By 2024, Norwegian prog rockers White Willow have been in the course of a reissues marketing campaign that may see their again catalogue remastered and reissued. On the midway level, mainman Jacob Holm-Lupo instructed the story of the band’s evolution…
Within the early 90s, progressive rock was starting to sprout just a few inexperienced shoots of restoration. Sustained by its personal world group of die-hard followers and musicians, it was firmly off the mainstream radar, and lots of of those that efficiently contributed to its rebirth have been working alone, unknowingly anticipating the arrival of the web to make all the pieces lots simpler. In Norway, which already had a wealthy custom of prog bands, a really younger Jacob Holm-Lupo was starting to discover his personal love of adventurous rock music. Now often known as the person behind White Willow and a number of different notable initiatives, he began his life as a prog musician with no expectations by any means.
“We weren’t conscious of any form of world prog scene in any respect, truly,” he says with a smile over video-call. “I bought into this music after I was 12 years outdated, and I used to be given a tape of Duke by Genesis for my birthday. From then I used to be completely hooked. In my late teenagers I began enjoying with some associates. It was the keyboard participant from White Willow, Jan Rahman, and myself, and we recorded a few demos in my lounge. That will need to have been in ’91 or ’92, then we put a band along with like-minded associates who additionally favored progressive rock, and we recorded some extra demos. However we didn’t assume something extra would occur.”
He could have been blissfully unaware of prog’s rising momentum, however Holm-Lupo’s imaginative and prescient was fully in tune with what was occurring elsewhere on the earth. White Willow emerged blinking into the sunshine with their 1995 debut album, Ignis Fatuus, which was launched by US prog imprint The Laser’s Edge, who have been among the many recipients of these early demos. Almost 30 years later, the Norwegians’ contribution to fashionable prog is past dispute, however the re-releasing of their catalogue of fascinating, fervently progressive albums is lengthy overdue. Fortunately, these good folks at Karisma Information have begun an in depth reissue marketing campaign, which incorporates six of White Willow’s seven albums, some showing on vinyl for the primary time, and all remastered by Holm-Lupo himself. The primary three albums – Ignis Fatuus, Ex Tenebris (1998) and Sacrament (2000) – are already out, with the remainder to observe within the close to future.
In some ways, Ignis Fatuus is essentially the most intriguing of all White Willow albums, primarily as a result of it’s the one document made by the band’s first (and solely) full line-up. Closely influenced by psychedelic people however rooted in old-school prog concepts, it captured the joy of the younger Norwegians’ first wholehearted try to show musical desires into actuality.
“I feel, particularly on the primary album, it was a results of all of us having some issues in frequent,” says Holm-Lupo. “All of us favored English progressive rock and Italian progressive rock, but in addition some folks have been fascinated about people music, some have been into classical music, and for myself, I used to be into rock. So all these issues got here collectively on that album. Since then it’s been a relentless technique of making an attempt to meld all these influences into one coherent sound. However I’m nonetheless battling it, as a result of I’m utterly omnivorous relating to music, so it’s exhausting to commit to 1 type.”
One factor that White Willow have been resolutely dedicated to is the
use of plaintive feminine vocals. Whereas prog rock was (and nonetheless is, to a point) a sausage-fest, Holm-Lupo took a distinct method from the beginning, with singer Sara Trondal enjoying a central position all through Ignis Fatuus, and notably on dewy-eyed people mirages reminiscent of Snowfall and Now In These Fairy Lands. Feminine vocalists have continued to play a significant half in White Willow’s music ever since, though Holm-Lupo insists that there was no grand masterplan.
“To be sincere, it was nearly by probability,” he says with a shrug. “We have been a bit gang of individuals, and those that enjoyed what we have been doing and had an curiosity in it, and who may additionally sing, occurred to be women. That was principally it. It wasn’t a aware choice. When the primary album got here out lots of people in contrast us to Renaissance, however we hadn’t even heard of them! However I feel, when it comes to band chemistry, it’s good to have women as a result of it helps communication a bit bit. Guys can get very aggressive and macho! However having women current has made us all settle down a bit bit and hear to one another, so it’s been simpler.”
One thing vital occurred when White Willow recorded Ignis Fatuus: Jacob-Holm Lupo felt very a lot at house. Today, he makes a dwelling from recording, mixing and mastering different artists’ work: the fruits of a love affair with the studio that started almost three a long time in the past.
“It was our first time within the studio and it was enjoyable!” he smiles. “It was
a basement studio in Oslo. It was fairly primitive, only a 16-track analogue recording. Due to all of the overdubs it was fairly complicated. Within the mixdown, each member of the band needed to sit with their palms on faders. These have been the times! [Laughs] So it was our first expertise, and for me, very fascinating. I realised as soon as I used to be in that studio that I truly loved being within the studio greater than I loved being onstage, in order that’s what I’ve finished since then.”
