MORE THAN JUST A SEAGULL

More Than Just a Seagull was music composed for a multimedia performance of the story of Jonathan Livingston Seagull. It's really very "new-agey" and is quite close to some albums by Tangerine Dream. Gandalf plays tons of instruments ala Mike Oldfield (from guitars to tubular bells and of course the mellotron...). Interesting to note is that the second track is a live improvisation on 12string guitar. Gandalf is really a genius. It's just a shame his music is too "new-age", in my opinion.

Just the seagull, please!

More Than Just A Seagull is a soundtrack recording (I don't know what it is a soundtrack for) that was released the same year as the strong Magic Theatre album. The first track is called Self-Realization and runs for over 19 minutes even though it is based on only a single, simple acoustic riff that is repeated ad nauseam over (yes, you've guessed it) sounds of the sea, including seagulls. It reminds me a bit of Mike Oldfield's Hergest Ridge which is similarly uneventful (to my ears at least). I was actually familiar with a version of Self-Realization from the live album Gallery Of Dreams Live featuring Steve Hackett (part 2). That live version is only half as long and at least twice as interesting. Hence, I much prefer the live version.

The other tracks here are similarly one-dimensional and all are performed by Gandalf alone on a multitude of (mostly acoustic) instruments. Overall, this album sounds unfinished and sketchy in comparison with his regular album output from the time.

This album can be safely passed by unless you are a Gandalf completist