DARRYL WAY

Well, let's see: darkly mysterious ancient-like chants melding with some good guitar licks give way to a mid-tempo classic prog-rock number, that's the opener for this new solo venture of Darryl Way, the legendary violin player with the original Curved Air. And there is a good measure of that instrument in this album, but in the context of an overall equilibrated rock band sound.

Magenta Aura is the name of the fictional rock band from the late Sixties created for the novel acompanying this musical album, founded by a musician with a background and musical studies very similar to Way himself. A sort of Spinal Tap insufflated with higher ideals, working as an alter ego for the young pride and aspirations of the Rock Artist, but with much sweeter sound quality.

So, there you have, a fake '68 band sounding like mid-Seventies, but within today's recording standards. The songs are great, with very good melodies, a series of welcomed instrumental passages adding to the classical taste of the mix (listen to track 7 Time Machine), and a set of solid vocals, maybe turning a little bit generic on occassions (mainly in the harmony parts), but bettered by the sweet relief of the guest singer (no other than Mr. Steve Hoggarth) in the track 5, Morpheus.

It's in the last couple of tracks where we get the more definitely late-Sixties sounding vibe, and, even when that is obviously a matter of personal taste, I have to say that there is no problem for me with that retro finale.

No collection with a place for Darryl's own output should miss this one.

Antonio Vivaldi, AKA "il prete rosso" (the red priest, because of his red hair), born March 4th 1678 in Venice, Italy, was a wide recognized composer and violinist in his time, but rapidly forgotten after his death in 1741. Just more recently, in the 20th century, thanks to the investigations of Italian scholar Alberto Gentili (a professor of music history at Turin University), he became one of the top figures representing the Baroque period in music. The Four Seasons is undoubtedly his more popular work and received the contemporary treatment more than once. Off the top of my head, I should mention a new composition by Astor Piazzola following the formal template of Vivaldi's work, and a "contemporary re-imagining" by Max Richter.

Darryl Way, on the other side, goes for a literal interpretation of the original Seasons, with just some room allowed for ornamentation in the slow moves, as classical tradition dictates. Really basic bass, drums, guitar and a pinch of (kind of cheesy) synth stay mainly in the background, providing a circumspect, very low-profile frame and a rhythmic base for what is, basically, a classical performance by Way with his violin. Of course, the main riff and some variations of Vivaldi (the 1970's track by Curved Air) comes to mind as soon as we come to the Allegros opening for Summer and Winter, and that's a delight... as it is the entire album, exquisitely chiceled with taste, brilliance and energy by this great virtuoso.

Darryl Way was 16 when he won a scholarship to Dartington College of Arts to study violin, after leaving college he teamed up with Francis Monkman to found the rock band Curved Air, he wrote the music for the top 4 hit, Back Street Luv. After calling Curved Air a day he released several solo albums in the genres rock and classical, among these, was a Concerto For Electric Violin. His musical collaborations include Tim Rice and Gary Brooker (Procol Harum), orchestrating and conducting A Whiter Shade of Pale and Salty Dog. Daryl also did work for the television (ITV and BBC) and advertising (writing the music for Jaguar, Lindt Chocolate, Whiskas and Phillips Whirlpool). As a violinist he has lead the London based Electric Symphony Orchestra for concerts at the Royal Festival Hall. As a session musician he has performed solo violin on the Jethro Tull album Heavy Horses, the Sky 2 album and the Marrianne Faithfull single Broken English. He has also played with the National Philharmonic Orchestra on film scores such as Die Hard, Licensed To Kill" and Baron Munchausen. Darryl also had the pleasure of performing with Eric Clapton on two occasions, for charity concerts. Finally, during his career, Darryl has created and been a major part of over twenty commercially released albums. An impressive musical curriculum vitae!

As a huge fan of the electric violin I am very much into the work of Eddie Jobson (not solo) with UK and Jethro Tull, and Jean-Luc Ponty, but for me Darryl Way is pretty much unexplored territory. In fact this album is my first musical encounter with his solo ambitions. I am pleasantly surprised by the huge variety on Destinations.

Up-tempo rock in Downtown (heavy guitar and Sixties guitar sound), The Restless City (also drenched in the Sixties, like The Ventures and The Shadows), Antigua Bay (very tasteful arranged) and the swinging Freedom Road.

