Visions - gandalf

Note : 4 Best of the first albums

par aristocrat (Voir ses avis) le 02/06/2014

This in one of the rarest CDs by Gandalf to find. Probably, because is one of the best.
At least is the masterpiece of the first period (the second, more epic and passionate, beginning with The Universal Play).
This is the second studio album by Gandalf but the first real concept album intended to be published (the previous, Journey To An Imaginary Land, was born initially as a sort of self-produced demo just to hear how his musical ideas sounded).
Here you have the first Gandalf at his best: dreaming, gentle, delicate, fairy. The album is vaguely inspired by The Lord of The Rings and there's a sense of magic and wonder in it.
We are in the beginning of the 80's, before the worldwide boom of New Age exploded, but many of its concepts (music as a healer, nature, spirituality) have always been part of Gandalf aesthetics.
But keep in mind: this in NOT New Age, at least non only. Gandalf music is rather personal, distinctive and unique even inside the New Age movement, because is something born out of an original artist's mind and not something written to ride a wave, as many new age music is.
If you're non familiar with Gandalf's music I won't recommend starting with this (instead choose ''Gallery of Dreams'' or ''Invisible Power'') but if you like instrumental music witch is somewhere beetween New Age and Mike Oldfield, this is worth a listen.