Phantasmagoria is the third album by this wonderful, and often underrated British prog rock band. This was also the final album with the original lineup of vocalist Sonja Kristina, keyboardist Francis Monkman, violinist Darryl Way, and drummer Florian Pilkington-Miksa. The band at this point was on to their third bassist, in this case Mike Wedgwood who was later a member of Caravan (for the albums Cunning Stunts and Blind Dog at St. Dunstans). The addition of Mike Wedgwood to Curved Air certainly didn't hurt the band any.
Phantasmagoria is an even more elaborate album than before with more strings and horns added on, plus a jazzier feel, no doubt helped by Florian Pilkington-Miksa's drumming and even the presence of vibraphone on some of the cuts. The album opens up with "Marie Antoinette", a Curved Air ballad dominated by the wonderful voice of Sonja Kristina. I like how the rhythm of the song changes as it progresses, while keeping the same melody. The lyrics, unsurprisingly, are about the French Revolution and the beheading of Marie Antoinette. The next song is a truly stunning ballad, "Melinda (More or Less)", dominated by what sounds like overdubbed violins from Darryl Way, and let's not forget the voice of Sonja Kristina, this song only proves, in my opinion, that she is one of the great female vocalist. Then there's the jazzy "Not Quite the Same". The lyrics deal with masturbation, with lyrics that goes something like "He busies himself/while amusing himself/while abusing himself".
The next song is the Darry Way instrumental "Cheetah", which, unsurprisingly is dominated by his violin work. "Ultra Vivaldi" is Francis Monkman playing Vivaldi on his VCS-3 synthesizer. I love how this piece keeps going faster and faster. Of course Phantasmagoria wasn't the first time Curved Air explored Vivaldi, as they explored Vivaldi on Air Conditioning (their 1970 debut) on two cuts, "Vivaldi" and "Vivaldi with Cannons". The title track is next, which is a rather straightforward piece with some cleaver lyrics, before going in to a rather bizarre Francis Monkman experiment called "Whose Shoulder Are You Looking Over Anyway?" This one involves Sonja Kristina speaking in to a computer and synthesizer a Lewis Carroll poem, with the help of Peter Zinovieff (who worked for Electronic Music Studio, the company responsible for the VCS-3/Synthi A sythesizer, as well as vocoders). The results make it sound like Sonja Kristina is speaking through a vocoder, which makes me wonder if this experiment inspired EMS (Electronic Music Studio) to develop vocoders? In the background is some strange use of Hammond organ.
The next song, "Over and Above" kicks in. This song shows the jazzier side of Curved Air, especially with a wonderful vibraphone solo. There also a quirky feel in many passages that bring to mind Gentle Giant. Francis Monkman also gives a couple of synth solos where he set the synth to sound like a clarinet (but I can tell it was a synthesizer). The final piece is "Once a Ghost, Always a Ghost". Often referred to the band exploring mariachi, because there is that "party" atmosphere and horns. It doesn't sound particularly Mexican, but of that Curved Air prog rock sound. What's really surprising is the label Curved Air recorded for: Warner Bros., as major of a label as you get, but it's nice to see a label like them sign such an interesting band as Curved Air.
Although Phantasmagoria is not as direct and accessible as their previous album, Second Album, it's still a wonderful and rewarding listen, and if you enjoy Curved Air, this album is truly a must!
