THE GARDEN OF MYSTERIES

In the Labyrinth's story dates back in 1980, when multi-instrumentalist Peter Lindahl along with Mikael Gejel and Ulf Hansson formed a project entitled ''Aladdin's Lantern'', performing some sort of Middle Eastern-influenced Folk music, containing both original tracks and covers of traditional pieces.Their shows included even belly dancers, but Aladdin's Lantern was mainly a part time band.In early 90's they decided to promote the project to a full-time band, initially changing their name to Labyrinth and eventually to In The Labyrinth.They released the cassette ''The Garden of Mysteries'' in 1994, which saw a CD re-issue two years later on the obscure Swedish label Ad Perpetuam Memoriam with two bonus tracks.

Their style has not changed much regarding their early years, it is some sort of Psychedelic Folk Rock with emphasis on the folky than the rocking side of things.The musicianship is almost entirely based on the traditional instruments/keyboards combination with sporadic vocals.I can hear a variety of different influences, the majority of the tracks have evident Middle Eastern influences ( easily recognizable also through the title tracks) and instrumentation but I can detect also strong hints of Latin and Byzantine music throughout.The wide variety of acoustic instruments, string arrangements and wind instrumental jams deliver trippy psychedelic soundscapes in a contemporary way and all tracks are guided by the ethnic fundamentals with the the piano, synthesizers and effects having a back-up role, adding some sort of grandiose atmosphere to the compositions.A few cuts contain also some electric guitars in a second role and leading keyboards to offer a richer and more demanding sound.The real problem of the album is the similarity between the soundscapes with all tracks attending simultaneously to offer a steady soundscape, but ending up to be too much of the same.If the album was cut to half it would be definitely more interesting, ''The Garden of Mysteries'' tends to be rather boring on the way with 74 minutes of largely instrumental folk music being too much to handle.

Certainly a great addition to a die-hard fan of ethnic soundscapes, trippy Folk music and traditional instruments, but a bit too light and monotonous for the rest.Approach after listening to some samples first.More recently the album has been released by Transubstans Records...2.5 stars.