01	Chemical Sunset						07:58
	02	Sally Left						06:33
	03	Endless Science						03:36
	04	Soulburn						09:21
	05	Insomnia						05:49
	06	Storm Season						04:21
	07	Nightside Of Eden						09:44

White Willow - Storm Season

Released: 2004
Label: The Laser's Edge
Cat. No.: LE1038
Total Time: 47:23


Reviewed by: Eric Porter, January 2005
White Willow has taken the next step in expanding their sound, and it is a step in the right direction. Storm Season is the band's fourth release on the Lasers Edge label and displays heavier elements that bring a well-needed balance. The crunching metallic riffs allow the impact of the band's signature folky ethereal music to be all the more powerful without drastically altering the bands sound. Yet, what stands out is the amazing keyboard work (Lars Fredrik Froislie), whether moog, piano, Hammond or Mellotron, solos or backing tracks, the keyboard sounds are incredible. The inclusion of the cello on some of the tracks enhances the eerie quality to the music. All the additions and embellishments have made this by far their best work.

The opening "Chemical Sunset" is one of the best tracks the band has recorded to date. The keyboards alone conjure up the 70s, add to the mix the orchestrated mid-section with flutes, cellos acoustic guitar, and you have a classic track. "Sally Left" continues to carry the intensity of the opener, leading into the folky "Endless Science." "Soulburn" contains male and female vocals which seem a little forced, and the male vocals just don't sound great to these ears, but the music more than makes up for that. A little Rick Wakeman influence can even be heard during one of the keyboard solos with Moog and 'Tron.

White Willow has put out their best yet with Storm Season. Vocalist Sylvia Erichsen has parted ways with the band, and I am hoping that can be another change that will improve the band's sound. They have survived various lineup changes in the past and come out the better for it. Storm Season will easily make plenty of "best of" lists for 2004, mine included!

[See also Steph's review -ed.]

More about Storm Season:

Track Listing: Chemical Sunset (7:58) / Sally Left (6:33) / Endless Science (3:37) / Soulburn (9:21) / Insomnia (5:49) / Storm Season (4:21) / Nightside of Eden (9:44)

Musicians:
Jacob Holm-Lupo - electric, acoustic, and classical guitars and keyboards
Sylvia Erichsen - vocals
Johannes Saeboe - electric guitars, electric baryton guitar
Marthe Berger Walthinsen - 4 & 5 string basses and tambourine
Lars Fredrik Froislie - piano, Mellotron M400, Hammond B3, mini-moog, synths, Fender Rhodes, Wurlitzer, and glockenspiel
Aage Moltke Schou - drums and percussion
Ketil Vestrum Einarsen - flutes, microsynth and tambourine
Sigrun Eng - cello
Finn Coren - vocals (4)
Teresa K. Aslanian - ghost voice (2)

Contact:

Website: www.whitewillow.net
Note: will open new browser window

Discography

Ignus Fatuus (1995)
Ex Tenebris (1998)
Sacrament (2000)
Storm Season (2004)





The Story
Since its inception in 1993, Norway's White Willow has quietly risen to become one of the main exponents of contemporary progressive/crossover music. As one of the main players in the 90's "progressive revival" White Willow stood apart with its mixture of folk and classical music along with contemporary gothic and even hard rock elements.


White Willow has existed in various incarnations since 1993. The first line-up consisted of Jacob Holm-Lupo (guitars), Jan Tariq Rahman (keyboards), Audun Kjus (flute), Sara Trondal (vocals), Peter Albers (bass guitar) and Henning Eidem (drums). The band transformed from the psychedelic folk ensemble The Orchid Garden into White Willow as a result of guitarist Jacob Holm-Lupo and keyboard player Jan Tariq Rahman's wish to pursue a more dynamic sound. The admiration for 70's artists such as PFM, King Crimson, Joni Mitchell and Nick Drake was common to the founding members of the group, and coloured White Willow's first recorded output.

