Many Aural Innovations readers will be familiar with In the Labyrinth, a Swedish ensemble that play a mind expanding brand of Middle Eastern/Indian influenced psychedelia with healthy portions of folk and progressive rock. Diehard fans will know that the band is led by multi-instrumentalist and artist Peter Lindahl, who has recently made available this archival set of never before released songs he recorded in 1970-73 (a few are from the 80s & 90s).

The album consists of 16 impressively well written pop-psych songs. You'll hear heavy folk influences, flower power vibes, bits of novelty song, and all very psychedelicized. But listen closely to the music… you won't hear In the Labyrinth, but you will hear a sophisticated progressive edge that is clearly the seeds of the music Lindahl was to create many years later. Listen to tracks like "Pastor Gran" and you'll hear Lindahl experimenting with effects and doing an admirable job of adding color and character to his songs. And I love the chipmunk vocals and use of percussive clatter on "Mamma, Pappa Och Barnvisan". Most of the tracks are in the 2-5 minute range, though one of my favorites is the 7 minute "Taby Sång". It's folk, pop and trippy, and Lindahl works in horn segments (keyboards?), freaky backwards loops, and much more to nicely embellish this gorgeous mellow song.

Peter played all the instruments on the album except for some assistance on a few tracks, chiefly his brother Niklas and father Sven. Most of the songs are in English though there are a few sung in Swedish. The music is very well produced, not so much in the sound quality (which is very good) as in the way the songs are crafted and the instrumentation arranged. It's great to see so much archival music being issued in recent years. And it gets even more exciting when contemporary artists pull unreleased tapes out of the mothballs and give the world a taste of their creative roots. Recommended to anyone into seeking out obscure early 70s psychedelia.

Sound samples of each track are available at: http://www.inthelabyrinth.com/Psychedelic_Sweden_Audio_page.html

Also visit the In the Labyrinth web site at: http://www.inthelabyrinth.com Be sure to check out the links to Peter's paintings…. fantastic!)

Reviewed by Jerry Kranitz

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Peter Lindahl:

Psychedelic Sweden (review in Finish)

In The Labyrinth-projektin johtaja Peter Lindahl teki jo 70-luvulla musiikkia, jota on nyt julkaistu albumilla “Psychedelic Sweden”. Albumi on äänitetty pääosaksi vuosina 1970-73, mutta osa kappaleista on peräisin  1980 - ja 1990-luvuilta. Albumin nimen mukaisesti ei ole kyse niinkään progesta, vaan 60/70-luvun taitteen akustisemmasta psykedeliasta. Musiikkia kuunnellessa huomaa selviä yhtäläisyyksiä sellaisten artistien kuten alkuajan Pink Floyd, Syd Barrett, Tyrannosaurus Rex ja Pugh Rogefelt musiikin kanssa. Lindahlilla on melkoisen ruotsalainen ote psykedeliaansa ja osa kappaleista on jopa laulettu ruotsiksi. Arkistonauhoituksiksi  albumin soundit ovat aivan kelvolliset ja albumi tarjoaa joitakin makupaloja tämän tyyppisen musiikin  ystäville.

RE

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THE LOST FRONTIER: Christmas sampler

Peter Lindahl, who is, apart from being a genious musician and a marvelous person, has put some links to a couple of samplers of lostfrontier, between them, the Christmas one.

Christmas sampler 2006 playlist:

 

 THE VEGETABLE MAN PROJECT VOLUME 4 (In English) 

Oggetti Volanti   V.A.: The Vegetable Man Project 4 (var.2005)**°'

