Gandalf Trading

Gear Fab's excavation of the recorded history of Greenwich Village folkie Chris Wilson continued apace with this follow-up to The Grey Wizard Am I (itself reissued three years earlier by the archival label). You needn't be a total sci-fi/fantasy dork to enjoy that 1972-vintage album, though it certainly doesn't hurt. Those with less esoteric – okay, less geeky – tastes, on the other hand, probably felt the Tolkien-themed lyricism was more than a little bit twee and precious. Even more well-adjusted, down-to-earth listeners, however, might find themselves charmed by parts of The Tin Angel. Firstly, the music itself is more diverse and, consequently, has a far broader appeal. Secondly, there is nary a wizard hat or hobbit in sight.

With his fourth album Gandalf continues the same formula of the previous "To Another Horizon" record. A whole instrumental opus based on spiritual or phylosophical reflection. The sense of loss and the chance to get up of each single man and woman is what he's trying to explain in music. So the nine tracks are put in a precise order that goes from desperation to real joy. His visionary and fertile imagination builds up the scene of a magic theatre in front of which the listener comes, alone. When he enters in, through the main door that stands in front, he is at the beginning of a long corridor with seven doors.

Taking full advantage of his 30 years experience crafting music in harmony with the rhythm of nature, Gandalf presents a grand celebration in tribute “to the wonderful variety and beauty of the universe" with Earthsong and Stardance. Masterfully blending his customary sounds with the Corso Wien Orchestra and a Sanskrit choir, the whole truly blurs the boundaries between earth and the stars.

Gandalf's self-titled album has some attractive baroque-psychedelia with a spacey air, though its quality depends very much on the standard of the material. Generally they're better the more they rely on the slightly weird and spacey production, as on "Scarlet Ribbons" and their cover of Tim Hardin's "Hang on to a Dream." On tracks like "You Upset the Grace of Living" there's a nice balance of melody and quasi-classical keyboards on the cusp between pop, progressive rock and psychedelia. "Can You Travel in the Dark Alone," one of the few originals (by Peter Sando), is nice, harmonic sunshine pop with a slightly experimental feel, along the lines of some of the better things being done by Californian cult figures like Gary Usher and Curt Boettcher at the time.

Hein Strobl is an Austrian new age multi-instrumentalist (proficient at piano, percussion, guitar, and synthesizer), and has issued countless albums on a steady basis since 1980 under the alias of Gandalf. Taking his name from the good-hearted wizard in J.R.R. Tolkien's trilogy Lord of the Rings, Gandalf's work often reflects his love of nature, as well as his commitment to preserving the environment (while his music has been compared to such other artists as William Ackerman, Rick Wakeman, Shadowfax, Enya, and Mike Oldfield over the years). His first few albums - 1980's Journey to an Imaginary Land, 1982's To Another Horizon, and 1983's Magic Theatre - contained a definite prog rock edge, before adding such instruments as flutes and saxophones to the equation and heading in a more new age-ish direction…

For this album, multi-instrumentalist Gandalf was on his own again (except for some fleeting wordless vocals by Pippa Armstrong). This album is noteworthy in bringing in many elements of what might be called World-Music and New-Age respectively. This bright and colourful music is mostly soft and dreamy and Gandalf concentrates here on atmospheres and moods more so than on creating melodies, yet he still manages to make varied and pleasant instrumental music.