Sanctuary continues in Gandalf's usual musical tradition… i.e. I like this a lot, but he’s not doing anything particularly new… on the other hand, why mess with success? What sets him apart from many New Age composers and performers is his lush orchestrations and that he’ll change up his leads… i.e. one song focuses on guitar, another on piano, another is more sitar-oriented, etc. It’s a very comforting sound, meditative, like you’re in a forest where the struggle for survival has been overcome by all the plants and animals that are usually locked into the mortal combat known as the eco-system. This runs together as all one piece, no breaks between the tracks, and the various songs borrow from each other. My fave track on this CD is “Citadel, Part 1” which has many moods and in the end makes a grand exit with a very simple melody, there’s some “to die for” string harmonies in here that take the listener higher and higher, as a major key melody keeps breaking out of a minor key intro. I think what makes him good is as much as what the material is, is what he does with it, how he surrounds it with some really cool orchestration, or drumbeats that sometimes only put in the barest essentials of rhythm. In any event, Gandalf, an Austrian artist how uses this Lord of the Ring pseudonym, should be proud of making life just that much better for so many listeners.
Sanctuary by Gandalf 
