Stardust Dreams (flying away into a new morning) [7:54]
Barakaya (part 2) [6:33]
Love Is The Answer [5:11]
The music on "Barakaya" was originally inspired by the appearance of the comet Hale-Bopp in the spring 1997. The music is about the child within all of us, a child in its original harmonious relationship towards an environment it perceives as whole and undestroyed. It is an album that speaks to us about the will to live and the love for the beautiful planet we are living on, and it also tells us about a time of a new awakening. The word "Barakaya" has common roots in the Hebrew and the Arabian language and also in some East African dialects. It means "blessing", "luck", or "gift". With this album Gandalf, vanguarded of a new and hard to define style, has come closer than to his goal, to create something like a Global Music, trying to dissolve the borders between different musical cultures. Some of the songs have a native American influence, others seem to be based on African roots, another, played on Sitar, sounds more Indian, one is inspired by Irish Folk Music, all connected by Gandalf's very unique way of merging a multitude of acoustic and electronic sounds into colorful musical paintings.
Emily Burridge from England (Gandalf first met her while he was touring with his band in Brazil) adds a very special note to the music by her singing and chanting, inspired by the native language of the Xavante-Indians from Brazil where she has been living for several years. Also she brings in a lot of harmony and warmth with her meodious cello-playing.
Here the first version, which was released on the Sattva label in 1997.
