NIGHT BLOOMS

Soft and sometimes a little too sweet, this mellow extension of White Willow sounds very 70-s, thanks to the dominating flute, acoustic guitar and cello. There's also some electricity in this blend, but also very vintage: mellotron, moog and optigan.

The project is conceived by Jacob Holm-Lupo, guitarist and leader of the Norwegian prog-rock formation White Willow. Here he decided to go to a softer side of prog. He invited for this project a lot of WW personnel from different incarnations, and even reworked some White Willow tunes. Other collaborations on the record are Rhys Marsh from Anekdoten and Rachel Haden, who played bass for Todd Rundgren, but only sings here.

One should have patience with this album, it is a grower. When I listened to it the first time, I only noticed a reasonable but redundant cover of "By the river" from Brian Eno's extraordinary album "Before and After Science" from 1977. Alas, comparing to Brian Eno's genial, crystal clear production and arrangements, which even now sounds very up-to-date, this version lacks the weirdness and deepness. But well, after a few more listens I learned to appreciate the pastoral sound of "Night Blooms" and found some more interesting places on the record. For instance, the strong opener "Heavenman", with it's beautiful melody, the second "Better days ahead" and then a little (well, very little) heavier songs "Honeybee" and "Beach house".

Alas, there's just not enough to make me have that longing feeling to listen to this music. A few numbers I will never accept I think: "Three sleepers", "Flicker girl" and "The last rose of summer", all sung by Rachel Haden. There's too much nectar in them, it leaves a little to sweet aftertaste.

In other words, opposite to the suggestion in the project's name, it is not really addicting, but I still hope to find one day another record of the band which will not be that sweet, because the promise, the potential are present here.