I first met the legendary Swedish musician and artist Peter Lindahl back in the early 2000s on Myspace (back in the days before Facebook became popular). Peter has been involved in many musical projects over the years, but for the last twenty years or so, he has been working with In The Labyrinth, producing a series of albums that are heavily influenced by a wide range of musical genres such as folk, hints of prog as well as eastern musical ideas and mysticism, all entwined with Swedish folklore. Add to the mix some excellent fantasy cover art, and you have music that is right up my street. You can visit Peter’s website for his In The Labyrinth Project here. We swapped albums back in 2005, but now that my album ‘hum’ has recently been remixed, remastered and re-released with some additional tracks, I thought I’d send Peter an updated copy, and I’m extremely honoured that he gave me the following review:

The first track on David Harrison’s revamped and previously re-released album Hum is a very interesting sound collage with sweeping synthesizers and effects also comprising mysteriously contorted narration from some unknown speaker. This, being the title track, serves as a worthy and intriguing opener, hence hinting at things to come.

The second track, Luminous circles, I would interpret as being the hit, or at least one of the major tunes on the album, with its great melodic line and captivating chord progressions.

Walkin’ on water has a beautiful guitar appearing now and then in the distance, this along with the rest of the arrangement helping to illuminate this highly atmospheric song. Great effect there towards the end, by the way, where it sounds as if the music were coming out of a transistor radio!

The next track, It’s not your scene, sounds like another David Harrison hit, especially by how the refrain takes over from the verses and those fuzzy guitar riffs.

While I would say Maganda Khar appeals to me the most, with really explicit work from David’s side, both on six string and twelve string guitars. Once again, I simply love that remotely echoing guitar that appears now and then, which is a bit of a signum with several of his songs. Really nice!

Get out of my hair has some really exciting chord changes, unexpected melodic lines as well as immaculate guitar work and nice flute which interlinks well with David’s vocals and background harmonies.

Luminous circles, as an instrumental, I like even better than the standard version with vocals. It’s sheer bliss! Such a beautiful piece of music and probably, for me the strongest moment throughout the entire album.

Megan is also right down my street in being melancholic and mysterious but also romantic at the same time, something that really appeals to me. Great echo drenched background harmonies as well as lead vocals, which – as with most of David’s songs – reminds me vaguely of the legendary Pete Ham of Badfinger with that high soaring voice of his.

Get out of my hair, version two, is a nice compliment to the official version with its more simplistic arrangement subsequently making for a more naked impression.

And on I don’t know, Adam Speakman’s sitar works really well among the many instruments featured there. [Adam Speakman also played bass, the lions share of the lead guitar and programming on the tracks]

As often is the case with David’s way of playing, the guitar riffs on Love rash are beautifully spun around a certain change of key, which does not necessarily provide for a shattered or contrived impression but helps to vary the way the songs are composed and to give them a certain edginess.

Marie, on the other hand, is more folky and straight forward, this serving to show how versatile David is as an artist and songwriter.

Which also goes for the last bonus track called Table for two, though here David’s voice sounds deeper than on all the previous tracks, reminding me somewhat of how many vocalists sang during the highlight of synth pop in the eighties.

Review by Peter Lindahl

Any one interested in a signed copy of the album can drop me a message…