Sonja Kristina Linwood

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Sonja Kristina Linwood is an English musician, usually known as Sonja Kristina, and most famous as vocalist for Curved Air. At one point, she was married to Stewart Copeland of The Police.

She helped run and performed at the Troubadour Folk Club in the late 1960s. She performed in the musical Hair.

Curved Air had a changing lineup over its nine albums (1970 - 1976 and 1990), but Kristina was the common factor. The original line-up also featured Francis Monkman on guitar (who was to later join classical guitarist John Williams in his rock experiment Sky), and Darryl Way, an early exponent of the electric violin. The first album, 'Air Conditioning' (1970), received much media attention, due to it being the first ever picture disc released in the UK. Their simply-titled 'Second Album' (1972) was ornately packaged in an intricate folding sleeve. However, the quality of the band's music itself transcended the hype over the then novel packaging. Kristina co-wrote much of the band's material with Way, including their one major hit 'Back Street Luv'.

Since Curved Air, she has performed solo, including her involvement with the acid folk movement in London in the early 90s, culminating in her critically acclaimed 'Songs from the Acid Folk' in 1991, and recently in multi-media duo Mask with Marvin Ayres.