The Garden of Mysteries (Transubstans, 2011)
The Garden of Mysteries is the reissue of an album with a long and interesting story. It’s by Swedish progressive band In The Labyrinth, which is basically the project of Swedish multi-instrumentalist Peter Lindahl. The band is still active and released a great album titled One Trail to Heaven also in 2011.
Peter Lindahl is known for crossing over into territories beyond familiar progressive rock. On The Garden of Mysteries he travels through the Iberian Peninsula, northern Africa and Turkey, adding fascinating flamenco, Arabic and Turkish music influences. What makes In The Labyrinth’s musical voyages specially interesting is its ability to transition easily from electric guitars and tasty mellotron to an impressive array of acoustic instruments.
The album’s background dates back to May 1994. At that time In The Labyrinth was called Labyrint. The group released a cassette titled Mysteriernas Trädgård (The garden of mysteries), which soon led to the production of The Garden of Mysteries CD. This cassette was originally an experiment in combining shaman drums with a variety of global music styles. The project soon evolved into a more complex format picking up influences from all over the world.
By 1995, Peter Lindahl was the only musician left and he completed the CD by himself. He added new instrumentals and a couple of vocal pieces. The album featured Peter’s idle mellotron and other instruments such as viola da gamba, Turkish saz and woodwinds.
The line-up on the album includes Peter Lindahl on Mellotron, electric and acoustic guitars, saz, zither, bass, mandolin, samplers and synthesizers, melodeon, viola da gamba, flutes, woodwinds, oriental and western percussion (darbuka, daf, tambourine, etc), tambura, sound effects, vocals, background harmonies and narration; Helena Selander on background harmonies and vocal improvisation; Ulf Hansson on darbuka & Egyptian tabla; Mikael Gejel on flutes, acoustic guitar, bass, synthesizers and samplers, tambura, percussion, background harmonies and joik; Karin Langhard-Gejel on jembe, flute and background harmonies; Stefan Ottman on narration; Helena Bringner on background harmonies and vocal improvisation.