Ignis Fatuus
With a loose and constantly varying line-up (including a second singer, Eldrid Johansen, and violinist Tirill Mohn), White Willow released its first album, Ignis Fatuus, in 1995 on the American label The Laser's Edge.

The album was something of a hit in the "progressive" music community, and led to White Willow's appearance at the prestigious Progfest festival in Los Angeles the same year. Since then the album has been included in "The Billboard Guide to Progressive Music"s canon of the 100 best progressive releases of all time. The record also proved to be an inspiration for other Norwegian bands travelling similar territories to White Willow and was an important part the the so-called "Scandinavian wave" of progressive music in the 90's.

Ex Tenebris
After continuing changes in the line-up and disagreements over future musical directions, Jacob Holm-Lupo terminated White Willow "the group" and continued more as a project. Having finally found the prefect voice for White Willow in Sylvia Erichsen, Jacob assembled a line-up consisting of himself, Sylvia and Jan Tariq as well as bass player Frode Lia and drummer Mattias Olsson. The result was White Willow's second album, Ex Tenebris (1998). The album showed that White Willow was finding its own voice, mixing classical, gothic, acoustic, ambient and progressive elements, and gave the group a wider following outside of the "progressive" scene.

Sacrament
For the third album, Sacrament, Jacob recruited a stellar team of musicians. Sylvia, Jacob, flautist Ketil Einarsen, keyboard player Brynjar Dambo, bass player Johannes S?boe and drummer Aage Schou rehearsed new material for about a year before proceding to record Sacrament. The work paid off, as the album proved to be White Willow's most cohesive and succesful yet. With a punchier sound, intense interplay and mature songwriting Sacrament has proven to be the favorite among most fans. The band showcased most of the album along with old favorites at the important NEARfest festival in Pennsylvania in 2001 along with bands like Porcupine Tree and The California Guitar Trio. Sacrament appeared in many lists of "Albums of the year" in various magazines and Sylvia topped several "Best singer" lists.

Storm Season
The most recent twist in events in the history of White Willow is the release of "Storm Season". The album heralds the arrival of keyboardist Lars Fredrik Frшislie and bass player Marthe Berger Walthinsen, who both leave their mark on the record, Lars with a multitude of analogue keyboards and Marthe with a deep, heavy bass sound. From the previous album Jacob, Aage, Sylvia, Ketil and Johannes remain, with Johannes switching from bass to rhythm guitar. "Storm Season" is the first album to seriously introduce White Willow's sound to a non-prog audience - while somewhat paradoxically being their most uncompromising and unapologetic work yet. Already the album is being hailed by critics as White Willow's best and most mature offering yet, with a heavier, fuller sound, emotionally charged performances and probably their most self-assured songwriting to date. Lyrically, the record deals with extreme and turbulent emotional states - naturally with a somewhat darker undertone than "Sacrament".



Curio
The Ignis Fatuus period
"Snowfall" was the song that started White Willow. Jacob wrote it while he was in the group The Orchid Garden. Jan Tariq, who was not in Orchid Garden at the time, but a friend of Jacob, helped out with vocal harmonies and a keyboard arrangement including mellotron. The realization that the song was a little too leftfield for The Orchid Garden was the beginning of White Willow, and of the long and fruitful collaboration between Jan Tariq and Jacob. The original keyboardist of The Orchid Garden was Preben Plahte, currently with a-ha guitarist Paal Waktaar's group Savoy.



"Lord of Night" was originally titled "Autumn Pussy"! Why? Because the original lyrics were taken from a book of poetry by the late American comic book artist Vaughn Bod' (an important inspiration for us), and that was the title of the poem we used. When we recorded it for "Ignis Fatuus", Audun sang the original lyrics. After hearing the playback, we realized how embarassing it sounded, and Jacob went straight home and wrote the "Lord of Night" lyrics. They were sort of E.A. Poe inspired and tell the story of a virgin being seduced by a vampyric denizen of Darkness... As if that was any more mature... And then we got Eldrid to sing it - a wise move.



