It is exactly what it says on the package, a full-fledged concerto that bucks every prevalent musical fashion (1978 was the age of punk, after all) by proving that prog wasn't only alive and well, it was also still capable of startling the unwary listener. With fellow Curved Air refugee Francis Monkman overseeing the orchestra, Way's electric violin has never sounded so adventurous, leading the way through four skillfully planned movements that the composer admits were influenced by Ravel, Bartók, and Prokofiev, but which have a personality all of their own. Certainly Way's Concerto withstands comparison with any other rocker's attempt to blend the classics with more modern disciplines (Keith Emerson's piano concerto was released the previous year), and it was poor promotion alone that prevented Concerto for Electric Violin & Synth from making heavier inroads into the period's consciousness. Leaving it, of course, ripe for rediscovery today, courtesy of the Esoteric label's 2010 remaster.