Like before, on the previous compilations, most versions of Syd Barret’s “Vegetable Man” haven’t got much of the sphere of the original Syd Barrett in them, but this time I don’t care, because most of the better tracks are entirely different but still enjoyable enough to stand stylistically on their own, that it does not really matter if some things missed the original point. Most bands listed here are Italian, with some exceptions.
This might be one of the better and most enjoyable to listen to compilations fromthe label to date. It is compiled well with a variety of styles, mostly within the range of independent rock.
While the musicians were only allowed a short four minutes almost every musician or group took care and the time to arrange their versions well, something which gave benefit to the compilation, where the song might have been an excuse to present each group’s ability to arrange and give their music visions.
Very enjoyable, almost danceable, is the let’s say post-kraftwerk “robot” version from Italian band Miazia (-I cannot imagine a “vegetarian robot”, but who cares again, for this is just electropop fun).  Gallery Of Lore's heavy indie-wavepostrock is enjoyable too. Der Bekannte Post-Industrielle Trompeter is fine too. It is an almost absurd, far out-sider, fun-blurry experimental track with the use of a few brass instruments (trombone and trumpet ?) and background echoed vocals. UK psych band the Future Kings Of England bring it closer to the original, witha more careful-freaky psych version, without adding just anything to the original. Italian band Beat Babol, sound fundamentally also close to the original in rhythm, text and singing but has electronic wave arrangements, which make the song different in style, again to something slightly trippy and danceable, with a nice electronic outro mix. This is well switched into the next track, which is an oddity of a rhythmic speed-is-mixed-up tapemix by Su/Si_Lab. Their track became a nice in between track for a great indie-industrial surf version with wahwah guitar and a child like voice, performed by Kevin from Sweden. This is followed by a very good original acoustic song interpretation with let’s say free-flamenco-jazz acoustic guitar and some flute and whistle touches, by My God Is a Fluorescent Frog. With modern echoed rhythms and an industrial and indie-electropop touch, with muffy muffled distorted vocals, well mixed, is the track by Italian band Minaloans. This is followed by a weird fun version by the German psych band Fantasy Factory with some making-fun-of-it vocals, some brass and a stretch-and-pull-flute. This is followed by Dutch absurd-artist Danielle Lemaire, spoken in Dutch, and with rather noisy high-note nonsense. Hearing her interpretation text I’m not sure if she understood that ‘vegetable man’ is not about a salesman in vegetables, but about drugs and becoming a plant. (Perhaps the misinterpretation was deliberate but I wonder). Satantango brings a somewhat predictable and ok heavier female indierock version, with just a bit of freak-the-guitars. Starting with teenybop rhythms but in an independent rock style is Labyrinth Whistler with post-Floydian vocal arrangements, and a few more great and varied changes in arrangements with attention to details, like a more electric guitar jam part, and some mellotron. A fine version with respect for 60’s punk and psychedelia, made for a world used now to different styles. The band seems to be a combination of two bands: In the labyrinth and Swedish whistler. This is followed by a calmer independent version with its own vision of arrangements of electronic rhythms, guitars, and organ, ..by Goad/Opendead Eye. Posthuman Tantra after this are from Brazil. They work with dark sequenced rhythms, echoed distorted Portuguese vocals, with strange and filmic electronic sounds, -the song becomes hardly recognisable-, with a strong almost horrifying tension.Jacopo Gobber performed another calm independent version with some more use of electronica. Further we have UK based Kitchen Cynics with some simple, loner folkpsych fuzz and rhythmbox and arranged vocals. Geloso’s indierock version starts as a more primitive and simple version but it becomes more enjoyable further on. A great conclusion is Marsicano Sitar Experience with Laro Toledo from Brazil with first echoed and then plain sitar and some percussion.

 

Gerald Van Waes

THE VEGETABLE MAN PROJECT VOL. 4 (In Italian)
- OVNI 2005

"...l'Uomo Vegetale che era in me si è risvegliato. Più dominatore del Leone, più distruttivo di Marte, ha le sembianze di Syd Barrett e mille voci diverse, racchiuse in quegli strambi dischetti alla clorofilla" (Donato Zoppo).

Con un pizzico di egocentrismo e un immenso orgoglio apro questa segnalazione citando me stesso: è l'introduzione che ho curato per l'ottimo Volume 4 del Vegetable Man Project, edito dagli amici della OVNI nel novembre del 2005.
Anche questa volta 20 versioni 20 di "Vegetable man", anche queste volta 20 partecipanti 20, una lista succulenta, cicciona e succosa come le altre volte. A voi:

01. geloso (italy)

02. satantango (italy)

03. jacopo gobber (italy)

04. danielle lemaire (the netherlands)

05. marsicano sitar experience & pandit lao (brasil+india)

06. der bekannte post-industrielle trompeter (italy)

07. the future kings of england (uk)

08. goad / opendead eye (italy)

