Possessive Willow Winters

White Willow are the leading Norwegian band, mixing elements of orchestral pop, 1970s progressive rock, jazz-rock, and even electronica. The band were begun in 1992 by guitarist Jacob Holm-Lupo. Over a period of 2 years from December '92 to September '94 the band recorded a number of songs that would form their fist album, Ignis Fatuus, released in '95 by The Lasers Edge, the start of a long partnership with the American label, and signalling them as one of the leading groups in the revival of Progressive Rock along with bands like Anglagard and Anekdoten. The sound of this first album is largely characterised by mid paced, acoustic guitar and mellotron led Folk Prog, bringing to mind Gryphon but with a touch of the more acoustic nature of early Genesis and King Crimson's first line-up. However, the two "epic" songs that close out the album showed a full electric band with a much more staunchly Symphonic approach…

"empathogen" is the sixth studio album from WILLOW. This release sees WILLOW moving in a new alternative and jazz tinged direction following her widely praised 2022 release <COPINGMECHANISM>. The album includes features from Jon Batiste and St. Vincent.

Ignis Fatuus is the classic debut album from Norwegian prog legends White Willow. Originally released in the Spring of 1995, the album took the global progressive rock scene by storm. Fan letters started coming in from all over the world, and wonderful reviews from American and European music magazines kept flowing out of their fax machine. 5000 copies were quickly sold and soon the band was on a plane to California to perform at the 1995 Los Angeles Progfest, along with acts like Spock’s Beard, Ars Nova and Landberk.

This album offers a new approach to the character of Scheherazade, with Rimsky-Korsakov’s musical masterpiece transcribed for the forces of Ensemble K and a previously unpublished text, freely adapted from the Thousand and One Nights and ancient love poems, which tells the story of Scheherazade. The Franco-Iranian actress Golshifteh Farahani plays Scheherazade, while Kristin Winters is her sister, Dinarzad: ‘For me, this story is a literary and historical treasure of humanity. But our collective imagination has seen Scheherazade as either a seductress or a submissive woman who told stories to survive. The greatness of this character goes far beyond that, and in fact represents the ancient figure of the “hero”, or rather the heroine!’, says Simone Menezes, who is artistic director of this project. For this second collaboration with Alpha Classics (after Amazônia, ALPHA990), she presents two versions of the programme, one with music and texts, the other with Rimsky-Korsakov’s music alone.