The Incredible String Band - Liquid Acrobat As Regards The Air (Reissue) (1971/1991)

THE INCREDIBLE STRING BAND were a prolific early progressive folk band whose various members mostly went on to successful music careers after the band's demise, but who remain a continuing influence on progressive music artists even today.

The roots of the band are found in acoustic folk/bluegrass duo Robin Williamson (guitar, vocals) and Clive Palmer (banjo) who began performing together in the Edinburgh, Scotland area in 1963. The duo added multi-instrumental folk musician Mike Heron and took the name INCREDIBLE STRING BAND after being discovered by legendary producer Joe Boyd in 1965. The resulting group was signed by Boyd to Elektra Records in 1966 and released a critically acclaimed studio debut. But when Palmer left the band for an extended journey to Afghanistan and later India, the two remaining members disbanded. They would reform a year later as a duo with Williamson adding several exotic new sounds such as oud, gimbri and tamboura as a result of his own eastern travels (in Morocco). This became the core of a group that, along with Williamson's girlfriend Licorice McKechnie, guest artists and the occasional short-term member would prove quite prolific and successful. The band released a dozen albums beginning on 1967 and toured extensively to increasingly large crowds. The band's reputation was enhanced during these years thanks to strong endorsements by musical icons such as BOB DYLAN, PAUL MCCARTNEY and ROBERT PLANT (who once claimed LED ZEPPELIN learnt their craft from listening to an ISB album), as well as by covers of their music by JUDY COLLINS and MANFRED MANN among others.

In the end the changing times as well as the band members' varied spiritual forays led to their demise following a concert tribute to the late Scientology guru L. Ron Hubbard in 1974. Williamson and Heron would get together again for a show in 1997, which led to a brief reunion of the original band (including original founder Palmer) and joined by some family and friends. This lineup produced several years of small-venue touring as well as a studio and live release, but the reformation would fade away shortly after Williamson left for good in 2004.

Both Williamson and Heron have had lengthy post-ISB careers, particularly Williamson who would go on to release dozens of folk and spoken-word records as well as find some success as a writer after a short stint leading THE MERRY BAND. Heron has worked as a studio artist, fronted a couple of his own bands and released several solo efforts. Palmer's output has been much more sporadic, but his C.O.B. and FAMOUS JUG BAND releases are well known and respected in progressive and folk music circles.

The INCREDIBLE STRING BAND are an icon and near legendary early pioneer of fusing folk, eastern mysticism as well as other spiritual leanings, multidiscipline artistic expression and the emerging popular culture of the sixties into a cohesive musical force. Their presence in any archive of progressive music is a foregone conclusion.