There are two kinds of Tolkien-inspired music. On the one side stand those songs whose lyrical content - whether original or Tolkien’s own - instantly heralds Middle-earth to those who have read the books or seen the films. Then there is music whose connection to Tolkien requires elucidation. Such is necessarily the case in the absence of lyrics, where the listener is dependent on song titles to guide his or her imagination to the intended destination.

The latter type involves greater risks, but also greater rewards. To begin with, the listener needs to be amenable to the musical language used by the artist. If you’re not into jazz, or can’t imagine jazz as a medium for conjuring images of Middle-earth, then you’re not likely to respond well to John Sangster’s Lord of the Rings albums, no matter how “good” they may be in and of themselves. If, on the other hand, jazz happens to press all the right buttons for you, the experience can be quite engaging - the more so because, in the absence of lyrics, the burden of visualizing the scene or character from Tolkien falls mainly on you, the listener.

Journeys without maps - A Tribute to The Lord of the Rings is a compilation by various contemporary artists from the Midlands, the country of Tolkien’s childhood. Most of the CD’s thirteen tracks are instrumental pieces. (A few employ sampling from the BBC radio play or dialogue loops.) This eclectic assemblage spans a gamut of ambient, experimental and electronic music, with some touches of rock and post-rock. Not Tolkien’s own cup of tea perhaps, but the tradition of Tolkien-inspired music in all of these genres is so prolific that it hardly requires introduction. That the artists who have contributed to this compilation are all die-hard fans is made manifest by the titles of many of the songs, which reveal more than a casual familiarity with the text of LotR (e.g., “Second Darkness,” “Forbidden Views & Pools,” “The search for Ent-wives in the land that is now brown and barren”).

The predominant mood of the compilation (like much of LotR) is dark and dissonent. A gentle acoustic “Mr. Butterbur’s Lantern,” an upbeat “Reckoning of Boromir,” and a flamboyant “Radagast the Brown” inject some emotional diversity into the mix. All of the artists take their material seriously. No parody or satire is evident.

In general, I enjoyed perusing the offerings of this compilation. The catchy groove of “Wraithryders” is still stuck in my head, as is that of “Precious” and “Give my regards to Aragorn.” Some of the songs require more imaginative effort to appreciate than others, and a couple (“Helm’s Deep” and “The search for Ent-wives”) were a bit too extreme in the noise/distortion camp for my taste. But the collection’s variety is really its chief strength. No one person’s vision of Middle-earth exactly matches another’s, and so inevitably, as Tolkien once remarked about LotR, “It is perhaps not possible in a long tale to please everybody at all points, nor to displease everybody at the same points.”

Apart from its inherent virtues, Journeys without maps also makes music history in that it is the first compilation of Tolkien-inspired music ever assembled in any genre. Wasn’t expecting it to be in these genres. But hey, the realm of Tolkien-inspired music is full of surprises!

Journeys without maps can be purchased from Bearos Records (http://www.bearos.freeserve.co.uk/).