Artist: Willowglass
Release: 2005
Rating: 3/5
Willowglass is the project of Andrew Marshall, a guy who is definitely not “born yesterday”. He’s a seasoned musician who honed his chops playing in various local bands from Yorkshire over the last 20 years.
The album is a journey through a gentle palette of colorful sounds, built around the Mellotron, which holds Willowglass’s music together and gives it a feeling of drifting through Celtic pastoral mysticism. It’s not hard to picture a land of moors and lakes, where weeping willow branches lazily bow along the banks, frogs that have just gorged on fat flies croak happily, kingfishers dive-bomb into the water and dragonflies flit around mischievously. Holy cow, you’d need a whole degree in inland freshwater ecosystems just to describe it. The music is suffused with a positively joyful spirit, and it could easily be used as a backdrop for some documentary, say, about life in the deep-sea oceans.
The Mellotron pulls Willowglass toward early Genesis and more! Even toward the solo work of Genesis members like Anthony Phillips and Steve Hackett from the late seventies and early eighties (e.g. the song Garden). The Willowglass debut likes to lean toward “approximate” detours in the direction of good old Camel (the song Remembering), most likely because of the way the flute is woven into the music. Of course, you have to factor in the modern production, with all the latest technological achievements of the music industry, that carries “Willowglass”. Waking the Angels recalls Two Suns In The Sunset (“Final Cut”, Pink Floyd, 1983) in its basic motif, but the vibe is totally different.
Musically, the Willowglass debut is nothing special, as the comparisons in the paragraph above suggest, but albums like this are very welcome, since it keeps alive the memory of bygone days, when experimenting and chasing new musical horizons in rock music was properly rewarded and even encouraged by the labels. It’s an easygoing prog rock album, incredibly easy to listen to, the music is entirely instrumental, and the motifs flow clearly and seamlessly into one another. The album makes a great backdrop for watching sunsets or brewing a morning coffee on a lazy Saturday, when it’s pouring outside and the inside of the house is filled with the crackle of freshly stacked logs in the fireplace. Musically, Willowglass lives by the motto: “Modesty is a fine virtue!”, so it will be interesting to follow where this project goes next.
Lineup
Andrew Marshall – electric guitar, acoustic guitar, 12-string guitar, classical guitar, keyboards, flute, drums
Dave Brightman – drums
Production
Andrew Marshall
Tracklist
1. Peace (1:26)
2. Remembering (8:34)
3. Garden (8:15)
4. Interlude No. 1 (1:36)
5. Tower Of The King’s Daughter (7:10)
6. Summer’s Lease (0:18)
7. Into The Chase (4:29)
8. A Blinding Light (6:36)
9. Waking The Angels (5:45)
10. The End (1:46)
Album length: 46:00
