LALLE LARSSON'S WEAVEWORLD - INFINITY OF WORLDS

This album is a nice surprise for me. Usually I am not a big fun of instrumental rock albums, too often they are repetitive and boring to listen after first few songs. Not this one.

Lalle Larsson is very competent keyboardist, and musicians on support are all of the high class. Best known as musicians ,played with Karmakanic and Agents Of Mercy, Lalle shows his strong potential as solo artist on this album.

Album was released on Reingold Records with Reingold himself playng (fretless) bass. Music on this album, even if influenced by other Larsson/Reingold projects, is energetic, quite melodic and technical mix of instrumental prog rock and fusion. Some compositions contains even straight jazz-rock inclusions.Both guitarists are great, and it's nice all musicians work as a real team.Even if it's a keyboardist solo album, guitars,bass,drums and keyboards all are equally important in album's sound.

Very competent album of modern progressive instrumental rock. The only thing I really missed there was absence of experimentation, searching on something new. But possibly such releases has another target and different listener,than my ears,angry for musical evolution (and revolution).

One of the best mainstream instrumental prog release of 2010.My rating is 4+!

My problem with this music is that it sounds like a classical or jazz lounge piano player trying to make a "progressive rock" album--the music feels very forced and unnatural, and often New Age-like--as if Richard Clayderman or Liberace were trying to make a popular, genre-busting album. "Lemuria" is, for me, the only one whose music and instruments blend well enough to sound cohesive--to sound almost balanced and natural. In my humble opinion, neither Rick Wakeman, Keith Emerson, nor Renaissance ever made an album sounding this forced and unnatural. I rate it 3 stars "Good" only because I do respect the quality of musicianship on this record.

Judging by the amount of instrumental Prog albums these days, Prog singers must be a species near extinction. When it comes to the more symphonic and mellow fusion types of Prog you won't hear me complain about it. There's a delicate balance between tension and mellowness in this music and often vocals tip the scale too much in poppy directions. At least that's my experience, with Karmakanic for instance, where Lalle Larsson spends some of his time when he's not involved with one of his other other projects.

Infinity of Worlds presents top-professional playing from 2 guitarist, piano, drums and fretless bass guitar, and if you are mainly attracted by musicianship then this is a sure winner for you. Most tracks are built up around basic rock ingredients, an intricate mix of complex riffs, melodic leads, dazzling solos, splendid drumming and virtuoso keyboards. A perfect example is the excellent Beyond Shadows

However, I get a bit distracted by the influences from easy-listening jazz. When they leave the rock path for a fusion break I have troubles going along with them. I've never been a fan of this type of ear-friendly mainstream jazz. Most tracks could serve as an example but the first couple of tracks are probably the clearest examples. Lemuria on the other hand is a nice piece of mellow fusion.

I'm quite sure this is an excellent instrumental album for fans of virtuoso playing that don't mind mainstream jazz. I do appreciate at least half of the music here, but I do miss the rich atmosphere, the excitement and the experimentation that I expect from jazz-rock.

Very nice instrumental album by one of Sweden´s top new players of the new millenium. Lalle Larsson has made quite a name playing on several bands like Karmakanic and Agents Of Mercy. So I was a bit curious of how he would do on his own. Well, the good news are that although this is mostly his baby, he is, in fact, backed by a real band. Not surprisingly the bass player is the ever present Jonas Reingold (Midnight Sun, The Flower Kings, The Tangent, among many others). And Larsson does use the best of his musicians for a quite good team work.

I don´t know about his previous CDs, but this is mainly a Jazz-rock/fusion efford, with some symphonic rock tendencies, classical music overtones and even bits of heavy prog a la King Crimson (as on Beyond The Shadows). The results are pretty good. The music in general is quite nice, pleasant and inventive mostly of the time. The production is top notch and the musicians shine all over the record, specially the two guitarrists, both skillful and creative. Larsson´s keyboards are beautiful and fluid. If it was not for the annoying presence of some jazz-rock/fusion cliches, I´d gladly give this album a four star rating (bear in mind I´m not a fusion fan). So, to my taste, the rocking A Demon´s Kiss, the languid City Of The Lost Sould and, most of all, the epic title track (with a stunning build up at the end) are the CD´s highlights.

