White Willow's fifth studio album, ‘Signal to Noise’, was mixed and produced by Tommy Hansen (Helloween, TNT, Pagan’s Mind, Circus Maximus). The line-up features new singer Trude Eidtang (vocals), Lars Fredrik Frøislie (keyboards, electronics), Jacob Holm-Lupo (guitars), Ketil Vestrum Einarsen (woodwinds), Marthe Berger Walthinsen (bass guitar) and Aage Moltke Schou (drums, percussion). Before I get onto the music I must mention the group photo, as they are sat around the table on which is a pile of albums – the top one of which is ‘The Day The Earth Caught Fire’ by City Boy. Any band that recognises just how good City Boy were, are already ahead in my book.
Well, the band took three weeks to record this instead of one year, and have a new singer onboard to boot, but they have still managed to produce a multi-layered progressive rock album that twists and turns through many different styles yet still contains loads of mellotrons. Trude’s voice has a good range, but there is an almost ethereal quality to it – a breathiness which adds to the overall feel of what is a very strong rock band with lots of ideas. White Willow are going to be playing in the UK at the Summer’s End Festival, and I know that on the basis of this album there are going to be many progheads who are going to be very pleased to see them indeed. This is good solid symphonic prog from the Seventies with loads of ideas.
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