Virginia Astley

Astley is more widely known for the people she's played with than her own records. A classically trained British pianist and flutist who also happens to be Pete Townshend's sister-in-law, she contributed piano to Townshend's "Slit Skirts," and has played sessions for Siouxsie & the Banshees. Her late-'70s band, the Ravishing Beauties, also included future Dream Academy singer Kate St. John and Nicky Holland, who would work with Tears for Fears and Ryuichi Sakamoto. Astley's sparse body of work combines ambient, even experimental textures and song structures with her pretty sop...