What do we learn in the new Willow Child video? Well, first off, we see that quite literally it’s vocalist/guitarist Eva Kohl driving the band, and while one could make the argument that the totality of the German five-piece’s debut album, Paradise & Nadir — out May 11 on StoneFree Records — works much the same way, it’s not entirely that simple. Kohl is most certainly a forward presence in the band and in the mix of Paradise & Nadir, which was recorded by vintage specialist Richard Behrens (Heat, ex-Samsara Blues Experiment) and features cover art by Harley and J, but the organ work of Jonas Hartmann plays a significant role in “Starry Road” as well as other album cuts like “Eirene” and “Red Wood,” while Eva‘s brother, David Kohl drives languid bluesy grooves there and on the subsequent, progressively-minded “Mayflies,” which not only highlights Eva‘s vocals in its verses, but leaves room for the lead guitar of Flo Ryan Kiss to shine soulfully as it moves through its midpoint while bassist Javier Zulauf adds depth and tonal warmth alike to a spacious soundscape.
So while it may be Eva Kohl in the driver’s seat of that classic Chevy truck, don’t take that to mean the band has nothing else going for them. Paradise & Nadir is a quick-turnaround first album — the band’s lineup only solidified last year — but the songs feel older. Not only older-school, but to listen to the jammy break in the seven-minute “Beyond the Blue Fields,” there’s an established feeling between the players that, no matter how tight they are when they go into the recording studio, simply can’t be faked. Maybe that’s a result of the Kohls and Hartmann playing together longer, but whatever the case, Willow Child‘s dynamic isn’t just making an introduction for itself here: it’s showing that the band entered into the process of making their debut with a firm grip on who they are and what they want to accomplish as a band. Opening both sides of the eight-track offering with the longest piece — that’s “Little Owl” on side A and “Beyond the Blue Fields” on side B — they quickly mark out an expansive feel and balance that with structural traditionalism that only enhances the classic heavy rock aspects in their work. From: https://theobelisk.net/obelisk/2018/04/16/willow-child-paradise-nadir-starry-road-premiere/
