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TO OUR RESCUE |
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In The
Labyrinth - To Our Rescue (Own Management, 2023) (Psychedelic /
Oriental) – by Carry Munter
Just before the end
of 2011, the CD "One Trail To Heaven" was
released on the American Trail Records label of the Swedish band In The
Labyrinth, which has been releasing a CD every now and then since 1996.The driving forces behind this band are multi-instrumentalist Peter Lindahl, who has been making music since the mid-1960s, and bass guitarist Hakan Almkvist (Ensemble Nimbus, Orient Squeezers, Flying Food Circus and Tweendeck 2), who also plays several oriental plays including sitar, Indian tabla and E-bow guitar. In 1996, In The Labyrinth released their first CD entitled "The Garden Of Mysteries", which was re-released in 2012 by the Transubstans label. The follow-up "Walking On Clouds" was released in 1999 and "Dryad" in 2002, and both CDs were released by Record Heaven. "One Trail To Heaven", which features several guest musicians (Helena Selander - vocals, Marcos Chagallo - violin, Stefan Andersson - guitar and bass guitar), contains several songs from those CDs, supplemented with unreleased songs and alternative versions. The band's fifth album is called "SamasAntaral" and, after a delay of almost 25 years, was finally ready. Most of the songs on the album were recorded in the early 1990s, but there are also some songs and parts thereof that date from the period 1973-1974, while there are also pieces that were recorded recently. In 1980 Peter Lindahl, Mikael Gejel and Ulf Hansson formed the band Aladdin's Lantern, which regularly changed line-up in the 10 years that followed, with Peter being the constant factor. One of the musicians who played in the band at that time, which was called Labyrinth from 1993 and a year later In The Labyrinth, was Stefan Andersson and another was Karin Langhard-Gejel. The music the band played was Middle Eastern oriented and also had influences from Greek, Turkish popular and Indian classical music, but also The Beatles, The Beach Boys, Bo Hansson, Mike Oldfield, Ennio Morricone, Goran Bregovic and Pink Floyd were inspirational sources. The album, "SamasAntaral", which was released on April 27, 2018 by the Transubstans label as a CD and as a digital download, is based on the saga of the same name written by Stefan Ottman and Mikael Gejel in the 80s, as a series, for the fantasy magazine "Drömskrinet". The musicians who are part of these recordings are: Stefan Ottman - narrator, choir vocals, chants, acoustic 6 and 12 string guitar, kazoo, keyboards and recorders Peter Lindahl - vocals, choir vocals and chants, lead guitar, 6 and 12 string guitar , Turkish saz, bass guitar, synthesizer bass, mellotron, recorders, keyboards, church organ, percussion, zither, okarina, shennai, shawm, bass violin, mandolin, baroque traverse, quena, curved guitar and sound effects Hakan Almkvist - sitar, bass guitar, Indian tabla and E-bow guitar Helena Selander - angelic voice and choral vocals Robert Eklund - pedal guitar, Celtic harp, oud and bow lute Alejandro Vega - Pan flute, violin and charango (Andean guitar) Marcos Chagallo– violin Micke Lövroth– violin Fereidon Nadimi - Daf Miriam Oldenburg – accordion Carlos Yoyi - trumpet (1 song) Styrbjörn Bergelt - willow flute (1 song) Stefan Lakatos - trimba (1 song) and KaijsaVilhuinen - chants (1 song) and it is also worth mentioning that the painting and drawings were made by Peter Lindahl, while Hakan Almkvist took care of the graphic design. On September 13, 2023, the band released a new album entitled "To Our Rescue" and it contains 15 songs. Peter Lindahl - acoustic and electric guitar, bass guitar, mellotron, zither, mandolin, choral vocals, quena, percussion, keyboards, razor and sound effects,Helena Selander - angelic voice and choral singing and Håkan Almkvist - sitar playing with the following musicians: Stefan Lakatos - choral singing (track 1) and trimba, Stefan Ottman - choir vocals (track 1), Marcos Chagallo - violin, Robert Eklund - oud and Sven-Ingvar Ahlin - baritone saxophone. The album starts with "Braun Raga", in which In The Labyrinth plays an excellent psychedelic rock song, which has a medium tempo, contains a catchy recurring rhythm and has Eastern  influences and is followed
by
"Sleeping Katla", a nice quiet Eastern sounding song with melodic
influences, "To Our Rescue", a catchy song with a medium tempo and a
catchy rhythm and "Ray Of Hope", a wonderful Eastern song with a medium
tempo and a recurring rhythm that encourages dancing.This is followed by "Sanctus" (which is also on Friends Of The Fish's 2022 album Various Artists - The Sign Of The Crab), a beautiful Eastern-sounding song with a not too fast tempo, which contains several subtle tempo changes and light folk influences, "The Black Plague", a fantastic song with a not too fast tempo, which has a menacing appearance and "The Vegetable Man", a great cover of the Syd Barrett song. In "Waiting For A Miracle - 1" In The Labyrinth presents me with a beautiful song with a recurring rhythm and excellent vocals, in "Santa's Gone Fishing" I get to hear an instrumental song with a recurring rhythm, in "Ukraine Burning" I hear the band playing a somewhat sad song with a slow tempo and in "Mr Minister" the band lets me enjoy a song with a medium tempo and a catchy danceable rhythm. Then follows "Gondwana", a delightful instrumental song with a medium tempo and a cheerful catchy rhythm, where sitting still is not an option, "A Q Blues", a wonderful song with Eastern influences, a catchy rhythm and a not too fast tempo, "Waiting For A Miracle - 2", an Eastern song with a medium tempo and a recurring rhythm, which gets vocals added 1 minute before the end and "Goa Goodbye", a beautiful sad sounding Eastern song with a slow tempo. "To Our Rescue" by In The Labyrinth is an enjoyable digital album that contains delightful songs that I thoroughly enjoyed from start to finish and I highly recommend this disc to every lover of Eastern music. (listen to this album via the bandcamplink below the review). Rating 4½ /5 Posted by Carry's Music Machine |
