Artist/ Band: Willowglass
Title: Book Of Hours
Label: Self release
Year of Release: 2008
Offical Artist/ Band Link

The Review:

Willowglass follow up their eponymous debut album with Book Of Hours after a almost three year gap. The line-up remains the same, with composer and multi-instrumentalist Andrew Marshall (guitars, keyboards, bass pedals, bass guitar, flute, recorder, drums and percussion) with Dave Brightman providing a bulk of the drum work.

The Book Of Hours is conceptual album based on the novel, Don Quixote. The structure of the album is the mixture of what Camel & Genesis were doing in the mid to late 70’s. I would almost say it sounds like Steve Hackett sitting in with Camel during The Snow Goose. This is most evident in the shortest track on the album, Willowglass, which reminds me of “For Absent Friends” with it’s acoustic guitar and flute playing.

The epic of the album, Labyrinth clocks in around 17 minutes and is simply worth the price of the album alone. This is where Andrew & Dave truly bring back the spirit of music of the 70’s in a non-plagiarizing way. In fact, I feel they pay homage to that era that is gone but not forgotten.

This album is by far one of my favorite releases of 2008 and gets a high recommendation. I will go as far to say that it’ll satisfy fans of the more pastoral sounding instrumental progressive rock. While it's not the most original sound music, it’s very enjoyable and perfect for those quiet times. I look forward to more from Willowglass, hopefully sooner than another three years.

Reviewed by Ron Fuchs on December 16th, 2008

Tracks:

1. Argamasilla (11:04)

2. Willowglass (4:02)

3. The Maythorne Cross (10:39)

4. Book of Hours (7:13)

5. The Labyrinth (16:50)

Reviewed Discography

• "Willowglass" 2005
• "Book of Hours" 2008

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