Final rating: 3,5 stars. Better than just good, but not really essential.

Well, Lalle Larsson is an eclectic symphonic composer from Sweden, whose variety of music themes and harmonic solutions are getting increased of personal experience: in fact, especially within his jazz-progressive style, enriched by means of classic prog-rock, his performance is better in comparison to his execution at the keyboards along with Swedish bands such as Karmakanic or Agents of Mercy...but unfortunately the present work is an instrumental solo project and- except on a few albums like "Epilogue" by Anglagard or "Escenes" by Gotic, being recognized as well structured instrumental albums that perhaps I've appreciated till the end without getting bored, in this case I'm a bit perplexed and confused about it...don't get me wrong, his attempt in the prog fusion sytle is appreciable and moreover Mr Larsson is well supported by a Dutch musician, Richard Hallebeek and Stefan Rosqvist, without forgetting Walle Wahlgren, already drummer in the mentioned above Agents of Mercy. Nevertheless the sadness all along the compositions let me stay a bit depressed for a while, even though the main structure of this work is played by the bass player Jonas Reingold, obviously conscious of his role as a "rhytmical guide". "A Demon's Kiss" is a powerful tune, whose sense of nostalgia is growing towards the end; instead "Otherwordly" is characterized by Larsson's acoustic piano, enriched by means of some occasional guitars and other keyboards, able to create a good "coloured" wall of sound, this time more delicate in comparison to the opener of the album; then you can listen to the similar "City of Lost Souls", where the support by Jonas Reingold is important, being able to maintain a kind of melancholy and reminding me of the atmosphere in the early albums by King Crimson (if you "erase" the acoustic piano). At the end I cannot get crazy for the heavy-rock song entitled "Beyond Shadows" , but immediately after I appreciate the fusion prog of "Lemuria", enriched by means of a few "Holdsworthian guitars" and a pretty piano as well, until the final title track "Infinity of Worlds", in the vein of a Swedish jazz band called "EST", which concludes the work in the best manner.

It' not equal to Clearlight's "Symphony", a special French fusion prog band or like some other fusion/symphonic Canterburian works a-la Isildurs Bane, but it's worth checking out at least (add an half star in the evaluation, especially if you are completely fitted into such a versatile fusion prog music)!

Lalle Larsson is one of the most acomplished keyboard player of the last decade, that's for sure. Being member along the years in bands such as Agents of Mercy, Karmakanic, 3rd World Electric, he was able to bring in each band he played something of a real intrest to prog listner. Lalle Larsson waveworld he released 3 albums, Infinity of worlds being his second offer and I think his best solo album. I knew already that he is very skillful and extremely versatile artist and inventive keyboard player, in fact one of my fav on the last years, with this album he reaches a level hard to bit by many musicians. Besides great almost perfect musicianship, he concentrated aswell on melodic lines not only tecnique, the result is impressive. Helped by some excellent musicians in jazz fusion world, some of them work with him before like bassist Jonas Reingold or top notch guitar player Richard Hallebeek. A special mention for drumer Mikael Wahlegren, he has some truly amazing chops here, what a drumer, brilliant and technically impressive. All pieces are from great to excellent, like the opening track A demon's kiss, Otherwordly or Beyond shadows (dedicated as booklet said to legendary Dio), this tune absolutly kick ass with a darker passages and out of this world musicianship. Each musician shine on this record and is one of the best I've heared from progressive/jazz fusion genre. Lalle Larsson proves with Infinity of worlds that is a musician to be discovered by a wider auditorium, he is a renowed player and one of the best of his field. recommended for sure, love the art work , that blue blurry type of the art work is also excellent, a theme that was present on previous album and aswell on their third one. 4 stars easy, damn fine album.