From Sweden, In The Labryinth combine Folk, Psychedelic and Progressive Rock influences with a passion for Indian/Middle Eastern music. The band is headed up by Peter Lindahl and to date have released three full length albums – Garden Of Mysteries, originally released in 1996 and now reissued by Transubstans Records (see accompanying review), Walking On Clouds (1999), and Dryad (2002). One Trail To Heaven is a 13 track collection that consists of songs from the three albums, alternate versions of songs from those albums, two previously unreleased songs, and two contributions the band made to compilation albums.
The CD includes four songs from Garden Of Mysteries, one from Walking On Clouds, and two from Dryad. Among the alternate version songs is a longer and better developed recording of Lost In The Woods, the opening track to the Dryad album. Karakoram Waltz is a meditative ethnic-folk instrumental that was In The Labyrinth’s contribution to the One World Tapestry album, released by Musea Records in 2007. I never knew about this album until I got this compilation so that was a nice surprise. Deep Saffron is an all instrumental version of the song from Dryad, which on the album had some narration. The Endless City is a previously unreleased track, being a dark and moody psychedelic-orchestral instrumental. Very cool; I would love to hear this developed beyond its 3 minute length. Cloudburst is the other unreleased track and is a deeply meditative atmospheric piece that I enjoyed. We also get Cities, In The Labyrinth’s contribution to Higher and Higher: A Tribute to the Moody Blues, a 3-CD set released by Mellow Records in 2006.
One Trail To Heaven clocks in at just a hair short of an hour, so as an existing fan I would like to have heard more unreleased music and/or songs that were exclusive to compilations the band contributed to. But as an introduction for the uninitiated to this wonderful band it’s an outstanding collection.
For more information you can visit the In The Labyrinth web site at: http://www.inthelabyrinth.com
Visit the Trail Records web site at: http://www.trailrecords.net
Reviewed by Jerry Kranitz