Using a variety of thrift store horns, a whinging pump organ, and a de-mechanized player piano, Harbeson rarely plays it straight, instead infusing these compositions with unexpected and sometimes gleefully bizarre changes that add a sense of mystery to what’s ostensibly a soundtrack for visual pieces I’ll never have the chance to see. Not every song here was a soundtrack, but those that weren’t very well could have been.
When not sounding like a madman behind an organ, the horns and occasional stride piano show a jazz influence while the light and dreamy atmospheric piano evidences a fondness for the impressionistic classical music from the turn of the 20th Century. These tracks are a lot of fun, yet I can’t help feeling that I’m missing something knowing that these were often performed in tandem with puppet shows or a dance. Alas, that aspect I’ll have to leave to my imagination.
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