"Ingenting" was a song originally written for the group Duggvaate Dverger, lead by Christer Mathiesen, currently of Sariel. Duggvaate Dverger featured Audun Kjus and Jan Tariq in the line-up. The remaining members of the band were Erik Holm (drums) and Eivind Opsvik (bass guitar). All these musicians, except Christer, appeared on the "Ignis Fatuus" version of the song. Sara Trondal and Tirill Mohn were also occasional members of DD. Christer still maintains that his version of the song is superior to White Willow's, and he might be right. As chance would have it, Christer's current band Sariel features White Willow members Jacob, Aage and Marthe. Musical incest!



"The Withering of the Boughs" was written by Audun Kjus. For the recording of the song, he brought a bottle of Jameson's whisky to the studio, which he was going to use for intro "wind" effects. But we couldn't use it until it was empty. It's a wonder the song got recorded... Incidentally, one of White Willow's first major concerts was at a place called Cosmopolite. Sara was so intimidated by the large crowd that she downed a half bottle of whisky on her own before she staggered on stage - or so we were told afterwards...



"Cryptomenysis" was written after the album had been completed. The Laser's Edge president Ken Golden thought the album was a little on the light side, and asked the band to come up with a heavier number. This tune was written and recorded all in a few days. It was partly inspired by the new metal coming out of Britain at the time, but also by French weirdo 70's music. Equal parts Anathema and Magma. The drummer on that song is Carl Michael Eide, who is actually a black metal drummer (formerly of Ulver, currently of Ved Buens Ende). He is a double bass drum player, but had to contend with a traditional kit in the studio, which accounts for some very unique drum fills on the song...



Ignis Fatuus was recorded in a basement in Oslo, a place called Frydenlund Studio - after the local brewery of Frydenlund beer. It was 16 track analogue, and we constantly ran out of tracks. The "mystery" drummer on the album is actually three different drummers: Most of the tracks feature Erik Holm (no relation to Jacob) who played with WW buddies Duggvaate Dverger. He is a jazz-rock type drummer and often illumined our sessions with his profound assessment of White Willow's music: "This is crap!"... (He also thought the lyrics might be anti-Christian...) The remaining drums are played by Pal Sovik (Fruitcake, Folque, Villblomst), Henning Eidem (Mind the Gap, Orange) and the above mentioned Carl Michael.



The engineer on the album was Jo Wang, who shared White Willow's love of 70's music. His instructions from the band was to "make it sound like PFM's Photos of Ghosts!". Jo Wang played keyboards in several prog bands in the 80's and is currently an electronic music composer. He made the soundtrack for director Aune Sand's infamous Norwegian movie "Dis".



During the Ignis Fatuus period there was a free flow of emotions. The boys in the band tended to take turns being in love with either Sara or Tirill. Jan Tariq had a legitimate claim to Tirill: They were actually a couple at the time.



The Ex Tenebris period


Ex Tenebris was practically a solo album by Jacob. The band had broken up a half year before recording started. One major reason for the break-up was the amount of methane gases released by drummer Danny and bass player PC during the band's trip to America, and also during subsequent rehearsals. No seriously, there were other reasons, too. There must have been.



Two major things impacted on Ex Tenebris' music: Jacob went through a long and dreary depression before this recording. Then he met his wife-to-be. The album is mainly about the significance of depression as a "dark night of the soul" with a subsequent enlightening and breaking the surface - all in a Gnostic light - and about falling in love, quite simply. Even so, the Norwegian press found the album too pretentious! Gnosticism - pretentious? Go figure...



The album had stronger material than Ignis Fatuus, was more coherent and introduced The Voice of White Willow - Sylvia. Bit it was under-budgeted and recordings were badly organized. So says Jacob. Jo Wang would agree.



Anglagard's drummer Mattias Olsson plays drums on the album. He arrived from Sweden in a station wagon with his girlfriend Asa and a Texan named Greg. On "A Dance of Shadows" he plays, among other things, a Volvo hubcap!



