White Willow - 2006 - Signal To Noise

(51:48; Karisma Records [2025 Edition] )

Here we have the fifth in the Karisma Records remaster and reissue series of White Willow albums. Originally released in 2006, this  was their attempt to break out from the established 70s prog rock sound and pursue something more up to date. They chose to work with an outside producer, Tommy Hansen (Helloween, TNT, Pagan's Mind, Circus Maximus), and decided they wanted to take influences from City Boy, surely one of the most under-rated bands around, who managed to capture pop rock, hard rock and prog in some incredible releases.

Not only did White Willow have a new singer in Trude Eidtang, but the band had cut down in size from eight to six, so while the rest had all played on the previous release, they had also departed ways with cellist Sigrun Eng and second guitarist Johannes Saebøe. There were also no strings, and the only additional people credited outside the band this time is producer Hansen (vocal arrangements) and engineer Brynjar Dambo  who provides a Moog Voyager solo on one track.

The band took just three weeks to record this instead of one year, and with a new direction and positivity, along with a new singer,  they somehow managed to produce a multi-layered progressive rock album which twists and turns through many different styles yet still contains loads of mellotrons. It is quite a shift from what they had been doing previously, and there will probably be a lot of progheads who regret the change in approach, but it is definitely much more modern as they move more into melodic hard rock yet always staying firmly on the side of prog. There is way more space in the arrangements, which allows Trude's ethereal vocals to clearly be heard. I must confess to not playing this album a great deal since I reviewed it some 19 years ago, but that is down purely to the work ethic reviewers have to undertake, rarely listening to music for pleasure but aways working on the dreaded “list”. I do feel I have missed out by not playing this in the intervening years and given no-one has written about them on PA in well over a decade I believe there are many more who are also missing out on a truly enjoyable band. Well worth investigating and all credit again to Karisma.

Kev Rowland, March 2025

Links:
https://www.facebook.com/whitewillowband/
https://www.karismarecords.no/