White Willow have been nearly solely studio-based for a minimum of the final 20 years. Their final present was at Summer season’s Finish Competition when it was at Bilston in 2006, and Holm-Lupo has made completely no noises about wanting to present dwell efficiency one other go. Immediately, he admits that declining to play dwell has had some unfavorable affect on his band’s fortunes, however that even with a reissue marketing campaign in full circulation, he believes he has made the appropriate alternative.
“It has been detrimental that we haven’t performed dwell now for an extended, very long time. However personally, for me, it’s lots higher as a result of I’ve time to deal with songwriting, I’ve time to work in my studio and to really make a dwelling. There’s by no means any dwelling to be comprised of enjoying concert events anyway. However
lots of people come to me and say, ‘Why don’t you play dwell? You’d be extra well-known and promote extra data!’ However that was by no means why I did this within the first place. I do that as a result of I really like doing it, and I really like sitting in my studio and fiddling round, you recognize?”
Maybe the primary actual proof of Holm-Lupo’s studio obsession arrived with White Willow’s second album, 1998’s Ex Tenebris. A darker and stranger document than its predecessor, it was initially meant to be a solo album, however label bosses have been keen for an additional album below the band’s identify. Written and recorded within the aftermath of the primary White Willow line-up disintegrating, Ex Tenebris was a daring step into the unknown.
“After we’d performed at ProgFest in Los Angeles, which was late in 1995, the band broke up. We went by just a few a line-up modifications, however in the long run it didn’t work. I used to be going to make a solo album of some extra gothic-sounding stuff, so I wrote songs and began recording, however then the label got here to me and mentioned, ‘Nobody is aware of who you might be, and we’re not going to have the ability to promote a document by Jacob Holm-Lupo, so are you able to please discover a approach to make this White Willow…’ And so I did. I discovered the spark once more and I discovered my love for the style once more.”
If the primary White Willow album had been intentionally backward-looking and in thrall to the late 60s and early 70s, the second was a lot much less straightforward to outline. At instances primitive and minimal, songs like Leaving The Home Of Thanatos showcased the maturing of Holm-Lupo’s songwriting, whereas additionally leaving house for extra experimental variations on cherished prog themes.
“Ex Tenebris was form of the place I used to be looking for my footing when it comes to being a songwriter and a producer,” he explains. “It was about what White Willow was going to be going ahead. So it was an experiment. For me it was form of remedy, too. I truly went into an actual melancholy after the primary document. Every thing was so hopeful after we launched Ignis Fatuus and everyone liked it. We bought a variety of consideration, and I used to be like, ‘OK, that is it. I’m going to be a prog-rock star!’ [Laughs] Then the band simply imploded and I additionally didn’t know what to do with myself. Ex Tenebris is Latin for ‘out of darkness’, so this was my approach out of darkness.”
If Ex Tenebris was a needed response to difficult instances, White Willow’s third album was a assured leap into the long run. Launched on the daybreak of a brand new millennium, it retained a lot of the psychedelic lushness
and creative songwriting that had made Ignis Fatuus and Ex Tenebris so irresistible, but in addition embraced a broader array of inspirations, together with some unexpectedly modern ones.
“Shortly after I made Ex Tenebris, I discovered the folks that will be on Sacrament, these nice musicians that I actually get together with, and who shared my imaginative and prescient,” Holm-Lupo recollects. “Making the third album was an especially constructive expertise. Nevertheless it was at the moment that I began to actually absorb what was occurring round me. We have been all listening to the French band Air. OK Pc had, after all, penetrated into our world. So there have been just a few extra outdoors influences, and extra of a sense that there have been issues in modern rock that have been related to us.”
Regardless of waiving the appropriate to carry out their music dwell, White Willow have been a gradual presence in fashionable prog. For the uninitiated, three extra albums shall be re-released by Karisma sooner or later – Storm Season, Sign To Noise and Terminal Twilight – and Holm-Lupo has agency plans to start out work on his band’s first music since 2017’s Future Hopes. The studio dream lives on.
“I’m truly engaged on the brand new album now,” he notes, trying genuinely excited. “We haven’t fully landed on a line-up but, however it is going to actually be me and Lars Fredrik Frøislie from Wobbler, and Mattias [Olsson] from Änglagård… and we’ll simply need to see who the remainder shall be! [Laughs] However we agreed that what we needed to do was have a look at what we’ve been pleased with up to now, and issues that basically labored for the band, and to deal with these. So I feel it’ll be a really sturdy and constant album, and the fabric we’ve to date is superb, so fingers crossed. My ambition is at all times to attempt to make the proper album. I haven’t but, however I’m nonetheless making an attempt!”
