White Willow - Terminal Twilight


WHITE WILLOW
Terminal Twilight
(Termo Records TERMOCD009)

White Willow belongs, since the release of their debut album Ignis Fatuus, to a small select group of bands, which with every new release raises high expectations. With the return of Sylvia Skjellestad they should consider themself lucky, because she has a wonderful voice that fits with White Willow. The listener therefore is not disappointed.

Besides vocally, musically this album sounds great, which strongly depends to the 70's prog with a mix of jazz rock, fusion and folk, where the reference goes from King Crimson to Weather Report and Genesis to Muse with surprising contributions of Tim Bowness, David Lindberg and Michael S. Judge. Bowness together with Jacob Holm-Lupo wrote the No-Man-like Kansas Regrets, which in the second part recalls the days of Nurcery Crime, complete with vintage keyboards and whistles. Leaves in Bed, dedicated to Tony Banks, again follows the pattern of Genesis and in Floor 67 White Willow follows the steps of the Crimson King mode of musical interpretation. Starter The Mountain Hawks Circle, with guest appearance by Judge is rightly characterized by the jazz rock and fusion.

The highlight for me is the instrumental Natasha Burning Of The Woods. I rarely have heard such a beautiful instrumental, in which everything seems to come together. The opening refers lightly to the memory of Japan, after which the atmosphere of Wind & Wuthering echoes in the use of acoustic guitar and keys. Around four minutes the music swells to a beautiful melody with heavy percussion by Mattias Olsson (Anglagard / Pineforest Crunch), then the same melody returns and slowly drifts away.

Of the six albums that White Willow now has delivered especially the leading role of flute (Ketil Enarsen) and vintage keyboards (Lars Fredrik Frøislie) has become a trademark, in which the guitar as in the seventies only can be heart in the front during solos and acoustic passages, such as in the Hackett-like closing song A Rumour Of Twilight.

The result is a raw, honest and live sounding album, in which the group again appears to be exploring their musical extremes. The lyrics are like a sequel to Storm Season and Holm-Lupo for a moment hesitated to even releasing the album at all, because the apocalyptic texts have come close to the tragedy of July 22.

“Suddenly my lyrics seemed a little close to home, and I actually had some misgivings about releasing the album at all. In retrospect I have come to realize that there might be – at least for myself – something a bit cathartic and therapeutic in the music. I also feel like the songs offer the occasional ray of light and hope, even if optimism isn’t really White Willow’s forte. But sometimes sad songs can comfort more than happy ones.”

Tracks:

Hawks Circle The Mountain
Snowswept
Kansas Regrets
Bed Leaves
Floor 67
Natasha Of The Burning Woods
Searise
A Rumour Of Twilight

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