Gandalf

Heinz Strobl (aka GANDALF) is an Austrian born composer, multi-talented musician who makes majestic, melodic instrumental electronic/acoustic music with his 80’s and several of his 90’s release having elements of Progressive Rock!  A master of the fantasy music genre, GANDALF has produced numerous album releases over three and a half decades and is often referred to as a "Painter Of Musical Landscapes”.

His early inspiration came from the fantasy literary works of J.R.R. Tolkien's ‘Lord Of The Rings’ trilogy, taking his name from the good-hearted wizard that featured in the books.

GANDALF 's work also reflects his love of nature, as well as his commitment to preserving the environment; indeed the goal of this multi-sided musician has always been to dissolve the boundaries between musical categories and styles and to create a cross-cultural global music.

With various keyboards and acoustic/electric guitars at the forefront of GANDALF’s music, he also features a great variety of other instruments too, blending acoustic, electronic and spherical sounds, whilst weaving folk elements into a symphonic structure to create his unmistakable and unique musical style. 

The GANDALF sound is full, rich and colourful, heavily influenced by his love of melodic Progressive music made by the likes of GENESIS and the MOODY BLUES in the late 60’s and 70’s, as well as instrumental artists such as: Steve Hackett, Anthony Phillips, Mike Oldfield, Vangelis and more.

Like much of the work of these artists, GANDALF’s track titles offer an indication of where the inspirational sources for his music come from – tracks designed to take the listener to far off places that once only existed in books or dreams.  In this day and age, fantasy movies like ‘Lord Of The Rings’ and other computer animated films and games take us visually nearer to the reality, but the music of GANDALF has been doing that in sound for over thirty years, with magical instrumental music for the mind’s eye.  Most of the tracks on his earlier albums tend to cross-fade and evolve into each other and can be listened to as one conceptual work of music, almost like a modern day classical symphony.  You really have to class all GANDALF’s music as timeless - just settle down, turn out the lights and let the experience amaze you!

GANDALF began a solo career in 1980 that was to see him record a string of successful instrumental albums for two major European labels. His first six releases were with WEA Europe: ‘Journey To An Imaginary Land’ (1980),  ‘Visions’ (1981), ‘To Another Horizon’ (1982), ‘Magic Theatre’ (1983) and ‘Tale From a Long Forgotten Kingdom’ (1984), most of which were conceptual albums that contained a definite Progressive Rock edge.

The label also issued a compilation in 1987 entitled ‘Fantasia’ and this contained tracks from the previous five studio albums.

A move to CBS in 1987 took him towards a more symphonic approach, with the first: ‘The Universal Play’ having a distinctly cosmic feel. The follow-up: ‘From Source To Sea’ (1988) proved to be one of his top selling imports, and indeed GANDALF still holds the record for the biggest selling imported title in CD Services’ history, with that recently re-issued classic album.  After that album he started heading towards a more symphonic “New Age” direction, a path to which he has stuck to and refined in his later years, with just a few exceptions, one being: ‘Gallery Of Dreams’ (CBS 1992), an album he made with ex-GENESIS guitarist: Steve Hackett. 

Hackett is one of Strobl’s Progressive music heroes and as such he is a musician that has undoubtedly influenced GANDALF’s guitar style over the years. The pair went of to share the ‘live’ stage together for concert dates following the release of the album. 

In-between nine CBS/Sony album releases during the late 80’s and part of the 90’s, GANDALF managed to record five albums on his own Seagull Records label, including the instrumental studio album: ‘More Than Just A Seagull’ (1990), an album collaborating with female singer: GALADRIEL entitled: ‘The Shining’ (1993) and a soundtrack for a film: ‘Labyrinth’ (1995).

In the later 90’s another move was made, this time to Sattva Records, a now defunct German specialist label, for whom GANDALF produced six albums that extended early into the millennium, all with a distinct “New Age”/World Music flavour. 

After that he had a brief return to his first label WEA for single album deal that produced: ‘Fountain Of Secrets’ (2002), an album with a stunning flowing mix of melody and sound layering which seemed to echo the sound and style of his earlier years with the label.

He now records for Real Music a long established American “New Age” label that, up to this point in 2016, GANDALF has produced eight albums for, all more or less “New Age” oriented, with some taking their inspiration form the 90’s symphonic period.

During the past decade, specialist German independent label BSC Music has embarked upon re-issuing all of GANDALF’s Sattva catalogue and some of his more popular CBS titles.

In 2016 UK based label Esoteric Recordings are remastering GANDALF’s WEA catalogue and giving these albums – and the artist - their first official UK release on any format!