About the composer and singer

      Andi (Andrés) Grimsditch is an Argentine musician who has delved into Argentine folklore as well as celtic music. (See link www.geocities.com/puelkiem/ for more music recorded by Andi). In his compositions based on Tolkien´s poems there is a unique blend of music from his ancestry: Danish, Irish and English. The poems are unaltered.

The entire cycle of 17 songs was composed round 1984 – 1985 with a few extra songs composed at later moments. The lack of interest of commercial labels regarding the cycle, left the project in latent form for many years. Finally, Andi recorded the volume one of the cycle in January and February 2002 and volume two in September 2005.
 
Andi: All songs were composed originally using Spanish guitar as a structural support. Next, the bass lines were added in team work with Siro (José Sirimarco) and later drums with Alejandro Noms, although the spirit of the music is far from the classic rock sound. It is more prone to an epic and forest-like texture. Finally we added an acoustic guitar played by Guillermo Gómez and Sergio González played the bouzouki, the mandolin and the tin whistle adding a slight celtic touch. I then wrote all the string arrangements which were interpreted by a string cuartet (Damian Bolotín, Brigitta Danko, Sergio Fresco and Carlos Véliz) and a few extra violin pieces played by Mauricio Ceballos. Trumpets were played by Adriana Kahn and female vocal parts by Carolina Mazzocchi and Adriana López Courtade. All this for volume one.

Volume two was more complex. I here attempted an orchestral sound adding woodwinds and brass to the arrangements and enlarging the string cuartet to a string ensamble all directed by Daniel Zuker. Drums were played by Ricardo (Onfel) Brun, violins and whistle by Victor Naranjo, vocals by Ayelen Zuker and Adriana López Courtade who brought her choir along for some parts. Siro remained on bass, as Guillermo on acoustic guitar and Sergio on mandolin.

Mixed and mastered by Mario Breuer
Cover art: Juan Danna
Photography: Volume one: Walter Corona; Volume Two: Alejo Schatzky
Design: Alejandro Maver
Studios involved: Püel-kiem, El Pie, ABD, Concreto
Produced by Andi Grimsditch

The cycle was played live four times with a band of ten musicians: Spanish guitar, bass, drums, bouzouki, mandolin, acoustic guitar, string cuartet and male and female voices, during 2002 and 2003 in Buenos Aires, Argentina, at the Centro Cultural Borges, Auditorio Belgrano, Asociación Cultural Italiana Cristóforo Colombo and again at the Centro Cultural Borges. Other more restricted live performances have also been held occasionally.