The first four notes of "Helen and Simon Magus" are taken from the Norwegian folk song "Fola fola blakken". The same notes appeared, curiously, on The Smashing Pumpkins album Adore shortly afterwards. Our lawyers are working on this.



Director Erik Borchsenius made a very gothic video to "A Strange Procession" which featured an incomprehensible but fascinating plot based on Greek fertility cults - and several scantily clad women lying about in a pool of water - AND a young man kissing a huge plaster penis. MTV did not show it.



After releasing Ex Tenebris, Jacob had to defend himself against his employer's allegations that he might be a satanic right-wing extremist. Not such a good thing when you are working at an immigrant community center... Suspicions were laid to rest by reference to Jacob's decidedly Semitic genealogy.



Jan Tariq plays a theremin on the album. After recording, he quit White Willow and started building a museum of vintage synthesizers and keyboards. Then he abruptly sold all his stuff, including two mellotrons. He is still making music, but he has also become a carpenter and a puppeteer and consistently refuses to be drawn back into the world of rock and roll - not for want of invitations from White Willow, though. Lately he has been involved in Erlend Saeverud's pop project Jade. Erlend has at various times played both 12-string and keyboards for White Willow. Erlend and Jacob have a life-long agreement to swap guitars at regular intervals.



The cover of Ex Tenebris is made by Teresa K. Aslanian, married to Jacob and a California-born artist. The model on the cover is herself - twice. The hand with the rose on the back is actually a huge iron monument to socialism, built by the Norwegian Labour party. It can be found in Oslo. For the record: White Willow does not endorse the Labour Party.



The Sacrament period


The line-up for Sacrament came together little by little. Ketil came into the picture when he decided to tag along with a friend who was auditioning as a bass player. The bass player decided not to join the band, partly because, again, there was some doubt regarding the spiritual wholesomeness of the group's lyrics. He is a Jehova's Witness. Instead Ketil joined. Braving rumours of devil worship and human sacrifices under the full moon. Violinist Tirill was also a part of the line-up up until recording began. Sylvia had already become a fixture of the band. Johannes was a friend of Tirill, recommended by her. Aage was someone Jacob had made some soundtrack music with. He was originally with the outstanding progressive/experimental group The Complaints.



Jacob was unaware that there existed a Judas Priest song called "The Last Rose of Summer" when he wrote the same-titled song for Sacrament. He is now a card-carrying Priest fan.



He did, however, know that there was a jazz standard called "Paper Moon" - but the title was too appropriate to throw away. "Paper Moon" was the fastest written song Jacob had ever made at that point. It was written shortly after X-mas, when there was a huge red moon outside his window. In a matter of minutes, the whole song including lyrics just sort of fell into his head, according to his own accounts. When we recorded it, we originally intended to use a sampled drum loop - which would have been a White Willow first. But we chickened out.

The intro to "The Reach"came about as a result of Jacob and his wife trying to scare each other with creepy melodies on an antique Ensoniq.



While mixing Sacrament, White Willow used Air's soundtrack to "The Virgin Suicides" as a reference CD. The band also unsuccesfully tried to emulate a particular moog sound from that album, a task that ended in considerable frustration - and admiration for Air's abilities as analogue knob-twirlers.



In Europe, Sacrament was released in the same week as Steely Dan's long awaited comeback album "Two Against Nature". Hopefully, Becker & Fagen's sales didn't suffer too badly from our competition.



While laying down the bass guitar tracks for "The Reach", Johannes decided he had to stand in front of a huge fan cranked all the way up with his hair blowing in the wind - to get the right groove for the song. It worked wonderfully.



Oystein Vesaas was a great engineer. But he had a hard time understanding why we wanted the music to be so... "overblown"... Whenever Jacob started with his "more mellotron - more synth solos - give me louder bass!!!" routine,Oystein got a funny, forced kind of expression on his face. And we always thought we were such a restrained band...



Sylvia shows an amazing range of expression on Sacrament. The unexpected burst of female aggression in the middle of "Anamnesis" prompted puzzled reviewers to compare her to both Kate Bush, Wendy O. Williams and Pat Benatar!



