THE UNIVERSAL PLAY

While the most part of the previous release 'Tale From A Long Forgotten Kingdom' still falls the same category as the albums from beginning of the 80's with 'The Universal Play' Gandlaf completly arrived to the second period of his musical carrier which consists of music based on mostly electronics.

The Unversal Play is still a concept album with some longer meditative parts especially in tracks World Within and Ocean Of Time. Not all of the album sounds like that though : right at the start the first track is a quite unusual one from Gandalf. He haven't made such kind of interesting ambient sound in his carreer so the album starts curiously for those who familiar with Gandalf's music. Cosmic Circle Dance is a rythmic one - what else would one expect looking at its title - a bit repetitive really but it fits here after the slowly floating second track.

The best moment of the album is Gate To Infinity - simply a masterpiece. Not only the highlight of this album but also this song is in the top 5 compostions of Gandalf's musical carreer.

The period started nicely with this album but later complete stuctures are reused from this album in some tracks of the following 2-3 releases - which is dissapointing.

Nice production, sounds professional and as always it gives a great listening. As I put down many times in my other reviews newcomers should better start with 'Visions' or 'Magic Theater' to hear the best works of the Austrian magician of sounds first.