A dreamy atmosphere in The Stars (movie soundtrack climate), The Wild West (wonderful orchestral keyboards and tender classical guitar and violin, alongside some sumptuous outbursts), A Rainy Day (romantic keyboards, guitar and violin), Riviera Blue (tango-like rhythm, Sixties guitar sound and subtle electric guitar solo) and Mystic Mountain (melancholical violin and halfway a moving guitar).

The track Metropolis Darryl Way delivers his outstanding skills on the violin, from intense to swirling, along with tasteful work on the guitar.

To me this new solo album sounds very pleasant and varied, the rhythm-section with Pete Skinner on drums and Richard Mead on bass does a good job, and Darryl Way not only plays good violin but also features tastefully arranged work on guitar and keyboards.

My rating: 3,5 star.

This review was previously published on the website of Background Magazine, the oldest Dutch progrock source.

Way surely needs no introduction, as his work with Curved Air was ground-breaking in so many ways. An established multi-instrumentalist, here he restricts himself to mainly violin and electric guitar (with keyboards mostly for melodic support as opposed lead), alongside drummer Pete Skinner and bassist Richard Mead. Darryl Way says the album is "a collection of 10 pieces that set out to conjure up images of far off and exotic locations like Antigua or imagined settings like Metropolis or Mystic Mountains. Like my previous album 'Vivaldi's Four Seasons in Rock', 'Destinations' could be described as programme music, music that evokes atmospheres and impressions."

It certainly is dreamlike at times, and even though his electric violin playing can be quite ferocious, it never really feels aggressive. It is an album which feels like it belongs in the background to create a mood, or played at night when one wants to let the mind wander (although one needs to be careful as there is always the danger it might not come back!). Reflective and delicious, it ties in well with the photo on the album as the passengers fly towards the sun, being taken on a journey to new destinations. While never essential, this is an album which can be easily played and enjoyed.

-- First review of this album --

Four years back I reviewed Darryl Way's album Children of Cosmos that was a major disappointment as my first acquaintance to his solo output. Remembering the violinist's participations in CURVED AIR and his more short-lived own group WOLF, plus his somewhat bold album-forewords referring to a prog spirit, it was twice as disappointing to find out that there frankly was not much progressive rock to be heard. Some of the tracks were fairly nice Celtic-flavoured easy listening stuff, especially the two instrumentals. The vocal pop -oriented whole was marred by phoney programmed sounds, although the electric violin sounded lovely.

This album from 2016 continues on the same direction, again being performed entirely by Darryl Way and containing two instrumental pieces. They are 'Orpheus and the Underworld' and the deeply romantic 'Aphrodite', easily the most pleasant tracks together with the album's only longer piece 'Prometheus Chained' which also is basically an instrumental as it features some reading of Percy Bysshe Shelley's poem. But sonically this myth-inspired album is notably better than the aforementioned. Despite the lack of a full band, the sound (featuring the electric violin, keyboards and programming) is more professional, more convincing. There's improvement also in the layout, by the way.

What comes to the seven more or less conventional and non-proggy songs with vocals, first off, Daryl certainly still isn't the best singer in the prog world. Whereas in 2014 my primary thought was a weaker version of John Wetton, now I got an association to Steve Hackett and his later output with his own vocals. Those songs with a slightly thicker rock approach, such as 'Dove of Peace' and 'Helter Skelter', are totally uninteresting to me, but three songs are actually quite good: 'Strange Goings On', 'The Ice Man' and 'Crusader'. If you took a handful of both good (not the best) and worse tracks from mediocre Hackett albums since the nineties, the result would be on the same level. [Change the guitar to violin, of course.] Perhaps there's just enough improvement from Children of Cosmos to stretch into three stars.

Considering his respectable career as a member of CURVED AIR and as the leader of WOLF, the electric violinist Darryl Way's solo output seems to be rather disappointing. This new album is the first one I hear, and at first I thought that his other albums can't be this bad and so far from prog, but after reading the very few reviews here I see I was simply expecting too much. My confused first reaction is partly explained also by the fact that originally the album's performance info in this page contained only the electric violin. Sadly the songs are very poppy and vocal-oriented, full of kitchy synths and the horrible drum programming! It's true that the leaflet doesn't prepare the listener for anything like that, quite the contrary. Darryl Way writes: "In this album I have tried to recreate the spirit of experimentation that led to the 'Progressive Rock' movement of the late 60s and early 70s." Ha.