In the wake of Sacrament, Ketil was frequently compared to Ian Anderson and lauded for his virtuosity by reviewers. Jacob was described by metal mag Ill Literature as "a perfect combination of Robert Fripp, Steve Hackett and David Gilmour". Neither Ketil nor Jacob were displeased by this kind of press - while still maintaining that their styles are "uniquely individual" and also "individually unique", not to mention "singularly original"...



We like to think that we are not easily pigeon-holed. Still, College Music Journal tried to pin us down as the "Mazzy Star of prog". One of our favorite descriptions is from a live review in a Norwegian newpaper - quoted from memory: "Sort of a mixture of folk and jazz-rock, not unlike Deep Purple or Queen in their heyday". Whatever that means, it sounds fascinating.



On our way to Pennsylvania's North East Art Rock Festival, White Willow had some bad experiences with Air France, who lost a significant amount of our belongings - including all of Johannes' clothes and instruments. Johannes came home to Norway feeling tired and bereft - only to find that his brother had locked up his apartment and taken the keys with him on a holiday in the mountains. Not his best day.



In an attempt to break through into the mainstream by making our music more listener-friendly and accessible, as well as less pretentious and portentous, White Willow has decided that the next album will be a concept album about death. Tackling fun issues like fatal car accidents, suicide and heroin addiction, we have high hopes for the Top Forty potential of several of our new songs.



Personal reflections on the Storm Season Period New!
(as told by Jacob)
After "Sacrament" there was a period of change in the band. Eventually keyboardist Brynjar Dambo and flautist Ketil Einarsen left the band. After a while of not doing anything much at all, we decided to reconvene the band with a slightly new line-up. Bass player Marthe Berger Walthinsen was someone I had played with in Sariel, and I really liked her style. I had actually approached her about playing with White Willow at a much earlier time, but I don't think she felt quite ready for it then. This time around, though, it all felt right, and she joined - to form a rhythm section with her boyfriend, Aage. There were several revelations that followed getting Marthe into the band. Firstly, she is the first bass player we've had who actually grooves. And she has the ability to be really prominent when she needs to, and yet lay back and play simple stuff when the music so dictates. She can play monster bass lines as well as harmonically sensitive stuff. Did I mention she's a good dresser too, unlike the rest of us... We had spent quite a long time looking for the right keyboard player - without ever quite hitting the jackpot. It was a well-connected friend, Jon Christian Lie, who told me about Lars. The first time I talked to him on the phone, I realized that he was our guy. He was glowingly passionate about mellotrons and Italo-prog, and he seemed like a very unpretentious and unselfconscious guy. When he came to rehearsal and just ripped through the organ solo on "Lord of Night", which was what we played on the audition, he was in. Everyone warmed to him immediately. Eventually Ketil also decided to return for the recording of the album. The final piece in the jigsaw was Johannes switching from bass to rhythm guitar. The album relies heavily on his crunch.



As a sort of warm-up to the recording of the album, we did a few gigs and eventually ended up playing in France and Belgium. They weren't the best gigs we've ever played, seeing as the line-up was so new, but travelling with these people, especially to France, was a real pleasure, and really inspired me to get them into the studio.



In spite of that: While we were working on the material which was to become "Storm Season", there was a lot of friction in the band. This was caused by certain personal imcompatibilities, and I think also on some people's part a lack of ability to envision what excactly it was I, as the main songwriter, wanted to express with the album. I had a very clear idea of what the album should be like from the beginning, but since it required entering into what was for us uncharted territory, it was at times a little hard to convey it. Also, I was going through a sort of bleak, although interesting, phase of my own life (reflected in the songs), and I didn't quite have the extra energy to be a good organizer and band leader while still keeping my focus on the music. Slowly, as a result of these things, the band sort of fractured into two camps. So the whole rehearsal and recording period was characterized by tension, and in a way it was the best thing that could have happened, since that tension leaked into the music as a sense of urgency and desperation - which was excactly what I wanted anyway.



