MASTERS FROM THE VAULTS: CURVED AIR

This DVD presents a CURVED AIR studio-concert filmed by the Belgian TV in 1972.Now the director had the idea to superpose the band images with images of a Zoo: state of the art 70's TV! This has quite a comic side effect, especially on 'Propositions' where you see an eagle tearing to pieces a guinnee pig and eating it. (You don't want your kids to see this DVD, otherwise they will think that Prog has something to do with murdering innocent guinnee pigs). The studio concert itself is of good quality,the images are clear and the sound is good. 'Melinda More Or Less' is my favourite track, it is a beautiful song, you see mainly Sonja Kristina playing acoustic guitar and this is the only animal-free song, instead you got some pychedelic bubbles on the edge of the screen (Those were the days...) 'Vivaldi' is the longest track and as on the record a showcase for Daryl Way's violin skills, observed by some ennoyed fishes, that don't seem to appreciate Daryl's playing at his right value. The interview with Daryl Way is interesting but quite short. The DVD is an interesting document about Curved Air and 70's TV, especially if you like Prog and animals.

This is unbelievable! This band's act is much more entertaining with visual dimension, as they had really weird 60's/70's outlook, and SONJA KRISTINA truly acts out the numbers with deep emotions, ranging from hazy mellow to a furious rage. She's pretty to look at to, as she shines with selfconfidence and lets spontaneous impulses come through.

"Marie Antoinette" sounds like a left wing political folk rock, and "Propositions" is an imaginative, aggressive tune, my favorite of these maybe. "Melinda More or Less" is also a great scene of classical psych oriented folk. "Vivaldi" is the solo performance fantasy, partly good, but also a bit banal. If you enjoyed this performance, you can find more stuff from"Beat Club" DVD's, there's a great shot of "It Happened Today" from year 1971.

Be aware that this DVD only has 30 minutes of the band performing.Its a bit of a rip off and doesn't do this fine band any real justice IMO.I do like what there is though as you get Darryl Way going over the top Emerson style on 'Vivaldi' as he throws the electric violin across the stage! Great fun and the attractive lead singer Sonja Kristina enhances the viewing pleasure for a mostly male dominated prog audience.But the shortness of it all makes it 2 stars at best.( btwThe 'classic rock showcase' is about other bands (including Nektar) ).

Hm, out of almost 100 minutes, this DVD contains only about 40 minutes of CURVED AIR, so be careful when buying! 30 minutes of live performance of the band in studio filmed by a Belgian TV is superb, although the extended violin solo by D. Way in Vivaldi might be boring. What further spoils the short performance is annoying film editing, disposing birds, fish and monkey during Propositions. The bulk of DVD contains commercials and trailers for various music acts and while most of them may be interesting to see for a prog fan, this has mindlessly diminished the quality of the video. Still, if you come across it, take a peak! 3 stars.

2,5 stars, really. Like all Curved Air´s fans I was anxious to find any live footage of their shows. After all, Curved Air Live was the first album I ever saw of them. So I was quite disapointed - like everybody else - when I found this DVD. It was recorded for belgian TV and it contains only four songs on it. And much time is wasted on a long jam involving Darryl Way´s famous Vivaldi track. I guess it was ok for the time but it sounds a bit too self indulgent nowadays. On the other hand the three remaining tunes are excellent. I specially loved to see their rendition of Marie Antoinette. The rest fo the DVD is filled with trailers and samples from other Masters From The Vaults series.

I´d like to give this DVD a higher rating since the band was at its peak and it was great to see them performing live. But it is not what fans expected. It is too short and too expensive. I hope one day a truly, complete show preferably, stage perfomance of Curved Air will be found somewhere and presented to us in near future.