09. kevin (sweden)

10. gallery of lore (italy)

11. nonmipiaceilcirco! (italy)

12. miazia (italy)

13. labyrinth whistler (sweden)

14. my god is a fluorescent frog (italy)

15. kitchen cynics (uk)

16. beat babol (italy)

17. su/si_lab (italy)

18. milanoans (italy)

19. fantasyy factoryy (germany)

20. posthuman tantra (brasil)

Ma cos'ha di speciale questo quarto volume? la varietà delle versioni,  l'eterogeneità, quel sense of humour che traspare e che distingue questa operazione dalle altre, compresi i tanti progetti-concept che vanno tanto di moda nel mondo del progressive rock contemporaneo.
Anche stavolta ci sono nomi di un certo peso, ad esempio i lanciatissimi Future Kings of England con la loro cover ossessiva e ficcante, i Fantasyy Factoryy del grande Alan Tepper, che sfodera una versione in puro heavy-psych anni '70, i longevi Goad di Maurilio Rossi che incontrano i giovani Open Dead Eye per una versione al confine tra art rock ed elettronica. E sotto la sigla Labyrinth Whistler troviamo Peter Lindahl degli In the Labyrinth, con un approccio stralunato, acido e molto Sixties.
Gli italiani si comportano molto bene: i due Miazia (con Alex Vittorio degli StereoKimono) fanno il verso ai Kraftwerk con un trascinante synth-pop, i Gallery Of Lore graffiano con il loro tagliente noise-rock, lo stupefacente duo Der Bekannte Post-industrielle Trompeter si allinea alle sperimentazioni fiatistiche di Theo Travis e Steve Lawson, un altro duo dal nome Beat Babol viaggia alla grande con un pop tanto zuccheroso quanto sferragliente di rumore, il terzo duo Su/si_lab si cimenta con un notevole collage sperimentale di suoni naturali e concreti; quante coppie in questo cd, i due My God is a fluorescent dj ci incantano con una cover acustica, bucolica e campestre.
Nonmipiaceilcirco! tira fuori dal cilindro una versione alternativa e contaminata assai, alla quale fa da contraltare il felliniano ensemble dei Milanoans, degni eredi dei Gatto Marte con il loro elegante jazz d'annata. Infiamma le casse lo psycho-noise d'assalto dei Satantango, il solitario folletto Jacopo Gobber colpisce con la sua versione minimale e scheletrica, i Geloso chiudono la rassegna tricolore con un acid rock fiammante e spedito.

Di fronte all'arsenale italiano gli stranieri si difendono bene: il progetto Kevin vede di nuovo Lindahl con uno tra i migliori brani, una rilettura fluttuante e piena di percussioni, l'olandese Danielle Lemaire si sbizzarrisce con suoni ossessivi e frequenze disturbanti, il suo alter ego brasiliano Posthuman Tantra suona elettonica dell'apocalisse e i connazionali Marsicano Sitar Experience incantano con il loro raga barrettiano, i Kitten Cynics si lanciano in un pop elettronico "aereo".

Donato Zoppo

In The Labyrinth are a band from Sweden. In 1980 Peter Lindahl was in a band called Aladdin's Lantern, but in 1994 the band name was changed to In The Labyrinth. They have released at least three cd's of progressional-world folk musick. The musicians who have worked with Peter include: Fereidoun Nadimi, Helena Selander, Kristina Fuentes, Micke Lovroth, Ismet Demirhan, hakan almkvist, Stefan Ottman. They use a wide variety of instruments, including flutes, electric and acoustic guitars, sitar, tabla, darbouka, daf, violin, zurna, zither, and saz to name just a few. The results are astounding and breathtakingly original songs with soft-spoken vocals performed on some of the tracks that we heard! Peter sent us signed cd's in April 2004, "Walking On Clouds", a copy of "Garden Of Mysteries" and a few months later we received a signed copy of their latest musical creation "Dryad". During December 2004, we received a copy of the "Vegetable Man" compilation which is a tribute to Syd Barrett, formerly of legendary band Pink Floyd! Not only did Peter contribute a song, but he also created the cover artwork. In The Labyrinth's musical prowess evokes hints of magickal journeys in ancient  realms abound with hidden lore.