Guest
After two successful years and three seminal albums, violinist Darryl Way departed Curved Air in search of a tougher, heavier sound. Gathering a trio of little known musicians around him -- future Soft Machine guitarist John Etheridge, vocalist/bassist and future Caravan member Dek Messecar, and future Trace and Marillion drummer Ian Mosley, Darryl Way swiftly inked a deal with Decca's Deram imprint. The band's debut, Canis Lupus, was produced by King Crimson's Ian McDonald, who also provided his own piano skills to “Chanson Sans Paroles,“ one of a clutch of stellar instrumentals on the set. Here the band create a series of shifting moods, incorporating classical, rock, and jazz elements into the piece. Way's swirl of genres and tension between structure and improvisation was the key to their sound and the album. Entire sections of “The Void,“ for example, feature arpeggios soaring above R&B, with stately almost pomp rock passages haunted by Messecar's dreamy
