ALADDIN'S LANTERN/
IN THE LABYRINTH
BIOGRAPHY

In Stockholm back in 1980, Aladdin's Lantern was formed by Peter Lindahl, Mikael Gejel and Ulf Hansson. Over the next decade, various musicians came and left. One was Karin Langhard-Gejel, another one was Stefan Andersson.

The style in which they played was mainly Middle Eastern, their playlist featuring both traditional numbers and material put together by some of the members themselves. The performances of Aladdin's Lantern included all sorts of assignments like backing up "belly dancers" and playing at clubs and festivals.

By the entry of the nineties, they had switched from being a part time live act to becoming a band more or less confined to the studio environment. Around '93 the name Aladdin's Lantern was swapped for Labyrinth and in '94 to In The Labyrinth, which was essentially a way to avoid the risk of being confused with the heavy rock band Labyrinth.

SOURCES OF INSPIRATION

 One very important source of inspiration for In The Labyrinth is Turkish popular music, referring mainly to artists of the sixties up to the early nineties. Other influential styles are traditional songs of the Middle East, Greek Rebetiko and Indian classical music with artists like Ravi Shankar. Even so called Bollywood has had its impact, also the Italian score composer Ennio Morricone and Goran Bregovic from former Yugoslavia. A wide array of folk loristic styles ranging from the High Andes to Bretagne and Medieval and early classical music (meaning renaissance and baroque) have left a mark; psychedelic and innovative rock from the sixties too, especially works like The Beatles Revolver and Sgt Pepper, George Harrison's Wonderwall music, Pink Floyds The piper at the gates of dawn, likewise The Beach boys Pet sounds and Brian Wilson´s Smile. Moving into the seventies, one musician/composer with a huge influence was Bo Hansson, least to mention his first two albums The lord of the rings and The magicians hat and also Mike Oldfield with gems like Ommadawn, to name just a few.

For more information: www.inthelabyrinth.com

 PETER LINDAHL
His contribution to ITL spans playing on instruments such as mellotron, flutes, guitars, bass, mandolin, zither, samplers, viola da gamba, various oriental woodwinds, percussion and strings. He has also thrown in vocals from time to time and taken care of production, arranged most of the music and carried out his obligation as a recording engineer. Peter has no particular musical training other than the experience he has gathered from working in the studio and from numerous gigs and rehearsals in bands and with various musicians. Most of the material on the records has been penned down by Peter, sometimes cowritten together with other members of the project. In 2001 he was granted a scholarship by STIM, the Swedish Performing Rights Society.

HÅKAN ALMKVIST
is a multi instrumentalist though he mainly utilizes in bass, electric guitar, sitar, Indian tabla and samplers. He got parts of his musical schooling in Benares and in Calcutta of India where he studied local instruments, traditional, classical scales and tonal expressions for a couple of years. He also manages his own record company TAP, as well as graphically designes the releases of his catalogue (including Walking On Clouds and Dryad). He has helped coproduce and arrange some of the material. Other projects and bands where he is or has been active are Orient Squeezers, Ensemble Nimbus, Flying food circus and Tweendeck 2. Håkan has received several scholarships through the years.

Parts of In the labyrinth performing on stage in 1998, from left to right: Styrbjörn Bergelt, Stefan Ottman and Peter Lindahl.

HELENA SELANDER is a singer and guitarist who also writes her own songs. Her voice is present on all ITL albums performing both background harmonies and improvisations.

 
 
MARCOS CHAGGALLO is a classicaly trained violist who during 2004  added his instrument to a whole lot of In the labyrinth songs. He was born in Argentina but has lived in Sweden for most of his life.

MICKE LÖVROTH is a Swedish violinist who holds preferences mainly  towards traditional Nordic folk.

FEREIDOUN NADIMI once left Iran for Sweden but has now returned to his native country. Before doing so he took part in  several sessions playing darbouka, Moroccan and Persian daf. Together with Peter he also made the album In memory of Hafez.