In The Labyrinth - One Trail To Heaven - 2011
“ Over the wall -
leaving the world below,
The Himalayan heights - wuthering pinnacles of snow;
Standing on Tiger hill - it's almost as if time stood still,
As the mighty mountains come into view -
heaven alincs with you.”
intro
In The Labyrinth is a project from the Swedish multi-instrumentalist/painter Peter Lindahl. A musician who avoides musical boundaries. His dreamlike and mysterious compositions has influences of Middle Eastern music and psychedelic folk. He founded In The Labyrinth in the mid to late nineties and recorded so far three albums (“The Garden Of Mysteries”, “Walking On Clouds” and “Dryad”). “One Trail To Heaven” is a compilation album that includes some remastered compositions from those albums as well as some previously unreleased material and alternate versions. Peter Lindahl is working together with Hakan Almkvist and there are several guest musicians who appear on those three albums. The album is produced, engineered, mixed and mastered by Peter Lindahl and is released on the Trail Records label.
line-up
Peter Lindahl - vocals, background vocals, Mellotron, viola da gamba, electric guitar, electric bass, saz, zither, Spanish, Western & twelve string guitars, mandolin,baroque travérs-flute, quena, recorders, samplers, synthesizers, piano, melodion, darbouka, daf, percussion, sound effects & programming; Hakan Almkvist - sitar, E-bow guitar, electric bass, tabla
Appearing here and there:
Helena selander - Angelic voice improvisations, backing vocals; Mikael Gejel - sampler, flute; Robert Eklund - sampler, flute;
Helena Jacobsson - background vocals; Kristina Fuentes - background vocals; Natalie Knutzen - background vocals; Karin Langhard-Gejel - background vocals; Ulf Hansson - Darbouka; Marcos Chagallo - violin; Stefan Andersson - electric slide guitar, electric bass
review
The album opens with a previously unreleased version (with long intro) of “Lost In The Woods”. A composition originally from the “Dryad” album. The music sounds dreamlike and mysterious and has influences from Middle Eastern music. Carpets of mysterious synths combined with layers of acoustic instruments and percussion. And on top of that beautiful melodies played on instruments like the sitar. This description counts actually for the whole album. The next four compositions “Escape From Canaan”, “Moorish Rhapsody”, “The Garden Of Mysteries II” and “Monsoon” are from the album “The Garden Of Mysteries”. The opening of “Escape From Canaan” and “The Garden Of Mysteries II” reminds me of the later work of Loreena McKennitt. The used instrumentation sometimes make me think of bands like Dead Can Dance. You can float away on the music and visit unknown and exotic places. “Moorish Rhapsody” has beautiful vocal lines and Spanish guitars and could have been from a David Arkenstone album. The song seamlessly goes into “Monsoon” which includes piano and Mellotron flutes. The melodic electric guitar melodies reminds me of artists like Gandalf or Mike Oldfield. The next song “Over The Wall” is from the album “Walking On Clouds”. A ballad beautifully sung by Peter Lindahl and with delicious Mellotron strings. Also this song has a strong Middle Eastern atmosphere. In “Karakoram Waltz” you can find nice flute melodies next to electric guitar parts. “Musicarin Madness”, “Deep Saffron” and “Night Of The Baskerville Killer” are from the “Dryad” album. The first and last song have more Irish folk influences. “Deep Saffron”, an all instrumental version, is very mysterious and has more Middle Eastern influences. The previously unreleased track “The Endless City” has psychedelic/spacey guitar and keyboard parts. “Cities” is a cover version of a Moody Blues song. This atmospheric album full of delicate songs ends with an extract from a previously unreleased track entitled “Cloudburst”. I would describe this song as a spacey soundloop with Angelic voice improvisations.
conclusion
I really enjoyed listening to this album full of delicate, dreamlike and atmospheric music. I like the mix of Northern folk and Middle Eastern music. I therefore would like to recommend this album to the adventurous and open minded prog lovers. Especially to fans of the work of artist like David Arkenstone, Gandalf and Loreena McKennitt.