Suffolk ‘n’ Cool, November 11, 2009

Phenomenally good music. Driving rhythms underpinned by intelligent writing & artful presentation. Just brilliant.

(legendary UK podcaster Peter Clitheroe)



The Listening Room (NY music blog), December 4, 2009   MESMERIZING MUSIC

Unique art-folk music, laced with a deep, resonant voice and European influences — a product of Farre’s French background. It’s not often a musician emerges with such a distinct style.

(Jorge Fitz-Gibbon)



All Music Guide (AN AMG ALBUM PICK, RATING = 3.5 STARS)

Secret Symphony enlists Farre in the company of European-influenced musicians like Leonard Cohen, Lou Reed, and Nick Cave, employing a sprechgesang style in a throaty voice over folk-rock arrangements to express highly poetic lyrics. Farre has a kinetic band behind him. Impressionistic words, sung with conviction. Tasteful art-house folk-rock. Compelling.

(William Ruhlmann)



OffWorldTheatre.com, June 27, 2008   SECRET SYMPHONY: RESISTANCE IS FUTILE

Enters your heart, through your ears and mind and the rhythm in your bones, daring you to give up carefully constructed emotional and intellectual defenses. Resistance is futile.

(Elyse Knight)



The CD Reviewer (indie music blog), August 12, 2008

Like visiting an art-film festival on a summer day… Farre's music is very rich with its string-filled song arrangements, melodic flow, and eclectic mix of instrumentation. Off-the-beaten path.

(RATING = 8/10)



The Journal News, September 13, 2008

Though Farre sings about romance and the night sky… the first track on Secret Symphony, "Harry…," is an intense, dark fable… a percussion-heavy English murder ballad… reminiscent of [Tom] Waits’ subjects: bizarre, seedy characters, sung with a touch of gruff, bringing them to life. (Audrey Green)



Rockland Magazine, September 4, 2008

This one’s from the heart. Airy, orchestral indie-rock. Uplifting!



Drawn Together (art & culture blog)   MELODY-DRIVEN DREAMS

Marc Farre’s new CD Secret Symphony caresses listeners with reflective, resonant romanticism.

Like melody-driven dreams, these cinematic, soul-searching songs take you somewhere else.

Indie rock gets a French kiss.

(Sky Pape)

September 13, 2008


Get to know musician Marc Farre

Audrey Green
Rockland Magazine

To be a successful independent artist, you've got to have talent — and you'd better know how to take care of business.

That's how Marc Farre has built his career. The Piermont-based singer, pianist and guitarist recently released his fourth album — the airy, orchestral indie-rock "LP Secret Symphony."

"Making it in music is challenging these days, like never before," says Farre.

"To be an indie artist, you have to be a great songwriter. You need good performance skills, excellent computer skills and business skills — you've gotta have it all," he says.

But then, independence has its perks.

"If you make a great record, nothing is stopping you from spreading it around the world, from becoming a huge success," he says. "You no longer need a major label, run by an accountant. There's a far more fertile environment for indie artists."

Farre spent more than two years working on "Symphony," after his mother died of cancer. "The experience of losing her so suddenly … I had done three albums before, but I felt this urgency, this need to make this album," he says.

Though most songs are uplifting, in the last track — "Tiny Hymn" — you can feel his pain. "I wrote that when she was very sick; it came right out of my fingers," he says.

"The more I learn to be vulnerable and open to what's going on, the better I become as a songwriter."

For inspiration, he looks to the quirkier greats, Tom Waits among them. Though Farre sings mostly about romance, the night sky, and, simply, "about me," the first track on "Symphony," "Harry …" is an "intense, dark fable that seems to be about somebody who killed somebody," Farre says.

Of course, it isn't autobiographical, but the percussion-heavy "English Murder Ballad" is reminiscent of Waits' subjects: bizarre, seedy characters, sung with a touch of gruff, bringing them to life.

In the fall, Farre plans to release another album, "One Hand in the Night," also independent. Recorded at the famous Studio La Buissone in his native South of France, it features two up-and-coming jazz musicians — and a whole new sound.

Farre says it exemplifies just another advantage of working the indie scene: "I did the record I really wanted to do, on my own terms."

Photographs by Ricky Restiano