Marc Farre
Piermont, New York, United States | INDIE
Music
Press
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, while showing that “somewhere else” needn’t be far removed from real life.
Indie rock gets a French kiss. - Drawn Together (art & culture blog), June 10, 2008
Dark, hypnotic, intensely soulful. 'One Hand on the Night' is the musical equivalent of an art-house film.
- Mary Lynn Mitcham - The Journal News (a Gannett daiy newspaper), Dec. 12, 2010
"Secret Symphony" enlists Farre in the company of European-influenced musicians like Leonard Cohen, Lou Reed, and Nick Cave. A throaty voice, highly poetic lyrics and a kinetic band behind him. Compelling.
—William Ruhlmann
- All Music Guide
Spectacular... "Man On The Sun" (2000) is a fantastic CD. Marc Farre’s songwriting flows like poetry, and the musical instruments play on the emotions of the words… His deep, seductive voice is … mesmerizing.
(review by Tara McGrath) - The Martha’s Vineyard Times
Farre's take on Serge Gainsbourg’s “La Chanson du Forçat” exhibits his strong ear for melody and rhythm. He keeps his band at a simmer, as upright bass and his acoustic guitar balance his well-trained croon and a presence that Cohen would be proud of.
"One Hand on the Night" packs plenty of Francophone aura into a four-song cycle. The record encourages late-night drinking, bedroom activity, the launch of a literary magazine—all plans best executed under dim lights. - The Brooklyn Rail
Possessing a wine-soaked, gravelly voice with traces of art-house cinema, Farre handily conjures up images of Rive Gauche intellectuals. Over four records he has mixed downtown creative spark with classic folk songwriting, adding accomplished jazz guitar to his dark storytelling. - The Brooklyn Rail (February 2011)
"Phenomenally good music. Driving rhythms underpinned by intelligent writing and artful presentation. Just brilliant."
- legendary UK podcaster Peter Clitheroe (11/12/09) - Suffolk'n'Cool (UK podcast)
Airy, orchestral indie-rock. Uplifting. - Rockland Magazine, September 4, 2008
Off-the-beaten path richness, melodic, eclectic. Like an art film festival on a summer day.
(RATING = 8/10)
- www.thecdreviewer.com, August 12, 2008
Intense and truly fantastic. [Secret Symphony is] a fabulous collection of songs. - Bob Boilen, creator and host of NPR's All Songs Considered
Quite safely, Unsafe Songs is one of the finest rock records of the year [1997]. There is an emotional danger to this record that is truly thrilling.
-- Harry Sumrall, rock critic, author of "Pioneers of Rock and Roll" - Harry Sumrall (MTV SonicNet)
[Man on the Sun is] like Leonard Cohen, if he could take enough Paxil to be happy. - Jean Reynolds Page (Dallas arts critic)
Joy and ecstasy... mind cognac.
-- Bart Plantenga, music director - Radio Patapoe, Amsterdam
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. - OffWorldTheatre.com, June 27, 2008
Though Farre sings mostly about romance and the night sky… the first track on 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. - The Journal News (Gannett), September 13, 2008
Discography
Near-Life Experience (Summer 2012)
Prayer Flags - (2011)
One Hand on the Night (EP) - 2010
Secret Symphony - 2008
Man on the Sun - 2000
Unsafe Songs - 1998
Margaret Maybe - 1996
Photos
Bio
Indie artist Marc Farre delivers cinematic, gothic folk-pop songs shot through with a raw, poetic energy. His voice is deep, intimate, intense. (Critics have called it “mesmerizing.”) Equal parts open-hearted and hallucinatory, Farre's music pulls you in like an art-house film.
Though he is based in New York, Marc Farre’s French background imbues his music with a European, art-house feel — a seductive ambience perfectly paired with his driving rhythms, otherworldly lyrics and magnetic melodies.
While his past association with 20th-century giants Merce Cunningham and John Cage continues to drive Farre's creative vision toward the new, it is his visceral, open-hearted singing that really carries you out onto a tightrope — and leaves you there.
"Intense and truly fantastic. A fabulous collection of songs."
- Bob Boilen, creator and host of NPR's All Songs Considered
"Marc Farre has that certain something. A well-trained croon and a presence Leonard Cohen would be proud of."
- Kate Silver, The Brooklyn Rail (Feb 01, 2011)
"Dark, hypnotic, intensely soulful. 'One Hand on the Night' is the musical equivalent of an art-house film."
- Mary Lynn Mitcham, The Journal News (A Gannett Newspaper) (Dec 12, 2010)
"Phenomenally good music. Driving rhythms underpinned by intelligent writing and artful presentation. Just brilliant."
- legendary UK podcaster Peter Clitheroe (11/12/09)
Links
