White Willow Disband

Hello Jacob

This is sad news indeed. But to me the latest album, "Signal To Noise," was somewhat of a let down after their brilliant masterpiece "Storm Season." SS was a dark, brooding and complex concept, expertly performed and produced, where as the later album pushed towards a more commercial sound with less  prog elements. BIG MISTAKE on their part IMHO. And the departure of vocalist Sylvia Erickson I believe was the beginning of their downward spiral. Sorry Lars, but as much hype as your other band Wobbler has got, I think that WW was a superior musical entity in all aspects. Thanks though to all, especially Jacob for all of the great music over the years.  

Dennis wrote: This is sad news indeed. But to me the latest album, "Signal To Noise," was somewhat of a let down after their brilliant masterpiece "Storm Season." SS was a dark, brooding and complex concept, expertly performed and produced, where as the later album pushed towards a more commercial sound with less  prog elements. BIG MISTAKE on their part IMHO. And the departure of vocalist Sylvia Erickson I believe was the beginning of their downward spiral. Sorry Lars, but as much hype as your other band Wobbler has got, I think that WW was a superior musical entity in all aspects. Thanks though to all, especially Jacob for all of the great music over the years.

Well said.

Sad news but I cant say that its too surprising, massive line-up changes have been part-and-parcel of WW since the start, I believe only Holm-Lupo and Jan Ketil Einarsen (sp?) were the only two left from the original line-up on Ignis Fatuus.

As to new materiel, darker and more complex music sounds like a return to the Storm Season sound (though I suspect that, like all their album, it will have its very own unique sound) and that can only be a good thing. I just hope Trude Eidtang comes back to do some singing as I thought she was amazing.


Edited by sleeper - July 01 2007 at 20:29

 Actually, both me and Lars are pretty fed up with anything prog-like these days (which is why we've been on a long hiatus), and we both agree there is not really any such thing as "new prog" - it's a dead genre. But flogging a dead horse is good exercise, and we sure could use some of that.


Wow I could not disagree more with Lars and Jacob's opinion about prog. Quality "old-school" prog is still exciting to listen to today, and "new-prog" DOES exist and the new bands can be very vital in today's music world. Bands such as Porcupine Tree and Anekdoten have revitalized many key elements of "old-school" prog, and infused modern music genres and techniques within those realms. Lars and Jacob both seem to be stuck in the past, and unable to infuse the modern elements into their writing. That's why IMHO Wobbler seems somewhat boring to me. It's just too retro-prog for me. I rather listen to King Crimson circa 1972. Don't get me wrong, I love symphonic prog with lots of mellotron, etc., but I need new music with a modern twist to it. And I don't believe that prog is dead at all. In fact the current revival is in full swing and very popular again. Even Steven Wilson in a current interview said that it's now cool to call certain bands prog again with no big pooh-pooh. And if you come to think of it, aren't we beating a dead horse with ALL music genres these days, just re-inventing it somewhat?