CD Review – Music of the Extraordinary Voyages, by Larkenlyre

Jules Verne, Rudyard Kipling, Jack London, and Edgar Rice Burroughs. These are the authors whose shorts stories and novels of adventures in faraway but real lands have inspired the musically cinematic musings of this “new” recording artist.

The debut release by Larkenlyre, aka Matthew Labarge (who normally records solo piano albums under his own name), is an eclectic collection of sonically rich sounds and motifs that engender the sense of embarking on excitingly unconventional excursions.

The core of the music consists of Labarge's piano and synthesizers, complemented with guitars by Chris Boscast and Jim Taft and fiddle by Eden MacAdam-Somer, in addition to hundreds of other instruments, objects, and environments courtesy of Labarge.

The result is an extraordinary voyage unlike any other.

--Raj Manoharan