The guest musicians on the album are: Sigrun Eng on cello. She had played on Tirill's debut album, and I got in touch with her through Tirill. She was an absolute joy to work with, extremely professional and talented, and also a nice person. It worked out really well having her play Tirill's arrangements, since they were already so used to working together. I was also overjoyed that Tirill wanted to arrange the strings for the album, since she is simply the best arranger I know. She brought the songs to places I couldn't have gone myself. Finn Coren, who sings on "Soulburn", is someone who I've always respected immensely. He's my favorite male singer here in Norway, and his interest in William Blake and W.B. Yeats and all things mystical made it easy for us to understand each other. As it turned out, White Willow and Finn Coren were beneficial for each other, since both Ketil and Lars ended up playing on Finn's upcoming album.



For "Storm Season" we toyed with the idea of bringing in an outside producer. Both Neil Kernon, Tommy Hansen and Sandy Pearlman were in the picture, and personally I was inclined to go with Sandy, being a life-long Blue Oyster Cult fan and all. And he really dug the music. But in the end the logistics of bringing the whole band to California to record for what might be months sort of defeated us. And I had such a clear idea of what kind of production I wanted that I finally decided to go it alone with the production duties. I did however listen carefully to both some of Neil's productions and pretty much Sandy's entire ouvre before settling behind the console. Also, keyboard wiz Erik Norlander and our labelmate, the amazing Scott McGill, were both kind enough to listen to some of our rough mixes and give us some, literally, sound advice. It also has to be said that it was in many ways a co-production. Especially Lars and Marthe had a lot of input in terms of how they wanted their parts to sound, and Johannes molded his particular guitar sound on the album. Aage is someone who in addition to playing the drums also arranges the drums, with all sorts of overdubs and ideas. So everyone contributed to the sound of the final product. And of course our engineer Oystein was the man who brought it all together, who took our ideas and translated them into studio reality.



I had the benefit of listening to some interesting records while we were working in the studio. Apart from the usual classic rock I listen to, I checked out some recent recordings by Deftones, System of a Down and A Perfect Circle and a few other guitar heavy bands that are also musically adventorous. Especially Deftones had really impressive production values - way beyond our financial means. Some other stuff that was running on the car stereo in the period was Muse's "Absolution", Tool's "Aenima", lots of Air, as when we recorded "Sacrament". One interesting thing was hearing the new Porcupine Tree album. Our label told us that PT was planning to put out a record that combined a sort of modern guitar heavy sound with their usual melancholy vocal harmonies and washes of analogue keyboards. So I got a little nervous, to be quite honest. It sounded a bit like my idea. Obviously, White Willow and Porcupine Tree are two very different bands, but still we cater to somewhat similar audiences. When I heard it ("In Absentia") I was both impressed and relieved at the same time. It was a great record, with wonderful playing, but it remained squarely a PT album, and the heaviness was somewhat diluted by a very pristine and clean production. I knew "Storm Season" was going to be very different from that. Another strange thing I was listening to (strange if you associate White Willow mostly with mellow folk rock and obscure prog) was the late seventies/early eighties output by Scorpions. Don't laugh - they used to be a very different band before "Winds of Change" and all that. I found that these records that I've always loved - "Virgin Killer", "Lovedrive", "Animal Magnetism", had this incredibly raw, desperate sound - very simple, but very effective. I guess it's hard to find traces of that on "Storm Season", but those records were still an influence.



The songs came about mostly in the wake of "Sacrament". "Sally Left" was a song that fell into my head on my way home on the bus one day. It sort of set the lyrical mood for the rest of the album, with the character of Sally. The middle section is an obvious nod to Pink Floyd - especially "Meddle"-era Floyd, before Gilmour got all Claptonesque with his blues licks. He had a simplicity and a directness in his guitar playing on those early Floyd albums that I wanted to reference a bit in "Sally Left".



