White Willow - Ignis Fatuus (Remastered) (2023) [Hi-Res]

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.

The songs on the album range from almost pure pastoral folk-rock, as on Snowfall and Till He Arrives, via out-and-out prog rock, as on John Dee’s Lament and Cryptomenysis (which featured a guest appearance from Ved Buens Ende’s Carl Michael Eide) to unusual experiments like the renaissance-inspired hymn Song, based on Christina Rossetti’s poem. The band didn’t at the time consider themselves a prog-rock band, more a folk-rock band that dabbled in symphonic arrangements. Nevertheless, the album has become a classic for prog connoisseurs.

This re-release was meticulously remastered by the band’s own Jacob Holm-Lupo, and is presented with the classic original cover art, for the first time on vinyl. This is the first in a series of six White Willow re-releases on Karisma Records.