False expectations aside. And better just accept that this music has nearly nothing to do with prog, despite his bold words. First off, his voice is actually nice. He reminds a lot of JOHN WETTON, whose vocals I have always liked. But being technically somewhat weak and slightly nasal, the vocals don't work so well on all tracks, they're indeed very far from Wetton's capacity. The best song-writing comes early in the album. The sound then, it would be very enjoyable - what else with a lovely electric violin in sight - if there weren't that phoney programmed stiffness. Why, oh why?

'Fire With Fire' features pretty female guest voice of Rosie (Rosie who??). A welcome change, as well as the peaceful instrumental version of the traditional tune 'Lagan Love', and another instrumental, beautifully orchestrated 'Sergey' - probably an hommage to Rachmaninoff? The majority of the 55- minute, 12-track album proceeds harmlessly in Soft Rock / Easy-Listening / Celtic-influenced pop, with an 80's-like hollow production. The closing track 'Sergey' is a clear highlight, if you enjoy classical music and shamelessly romantic Easy-Listening such as SECRET GARDEN from Norway.

There is some art music flavour elsewhere too, but combined with the synthetic pop approach it becomes Kitch. The worst example is 'Don't Look Back' that citates Pachelbel's Canon. Hooked On Classics -kind of infantile Super Market crossover. Sad to say this of an album with great-sounding electric violin, but I don't think any advanced friend of classically influenced prog would find this album very good. (Well, someone has rated this a masterpiece...)

The reason I give this 5 stars is I have never heard violin played more beautiful.

If prog violin means playing something intricate and hard to play one of those difficult Paganni pieces that Ywiyne J Malsteam, Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, and other guitar shredders and their albums are a found of playing, and full of such tunes, this is not one of these recordings.

Rather, think of the Lark Ascending by Vaughan Willams or even some other Paganni pieces where it is often more difficult to play one note than 50 to a 100 and still get a great emotion out of it,. then this recording is for you.

Combined with brillant backup from Pete Haycock Stewart Copeland and Diesal Martin, you could basically consider to have a classical masterpiece, since many prog recording are classically based, such is my reasoning

Ultra Violins (2013) is an ok collection of classical songs performed by ex Curved Air and ex Wolf Darryl Way.

The album was released in the mid of 2013 and brings 9 tracks and also 3 multimedia sections that you can see on your computer.

The songs on the album were well choosen and Darryl's violins is quite accurate and incendiary. But the backing tracks are not that good indeed. Especially in the version of 'Vivaldi' from his old band Curved Air (from their first album Air Conditioning from 1970), where the electronic outfit is just ridiculous.

All in all is a nice album for people who likes classical music hybrids, But attention, there's absolutelly NO Prog Rock here. Don't say you weren't warned!

Where have I heard this before?

That's what consistantly comes to mind when I hear this album. Not that it's bad. Darryl Way is to fine a musician for the album to be a complete waste. But from the opening track, where the melody is vaguely reminiscent of Japan's Gentlemen Take Polariods, to And The Walls Came Tumbling Down (a title that suggest a song nowhere near as placid as this one is) that sounds like some song by, of all people, The Carpenters, at times, when it's not sounding like Way's Vivaldi, to Crocodile Tears that has passages that sound like the theme song from the TV series "S.W.A.T.", to Allegro Vivace that once more recalls Vivaldi, it just seems like Way is borrowing from too many sources.

But the album is still good. Way is a good violinist (not one of my favorites, but he is no slouch), and his choice of Stewart Copeland on drums helps build the sound. The album is a set of interesting instrumentals, that makes the game of "spot the reference" entertaining.

In the nineteen eighties, Virgin Records introduced the sublabel Venture Records, which featured light classical, jazz, ambient and experimental music, including a number of favorites from this site (Robert Fripp, David Sylvian, Bill Bruford, Bian Eno, Holger Czukay among many others). This album was, as far as I know, the sole release from Curved Air's Darryl Way on this label.

The album is a light classical piece, with Way on solo violin, in front of a string orchestra, called Opus 20, along with a piano player and percussionist. The piece, while not spectacular, is not bad. Way avoids the hyper experimentalism that dominated late 20th century orchestral music, and focuses more on melodies. His orchestration is full and lush, giving the music a similar feeling to some of Aaron Copland's more popular works.

At times, especially with drums, Way's rock background peeks through, but he manages to keep that contained well.

It's a pleasant album to listen to, especially if you are not expecting a rock album.