AIRCONDITIONING

London-based UK act Curved Air evolved from the late-60's band Sisyphus, formed by violin player Darryl Way and guitarist Francis Monkman, involving also pianist Nick Simon, drummer Florian Pilkington-Miksa and bassist Rob Martin.The band's manager Mark Hanau suggested to hire Sonja Kristina Linwood as their lead singer and so it became.After Sonja Kristina arrived, Simon parted ways with the band, which was now renamed to Curved Air.They were the first British band to sign with Warner Bros and their debut ''Air Conditioning'' was released in November 70'.

Although the album is far from a masterpiece, it definitely shows the (right) direction rock music was heading to around the time and additionally Curved Air were among the first British Rock bands to perform the violin as a basic instrument.Their sound was a mix of British Psych Rock with Folk Rock and strong Classical overtones coming out of Way's violin due to his classical education.While the tracks are not particularly complex, the constant use of violins, the discreet Mellotron parts and the psych guitars definitely complete an attractive Art Rock combination.The atmosphere changes from fiery and intense rockin' moments to romantic Classical-influenced instrumentals and Sonja Kristina's voice is certainly a welcome addition, having a voice that sounds both sensitive and passionate.Some tracks even contain sort of a bucolic British Folk mood due to the use of acoustic guitars and, no surprise, Darryl Way's rural performances.The long instrumental ''Vivaldi'' sounds a lot like NEW TROLLS' early works, an attempt by the group to fully capture the Classical Music aesthetics into full-blown rock music, but the result sounds a bit dated.

''Air Conditioning'' was definitely a great debut back at the time and some of its material sounds great even today.It lacks though this special touch to label it as a really astonishing work.Still this comes recommended, especially if you love the early-70's British Prog atmosphere.