From: Lanzarini [mailto:lanzarini@rockprogressivo.com.br]
> I have a question. Which Gandalf releases are progressive and which ones
are ?new age-ish??
Always have a mix of them, but the 5 first albums from WEA: Journey To An
Imaginary Land, Visions, Magic Theatre (conceptual), To Another Horizon
(conceptual), Tales From a Long Forgotten Kingdom (conceptual), All are
instrumental. Later you could try Gallery of Dreams, with Steve Hackett on
guitars. The other ones are in major new age, but with prog moments, specally
the ones from th recird label Sattiva.
From: "Craig
Shipley" <>
I'll second Lanzarinis' choices here, with an enthusiastic nod to TO ANOTHER
HORIZON as being one of his better progressive efforts, especially the first
side, with its' wailing Mellotron and screaming Strat (well, not really
screaming, but that just sounds good together). THE UNIVERSAL PLAY is not bad,
either, tends to be a bit more in the Tangerine Dream realm. FROM SOURCE TO SEA
has some great moments, but overall is probably more NewAgey than most folks
here would like. Avoid the Galadriel & Gandalf effort, unless you really,
really, REALLY like sticky-sweet lyrics about kids 'n war being bad 'n stuff...
I stopped buying his material after THE STONES OF WISDOM; his music is still
good, but our paths have diverged...
From: "Craig Shipley" <>
Subject: RE: Gandalf
C'mon, Wade, the guy in question named himself after a character from LotR, of
COURSE he's gonna do an album "inspired by LotR." :-) And his website proves
it!! Go check out http://www.gandalf.at
and Vol. 1 of VISIONS 2001 (my company may have a lawsuit against this
guy, that was the name of our national customer meeting... ;-) ) sez "Music
Inspired by THE LORD OF THE RINGS."
All silliness aside, if you have not heard Gandalf AKA Heinz Strobel, he is well
worth checking out. Kind of a Pink Floyd meets Tangerine Dream sound in
the early days, he did get a little too mystical/New Age for me at times and the
CD that had Galadriel on vox was way too sweet for my ears. TO ANOTHER HORIZON
is great, amongst others, but I think that it would find more receptive ears on
this list. I think I did a review that is archived on the
e-Prog website that would give you my opinion on what to try and what to avoid
as a intro to his music...
From: "Gandalf ." <>
Subject: Re: Gandalf
Just to confuse things further, there is also an album released in 1970 called "
Music Inspired by Lord of the Rings" by Bo Hansson, a Swedish musician who
formed a rock duo with a fellow Swede, Janne Karlsson, and toured regularly
during 1967-1969. The duo gained popularity in Britain during this time. Jimi
Hendrix jammed regularly with the pair and invited them to tour with the Jimi
Hendrix Experience. Hansson broke up the duo to concentrate on writing and,
along with many others in the late 1960s and early 1970s, became fascinated with
the works of JRR Tolkien. "Lord of the Rings", all instrumental, was the fruit
of Hansson's labours and was recorded on a remote island off Stockholm, using a
portable 8-track machine. This concept album is unusual in many ways: successful
Swedish rock artists were something of a rarity in the early 1970s, and
successful keyboard-dominated concept albums by Swedish rock artists were even
rarer! But this album is a true classic and features some excellent music by
gifted musicians. I was much taken with this album when it was first released
and it encouraged me to further explore the rich pleasures of prog. "Lord of the
Rings" charted on both sides of the Atlantic upon its original release and
enjoyed cult status for a while, particularly during the early 1970s when
Tolkien's works, particularly 'The Hobbit' and 'Lord of the Rings' enjoyed a
resurgence in popularity to the extent that anything to do with these works was
ardently siezed upon! The same may be happening again following release of the
excellent film "Fellowship of the Ring". "Lord of the Rings" earned Bo Hansson
Gold Discs in Britain and Australia. The cover has a wonderful painting by Jane
Furst. I would say that the album has stood the test of time and modern
listeners would find a lot to please them. It's good music and the album's
success upon its original release was clearly no fluke. It's available on CD (EDSEL
Records (EDCD 493)).
Regards, Gandalf (although I live in Vienna, I'm not the keyboard wizard!)
From: hugh manatee
]
Subject: Re: [e-Prog] Digest Number 1437 / Gandalf
> if you have not heard Gandalf AKA Heinz Strobel, he
is well worth checking out.
do you remember which of his albums Hackett was on?
and is that one any good?
From: "Craig Shipley" <>
Subject: RE: Digest Number 1437 / Gandalf
Hackett appears on GALLERY OF DREAMS and it is OK. Less cohesive than some
of his earlier works, but not bad.