Air Cut

One late night in 1973, long before the days of Clear Channel's limited play lists, I was listening to the radio when they played a perfect late-night song. The 10 minute Metamorphosis by Curved Air. That autumn I went to a local department store, who had a bin of imported albums and purchased Air Cut. When CDs came out, Air Cut was one I was eager to see released in that format. It took around 30 years for the German Repertoire label to release an acceptable version. Finally 45 years after the initial release, a proper, remixed version is out. The sound is dynamic with every instrument given its due. The included booklet explains the unusual situation that led to the album, and corrects mistakes made on the original sleeve. As a progressive rock album, Air Cut is up there with Close to the Edge and Brain Salad Surgery and one more people should know about.

I am happy that you were able to find this CD....it is an older one from the 70's....thank you

The music here, and in particular Jobson's prodigy-level contributions, should already be known to you. While the notes here claim that Curved Air was the Very First Group to employ classical techniques, the claim is simply and blatantly untrue. By the time CA's first album was released in 1970, The Nice, The Moody Blues and others had, with varying degrees of success, already delivered a fairly weighty load of the occasionally brilliant, occasionally oddly misshapen hybrids. As for the fury that Darryl Way unleashed, don't forget High Tide. The line-up they used for their 1969 album "Sea Shanties" proves to be a defining one. And, not to take anything away from Curved Air, I'd argue that even The Beatles' "Eleanor Rigby" should be considered as one of the early successes of the category. So instead of adding to the adoration of the music, I'd just like to comment on Chris Welch's notes to this reissue. Setting the first place claim for CA aside, he does an excellent job of giving us the shorthand history of the group. But here's what's so disappointing. It turns out to be that same-old, same-old break-up story. The now boilerplate gobbledygook about disagreements on "presentation" and "direction" that always seems to be lurking in the background, ready to tear up one worthwhile group or another, despite all their songs about love and gettin' it together. And now that we all get to plumb our early listening years with greater historical and audio detail as well as first-person accounts, the unbearable weight of egos keeps coming up from behind to rob artists and audiences of what woulda, coulda, shoulda been. As evidenced by the music on "Air Cut", it's too bad that Curved Air the band wasn't as different as their music was from all those others that collapsed due to mostly subjective problems. If they had been, they might have seen far enough beyond the squabbles to stick to the work right there in front of them. Perhaps their recent reunion was an acknowledgment of the fact that things weren't all that bad between them after all. Too bad then, about all those years in between...

Curved Air’s best release - taken to next level with SACD remaster. Sound quality is outstanding - really stunning. Air Cut is my favorite Curved Air release and it has never sounded better. If you like Air Cut you will love the SACD!

Classic and underrated album from Prog-Rock legends

Be listening to this since the 70's - awesome album

I entirely agree with Kerry Liemar that CA, for all their merits, were not the progenitors( and neither were the embarrassing Genesis in at the genesis) of classical/ progressive rock.They weren't anywhere near that place and it was the likes of The Nice and the Moody Blues who can claim that 'honour'. I first encountered CA as a 14 year old schoolboy who was bowled over visually by Sonja Kristina, and aurally by the boys whose musicianship could not be faulted. After a gap of nearly 40 years,they came to my attention again when I was handed a flyer for their forthcoming 100 Club gig. On the back of that, I bought Retrospective to reassure myself that they really were as good as I remembered ( the past has a way of being capricious and playing tricks with what you had thought for all these years was the touchstone).CA were not as I remembered them: they were immeasurably better. The nearest I can get to an explanation as to why they were not commercially more successful is that Sonja was - and no doubt still is - so horny that CA couldn't be taken seriously by some. The snobbery of 'heads' was such that anything susceptible to easy understanding and appreciation was immediately suspect and passed over in favour of an album cover so obscure that you didn't always know what the hell you got.That didn't matter, though : the purpose was to flaunt the obscurity and tell anyone who asked that you had followed the band ( the word 'group'had no place for the progressives ) for 5 years or more and were now concernd that they were becoming too commercial and selling out. And Sonja was so easy to appreciate. 40 years ago it never occurred to me that CA were particularly exemplars of progressive music. I would define the early years of prog rock as being the sort of music you could only find if you listened to radio shows hosted by John Peel, Bob Harris,Alan Black or Alan Freeman. The later years were characterised by ludicrously over - bloated nonsense that could not be replicated on stage. Not that this worried them a jot: they simply hired a few national orchestras and crammed them onto a stage already groaning under the weight of stacks of amps that would have been more use at Woodstock. Rant over.There is nothing per se wrong with progressive rock. It is the company you kept that was the problem eg bands who felt that a week rummaging through the dictionary to find a word like 'topographical' was worth it. At a tangent, CA remind me very much of Trees : or vice versa. Anyone who likes CA will almost certainly feel the same about Trees who, so far as I know, didn't enjoy much success but, for better or worse, were not labelled 'progressive'. See you at the 100 Club.

good cd, but I prefer the 1st 4 LPs (includes Lovechild)

CDで買い直し30年ぶりに聴いてみた。ソーニャのボーカルとエディのキーボード、バイオリンが最高でした。

The best Curved Air album in my opinion. After seeing them a few nights ago at the Brook in Southampton, where they performed most of this album, I felt I just had to go and buy a copy. Superb decision, it's great, Superb drumming from Florian, Eddie Jobson fills Darryl Way's shoes superbly and Kirby's guitar playing was as good a few nights ago as it was all those years ago. If you only buy one Curved Air album buy this one... I'm just about to buy another copy for my best man's birthday - Happy Birthday Graeme!

Avevo già ascoltato l'album ma non lo possedevo.

Lange Gesucht dann gefunden , Klasse !

La pochette et le cd sont en très bon état. Ecoute parfaite. le disque est excellent et correspond tout à fait à ce que j'aime.