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“The Lord of Mushrooms” by Peter Lindahl.

And if you want to see some more of his
illustrations please click on the image!

ALADDIN’S LANTERN/
IN THE LABYRINTH
BIOGRAPHY

In Stockholm back in 1980, Aladdin’s Lantern was formed by Peter Lindahl, Mikael Gejel and Ulf Hansson. Over the next decade, various musicians came and left. One was Karin Langhard-Gejel, another one was Stefan Andersson.

The style in which they played was mainly Middle Eastern, their playlist featuring both traditional numbers and material put together by some of the members themselves. The performances of Aladdin‘s Lantern included all sorts of assignments like backing up “belly dancers” and playing at clubs and festivals.

By the entry of the nineties, they had switched from being a part time live act to becoming a band more or less confined to the studio environment. Around ’93 the name Aladdin’s Lantern was swapped for Labyrinth and in ’94 to In The Labyrinth, which was essentially a way to avoid the risk of being confused with the heavy rock band Labyrinth.
PETER LINDAHL

 Peter LindahlI like to blend things and not worry about stylistic accuracy too much. It’s nice to fall out of expectations and to get away from the upbeaten track laid out by the music trade. Nearly as long as I can remember, I’ve been busy putting music on to tape. However, at some phases of my life, I’ve gotten myself into a couple of live acts, though each of them lasting only for a limited period of time.
To find out some more about me and my doings please  click on the image of the guy in front of the steam engine who´s wearing that psychedelic shirt! By doing so you´ll reaach the PETER LINDAHL page.

Peter Lindahl, August 05


  SOURCES OF INSPIRATION   

Oriental dancerOne very important source of inspiration for In The Labyrinth is Turkish popular music, referring mainly to artists of the sixties up to the early nineties. Other influential styles are traditional songs of the Middle East, Greek Rebetiko and Indian classical music with artists like Ravi Shankar. Even so called Bollywood has had its impact, also the Italian score composer Ennio Morricone and Goran Bregovic from former Yugoslavia. A wide array of folk loristic styles ranging from the High Andes to Bretagne and Medieval and early classical music (meaning renaissance and baroque) have left a mark; psychedelic and innovative rock from the sixties too, especially works like The Beatles Revolver and Sgt Pepper, George Harrison’s Wonderwall music, Pink Floyds The piper at the gates of dawn, likewise The Beach boys Pet sounds and Brian Wilson´s Smile. Moving into the seventies, one musician/composer with a huge influence was Bo Hansson, least to mention his first two albums The lord of the rings and The magicians hat and also Mike Oldfield with gems like Ommadawn, to name just a few.

STUDIO GEAR

 Studio equipment which over the years has been in use during the ITL recording sessions comprises everything from vintage technology, including an EMI Mark II mixing board (which is a close relative to the console that the Beatles used in their productions), to modern samplers and a RADAR II (Otari) hard disc recorder. Old trademarks like Nuemann, API and Neve ensure to maintain the old values of sound, the warmth and the clarity which is essential to the production even though modern computerized  technique is also in use along the line.

INSTRUMENTS

Of course the instruments used to create the sound are equally important or if not even more vital, among these being the mellotron which ranks high on the list with its haunting and melancholy timbre of sound as well as a wide variety of flutes originating from many different parts of the world, also string instruments, percussion, woodwinds, violins,  viola da gamba, samplers, synthesizers, acoustic and electric guitars, bass, bells, vocals, FX and lots more. 



Håkan Almkvist working his way through one of many sessions in the studio, on this occasion overdubbing his sitar on to a  recordings later to become one of the tracks on  Dryad.
  Peter in the studio
    Peter Lindahl playing acoustic guitar and singing at a
gig in Copenhagen, Denmark, 1983.
  Snowy
         The zither (citra) used on many
          ITL recordings.



    SOME PARAPHERNALIA
Snowy
Advertisement of the old commercial studio which
was  located just north east of Stockholm during
the mid to late 80s.

    


  Back to top!
Snowy
And here are two heavy dudes beating the daylight out of the studio keyboards including a rather antique sampler and the Mellotron.




Snowy
It was here that Peter began collecting his many
technical items of which some have been in use
to this day.