it would be like the Second Coming. But on this album they seemed to struggle too hard to break new ground and to inject a jazz/classical paste into a mould that would not readily take it.There was also too much fiddling with electronic toys and Vocoder precursors (like Patrick Moraz in the band Refugee). It's boring. After this, only Sonja and Mike were left and they produced one of the best, most under-rated and nelected albums of all times, Air Cut (please see my review on Amazon.com) - but that's another story.

My advice? It spans the whole star rating from one star to five stars with moments of real excellence peppered with moments of mediocrity and/or poor taste. Still about 40 times better than 9/10s of the competition and for that reason alone worth a listen - and worth buying. I just wish these top-flight musicians could have left a real diamond in this line-up before they went their separate ways.

The journey of discovering the sweetness of Curved Air was slow motion for me. I heard bits of "Over and Above" on an AM radio station in Dallas around 1973 and was hooked. Now that I've listened to the song more closely, it's easy to understand why: An alluring Avante Garde intro, great arrangement with xylophone, violin, horns and rather spooky albeit beautiful vocal harmonies, long jazzy solos with vibraphone and synth keyboards... Unfortunately, the DJ got the name of the group wrong and my quest for the album ended in disappointment. The song stuck with me though and on a whim I recently entered the one lyric I'd remembered into a search engine ("life begins in a thousand years ") and scoured through the links. One of them was a web site dedicated to the somewhat obscure psychedelic art-rock band, Curved Air. When I heard an excerpt of the track I'd heard 33 years earlier, it was like turning the key to a door that opened into another world. Even after decades, the music stands distinctly on it's own, offering a remarkable experience for all who would listen. I'm really glad this CD is available! :-)



(Techno-Nerd Suggestion: If you are so inclined, you can use a parametric EQ to reduce low end at around 100Hz to effect a more balanced bass. Not every song will require the same equalization, so use your ear!)

This is a great album. It has a supernatural atmosphere to it that makes it different from anything else I've ever heard. Done a little differently, this would not be my cup of tea, however, the way they execute the music sold me from the first strains of Mary Antonette. It is mood music, to be sure, and it is certainly not heavy. However, it is great music and brings back memories of Spain in the early seventies. I think despite the rather primitive electronics (by today's standards, maybe) this album would do well today. Then again, it is probably not bland enough to be a hit album! Highly recommended.

Curved Air is just one of those bands from the seventies that must be remembered for their musical ingenuity. They experimented with everything they could lay their hands on. And it resulted in some brilliant lp's. Fortunately we have their records on cd now.

I am not quite sure why it took me so long to "come around" to Curved Air - this is fantastic English progressive rock that holds a great deal of interest for me. Released in 1972, Phantasmagoria comes close to the glory of their debut album and is probably their most musically involved and "proggy". After this album, the band pretty much fell apart leaving only lead vocalist Sonja Kristina and bassist Mike Wedgewood to carry on with the Aircut album (1973).

The musicians on Phantasmagoria include Sonja Kristina (lead vocals; acoustic guitar); Darryl Way (violin; piano); Francis Monkman (guitar; Hammond organ; synthesizers; mellotron); Mike Wedgewood (electric bass; backing vocals); and Florian Pilkington-Miksa (drums and percussion). Guest musicians include Frank Ricotti (xylophone and vibes) and several horn players that are not credited. All of the band members are fantastic and some even received formal musical training at the Royal College of Music (Daryl). I think however, that I appreciate the lead vocals of Sonja the most. After all, women in progressive rock were a rarity and it is a real treat to hear Sonja's light and airy vocal style in this context.

Musically, this is full blown progressive rock that mixes classical, rock, and experimental approaches together. There are also some delicate moments too, which is especially evident in Sonja's delicate and haunting tune Melinda (More or Less). Francis Monkman's brief instrumental ode to Vivaldi is also interesting and was played entirely on synthesizers. Darryl Way also has an instrumental piece that features the violin as a solo instrument with excellent accompaniment by the entire band. The centerpiece of the album however is the 19'29" epic, four part Phantasmagoria suite which was written largely by Francis Monkman with contributions by Sonja. This is a decent large-scale composition that boasts some exceptionally intricate time signatures and fantastic ensemble playing. There are some psychedelic experimental passages here and there that really add a lot to the suite.

This CD reissue by Collector's Choice Music is just OK and has a few informative liner notes that discuss some historical tidbits, along with specifics about the Phantasmagoria album itself.

All in all, this is another great album of progressive rock by Curved Air that is highly recommended along with Air Conditioning (1970); and Second Album (1971).