WILLOWGLASS

Willowglass is actually a one-man project,who is Andrew Marshall,a multi-instrumentalist based in Holmfirth, West Yorkshire, UK.With a love for progressive rock,especially the legendary English names of the 70's,Andrew decided to record an album as a tribute to this magnificent vintage sound with only the help of drummer Dave Brightman.Marshall handles all guitars,keyboards,flutes and bass on this all instrumental debut,carrying the name of the project as a title and released in 2005.

From the opening notes the influences from 70's UK Classic Prog are dominant.The short instrumentals on this album are definitely of the ANTHONY PHILLIPS/GENESIS school,attractive, delicate, pastoral acoustic music often supported by lovely flutes and mellotron.In the longer ones Marshall seems influenced by both the Symphonic and Folk Rock scene of the Island.''Remembering'' is absolutely fantastic,grandiose spacy synth Symphonic Music blended with CAMEL-esque jazzy guitars and some GENESIS soft folkiness towards the end.''Garden'' is closer to Folk Prog,excellent atmosphere under acoustic guitars and mellotron with a nice and intense outro.''Tower of the King's Daughter'' is maybe the weakest track,not because it's bad,but mainly due to the heavy plagiarism on the BANKS-ian moog synth sounds,seems like coming out of ''Selling England by the pound''.With ''Into The Chase'' Marshall goes back on his unique track,fine blending of KING CRIMSON-influenced mellotron,GENTLE GIANT-ish clavinet with a superb GILMOUR-ish guitar section later.On ''A Blinding Light'' organ makes its strongest presence,mixed well with the piano and guitars of Marshall,again delivering some trippy melodic soundscapes.''Waking The Angels'' is another huge highlight,almost entirely built around keys (mellotron-choir,spacey synths),flutes and acoustic guitars,offering absolutely dreamy musicianship of the highest quality.

Willowglass is one of the very few bands around with very strong retro-influences,which keeps the quality of their music on,at least, the same level as its loving bands of the past.This album is so elegant,dreamy,melodic and carefully composed,it is almost possible not to spin it back in your CD player.Highly recommended to all fans of 70's Classic Progressive Rock.