Sacrament＜限定盤/White Vinyl＞

サイケ/アシッド・フォーク・ロックバンド:THE ORCHID GARDENを母体にJacob Holm-Lupo(g)を中心として'93年結成、以降ノルウェー/北欧プログレッシブ・ロック界における重要バンドとしてシーンを担ってきたノルウェー産シンフォニック・ロックバンド、WHITE WILLOWの'00年3rdアルバムがノルウェー:Karisma Recordsより'24年再発!本盤はホワイト・カラーヴァイナル仕様の限定アナログ盤。

単体リリースとしては初となるLP化。前作からメンバーがほぼ一新され、新たにBrynjar Dambo(key)、Johannes Saeboe(b)、Aage Moltke Schou(drs)が加入。過去二作品の流れを受け継ぎつつも、"静"と"動"の対比を生かしたドラマ性と、メロトロンを軸とする多彩なキーボードを駆使した重厚さ/ダークな幻惑感を強化。デビュー作で打ち出していたトラッド志向をメロディー/アレンジに復活させつつ、過去二作では抑えられていたロック的ダイナミズムが一気に発露した、以降の路線/作品の原型となる秀作です!!

Two years after his critically acclaimed second album Ex Tenebris, White Willow's leader Jacob Holm-Lupo came back with a new CD and, for the third time, a new band. With keyboardist Jan Tariq Rahman's departure Holm-Lupo remains the only original member of the band. Only singer Sylvia Erichsen is salvaged from the staff found on Ex Tenebris. The instrumentation remains almost the same, only the names change: Brynjar Dambo on keyboards, Aage Moltke Schou on drums, Johannes Saeeboe on bass, and Ketil Vestrum Einarsen on flutes. Now that there is a full-time flutist in the band, the instrument is used more extensively and to better effect. It would have been hard to follow up on Ex Tenebris with an album in the same vein and, as expected, White Willow reverted to a more standard progressive rock sound, somewhere between its first and second albums. The mystical quality, bareness beauty and vibrant sensuality of the previous release is almost all gone (some of it can still be experienced on the beautiful "Paper Moon" and to a lesser extent "Gnostalgia"). Songs are more complex, symphonic, and somewhat Scandinavian in essence, but what they lost in atmosphere they gained in tightness and body. Indeed, on Sacrament White Willow sounds very much like a band instead of being only Holm-Lupo's creature. Musicians had their say in the writing process and arrangements are the fruit of group collaboration. This can be particularly felt on the last two tracks: "Gnostalgia" and "The Reach." Even though it doesn't have the strength of Ex Tenebris, Sacrament is still a very above-average prog rock album and is strongly recommendable. ~ Francois Couture