"Chemical Sunset" was lyrically inspired by a few nights spent in a town called Secaucus in New Jersey. It is a heavily industrialized area, and the air was so full of smog and chemicals that there was this constant haze that distorted whatever you saw in the distance. The first sunset I saw from the roof of the hotel, all bloated and purplish, made me want to write this song. The atmosphere reminded me of the stories of Delany and Ballard. The song sort of bridges the musical space that separates "Sacrament" and "Storm Season", being still quite folky, but also more edgy and less polished than the songs on "Sacrament".



"Endless Science" was written quite early on, and we actually debuted it at the 2001 NEARfest with the "Sacrament" line-up. It's just basically a sweet song, with echoes of "Ignis Fatuus". "Soulburn" is another story. I wrote it one night after I had o.d.'d on vampire movies and beer. There was this soundtrack to one of the movies, written I think by Jonathan Davis (Korn), that haunted me. It was so efficient and simple, all these two-note riffs and pounding rhythms. And the song just came to me with that thought - riff efficiency. The opening riff came, and the melody that I just knew had to be sung by Finn. The lyrics were easy and hard to write at the same time since they are quite intensely personal, and I wasn't sure I could expose myself like that. But I'm glad I did.



"Storm Season", as has been correctly pointed out by one reviewer, is a tribute to Albinoni. It's basically an adagio messed up by a lot of electronic noise. It was originally part of this whole orchestral piece that I'd written, but in the end I decided to just go with this vocal section of the piece. Lars brought in the thunderous electronic percussion, whereas the rest of the song was recorded in my home studio. It seemed to sum up what the album was about for me. "Nightside of Eden" was a song that we played for a long time with a lot of different arrangements. At one point it had an instrumental breakdown in the middle with a real disco, four-to-the-floor beat and a crazy arabesque flute solo. But we left that out and decided to make the song a bit more focused. Lyrically it's about a relationship that is teetering on the edge of self-destruction - and the extreme weather functions as a sort of metaphor for the breakdown the relationship is heading towards. The thunder effects seemed a bit corny when I first put them in, but now it seems the song couldn't have been recorded without them.



"Insomnia" was written by Lars. I asked him shortly after he joined whether he wanted to contribute some material to the album, and eventually he gave me the demo for this song. It totally blew me away, it was all exciting and adrenalized. Lars' demo was so carefully worked out that practically everything you hear in the finished version, down to the drumming, is based on the demo. At the end of the song there is some mellotron steel-string guitar - which is incidentally a sound that we also used on a track that didn't end up on "Ignis Fatuus".



The cover of the album is made by a German artist, Bjoern from Killustrations. What he came up with perfectly evokes the emotions we tried to convey through the music. The image on the front is partly inspired by an original picture taken by Marie Sjшvold, who has also taken the band picture. Her picture was extremely atmospheric, and also managed to express some of the more, errm, philosophical implications of the record. But it contained some nudity and was a bit too much on the artsy side for our label. I was sad to see it go, but on the other hand just working with Marie on that picture clarified a lot of my thoughts about the album. And in the end we found a cover that was a good compromise between our label's wish to communicate with the market-place and our wish to communicate the contents of the album. And Marie still left her imprint with the moody band pic.



An eighth song, "Headlights", was written by Johannes and recorded during the album sessions. It was basically an instrumental, with some vocal impro from Sylvia at the end. A great tune, but a bit out of character with White Willow, so we decided to leave it as a special treat for the Japanese market, seeing as they love bonus tracks so much. The song features a great guitar solo by my good friend Christer Mathiesen, who also plays in Sariel.



Pretty much all of Lars' keyboard sounds on the album are played on authentic instruments. In this respect recording the album was like a trip down memory lane to "Ignis Fatuus". For the initial tracking we did use some soft synth emulations for convenience' sake, but Lars conscientiously replaced all of these with the real thing. He is a stickler for authenticity. He was afraid that if the mellotron was too finely tuned, people might not realize it was real. Still, Martin, the drummer in Lars' other band Wobbler, did manage to spot a few occasions of digital synthesis on the album.