The Wishing Tree is an acoustic music project by Marillion‘s guitarist Steve Rothery and British vocalist Hannah Stobart.
Rothery is playing the guitar in the British Rock Group Marillion since 1984, together with Pete Trewavas, Mark Kelly and Ian Mosley.

Marillion have been often described as „neo prog“, despite their style should be defi ned alternative-pop more precisely, much closer to the sound of Talk Talk or Radiohead than Genesis, as it was in the early years of the band.
One description of their current sound might be: „Complex, melodic art-rock, often with a somewhat wistful and/or spiritual edge...“, but in truth, they don’t really sound
like anyone else.

Rothery always expressed his desire to start an acoustic project with a female vocalist. It was a hard long way to fi nd the best voice but fi nally he was approached byHannah Stobart who gave him her demo tape. Rothery were very impressed of her voice and started to record some more demo tapes at his studio.

During two weeks in early 1996, Rothery recorded acoustic material with Stobart on vocals, Pete Trewavas of Marillion on bass and Paul Craddick of Enchant on drums and keyboards. All music was written by Rothery and Stobart („additional vocal melodies“), while the lyrics were written by regular Marillion collaborator John Helmer.

The resulting album was their debut album, Carnival of Souls, after the horror fi lm of the same title.
Nearly 10 years past by and now they are back. Rothery joined with Stobart and Craddick, who plays the drums, to record some demos that Rothery described as „a cross between Portishead and Alanis Morissette“.

What comes out is their brand new album Ostara, a melodic charming acoustic album who will attract fans of Tori Amos, Pentangle, Portishead and - obviously - Marillion fans. Marillion are in fact one of the bands with more fan clubs in the world. Their fans are totally devoted to the band and its single components and they collect everything they release.

Genre: Pop/Poprock

Date de sortie: 17.06.2009