|
-First of all, tell to us when, and how, “In The Labyrinth” was born...
-In The Labyrinth started as an experimental, acoustic band in 1980 led by Mikael Gejel. Then we called ourselves Aladdin´s Lantern.
On the side there were several similar projects going on and actually we were just some old friends doing all sorts of weird things together. There were occasional gigs but for most of the time Aladdin´s Lantern was just fooling around at Mikael's amateur studio making up songs and recording them for the fun of it.
-The Group is led by you, but who are the collaborators of “In The Labyrinth”?
-The first line up of the band was: Karin Langhard-Gejel, Mikael Gejel, Peter Lindahl and Ulf Hansson. After a year or two of working in the studio, this unit broke up and gradually a new line up of In The Labyrinth immerged. The project was joined by my (and Mikael's) old friend Stefan Ottman and two female singers, Helena Selander and Helena Jacobssen. The latter soon departed moving to the north of Sweden. In 1997, I started to cooperate with Håkan Almkvist who was also active with Ensemble Nimbus and Orient Squeezers. There have been many more musicians along the line, to name a few, Miriam Oldenburg, Ismet Demirhan, Fereidoun Nadimi, Kirk Chilton, Kristina Fuentes, etc. But Stefan and Håkan have continued to be my main counter parts.
Peter Lindahl on viola da gamba
©www.inthelabyrinth.com
-Your music is full of World Music influences. A great surprise to me... there are very interesting arrangements. We can hear traditional instruments as sitar, tablas, zither... even flutes, mellotron. There is a big instruments richness. A perfect balance between the tradition and the pop-rock-psichedelic-symphonic music. What do you offer with your musical proposition?
-Thank you, Jorge! Well, maybe I am one of those who offer the listener a chance to depart from the "straight jacket" way of thinking about music, to forget about gengres and categories for awhile! I try to use my imagination and so I turn to people who like to use theirs.
-How is the composition process of your themes?
-I see it as painting pictures with music. When composing, I ususally move fast during the process but when it comes to preparing an entire concept like planning the order of the songs for an album for instance or doing the final mix down, I sometimes tend to get stuck.
When I feel confident I always have a sense of direction but like when things start to deteriorate around me (which has happened several times over the years), I can get too perfectionistic. Never think, is my policy. Just feel it out! Let things happen the way they do! That's how I want to work. I focus mainly on the oveall impression. That's what moves me, the way sounds and instruments work together as a whole.
-What does a musician feel, when he knows the strong feelings that his music can produce in the people?
-Feedback is of course very important even though this is something an artist shouldn't focus on when he or she is in the middle of the creative process. I'm totally oblivious to anybody's reactions when I'm laying the tracks for an album but after it's all been completed and the music is there for everyone to hear, I'm quite eager to know how listeners have responded.
Håkan Almkvist playing Indian tabla
©www.inthelabyrinth.com
-You can play a lot of instruments, but is there some instruments never used in your records that you could use in your future productions?
-During the course of this year, I've been bringing in instruments of ancient Nordic origin such as the Kantele, bowed harp and primitive flutes, all these performed by Styrbjörn Bergelt, one of the new ITL members. Also I've started to work more with violins and perhaps there will be a chello to mix in with the viola da gambas.
I also want to pick up more on my oriental woodwinds, my Indian shenai and my Kurdish mei (Turkish clarinet) for instance.
Eventually I might also find some time to learn how to play on the flute which I quite recently inherited. This flute is made of metal whereas all the ones I've used until now are either constructed of bamboo, wood or plastic, (except the pennywhistle which is made of tin).
|
|
-When you record your music, there are a big space for the improvisation, or the music is strictly studied?
-Usually I want to make a lot of improvisation but once it comes to laying down a track I tend to depart a bit from the abstract form of expression as melodies appear on the scene.
My songwriting is vastly melody and harmony oriented, although this can be very different from time to time. Like when Håkan puts in a sitar solo, it can get very improvised. However, when I do my things with Stefan, it's quite the opposite! He's very strict, virtually even more than I am!
Håkan Almkvist playing the sitar in a Walking on Clouds session
©www.inthelabyrinth.com
-I can't to struggle to ask to you about your musical influences. What kind of music do you listen to?
-I listen to lots of styles, too many to be mentioned in this interview! But I'll tell you about some of those which have influenced In The Labyrinth.
These are Turkish, Hindu, Middle East, Psychedelic (George Harrison's Wonderwall music, etc), scores (Ennio Morricone, for instance), early classical music (renaissance, medieval & baroque), Progressive (especially Lars Hollmer and Bo Hansson), folklore from various countries (Great Britain, Balkan, Scandinavia, Greece, Peru, Bolivia, Spain -Andalucía-, Italy, China, Bali and not least to mention, the Celtic traditions of Western Europe).
Off the record, I'm a great fan of the Beatles, the Beach Boys and a lot of sixties stuff and also early to mid seventies.
-Is Sweden a country interested in no-extrictly commercial music? Is it easy to be a musician in your nordic country?
-No it's actually very hard, especially concerning non commercial music! It's as if most of us don't even count! When in the future we retire of age we have no real pension like most citizens do and in our present day life, we don't get any economical support at all if we can't manage to get into any of the cultural institutions, which in fact seem to function as some sort of life line for many artists.
The possibilities to spread music which is not mainstream in this country is totally out of the question and there are hardly any places to perform in if you're not Roxette or some other pretty well known act. It was totally different back in the seventies when lots of Swedes appreciated experimentation. In those days even the radio stations played interesting stuff, which they hardly ever do now!
Studio gear
©www.inthelabyrinth.com
-About the next projects? Do you have recorded material for a new CD perhaps?
-Yes, Samas Antaral will most likely be our next release although I don't know at the present who (if anyone) will be sponsoring it. It's an album which Stefan and I started working on way back in 1987 and which was later on to be picked up as part of In The Labyrinth.
Also there are a lot of left over ITL recordings which I don't have a clue of where to place. Most likely, I will make some of these part of my own solo albums which I am currently working on.
These albums are more pop/rock oriented, often with a psychedelic flavour, but there is still room for experimentation meaning I think those left overs would easily fit in.
-This has been really nice. Do you want to say something more to our readers?
-I just want to explain that it's been a wonderful experience for me over the years to make all this music. However, if I ever feel that I'm doing it to please my own career, I'm out! In The Labyrinth has always been for fun and so it will remain. It's a hobby to me, a very fine hobby indeed!
October 2003 Jorge Sergio
admin@articmist.org
 comment this interview on our forum
|
