Reconstructed Artifacts

 Larry Fast is best known for his series of pioneering

electronic music albums recorded under the project name

SYNERGY. He is also known for his work with Peter Gabriel,

playing synthesizer on records and on tour, and rounding

out the production team on many of Peter's albums for

nearly a decade.

The shimmering electronic textures of the first SYNERGY

album in 1975 led to an invitation for Larry to come to

Europe and work with the distinguished British-German

band Nektar, then enjoying top 20 success in the US.

Following an album ("Recycled") and a tour with Nektar,

Larry was contacted by Peter Gabriel who had recently left

Genesis. Larry was asked to contribute to Peter's subsequent

solo albums and tours. Larry's synthesizer playing is heard

on all of Peter's early solo albums, but Peter's breakthrough

albums, his third solo record (the one with "Games Without

Frontiers" and "Biko"), and "Security" ("Shock The Monkey")

feature Larry's electronic production skills as well as his

introducing Peter to programmable drum machines leading

to a newfound emphasis on rhythm in Peter's music.

Larry's production credits show the influence that his control

of music technology has had on other artist's styles. All

through the 1980's and into the 1990's Larry has worked

with an endless stream of world-class artists and producers,

and as a producer himself. Artists as diverse as Hall & Oates,

Foreigner, Bon Jovi's Richie Sambora and David Bryan,

Barbra Streisand, Annie Haslam (Renaissance), Randy

Newman, Joan Armatrading, MeatLoaf and many others

have called on Larry's talents.

RECONSTRUCTED ARTIFACTS is a new collection of

recordings made in January and February 2002 of classic,

older Synergy pieces from the 1970s and 1980s, newly

performed on digital synthesizers and recorded digitally,

(see below for the titles). They are completely new

recordings and performances.

Reconstructed Artifacts happened as a by product of

preparations for a live Synergy appearance at the

Alfa-Centauri Electronic Music Festival, Bussum, in the

Netherlands in March, 2002. After reconstructing the original

analogue patches on turn of the 21st century digital hardware

and software synthesizers and relearning the arrangements,

it became obvious that making recordings of the completed

pieces would be a logical next step.

The man behind Synergy is Larry Fast a native of New

Jersey who was to have a far-reaching effect on the use

of synthesizers in rock music during the seventies and

eighties.

Larry Fast first came to prominence with the release of

the debut album from Synergy called Electronic Realizations

For Rock Orchestra in 1975. Prior to the release of Synergy's

debut Larry Fast had been at college. Initially Larry trained

as a violinist and pianist before entering college and taking

a few computer science courses. It was during this period

that he became interested in synthesized music and began

to build his own synthesizers. At this time Larry was introduced

to Rick Wakeman at a local radio station and both musicians

enjoyed an immediate rapport with Larry Fast interesting

Rick Wakeman in his home made instruments and his

customizing of existing synthesizers. He was invited over

to England to assist with the synthesizers on the Yes album

Tales From Topographic Oceans. Shortly after this Larry

Fast gained a record contract, which saw the beginning of

Synergy and the subsequent release of the debut album

which received plaudits from no lesser person than Robert

Moog himself who at the time claimed the album to be "the

most important recording using his Moog synthesizer". Soon

after the release of the debut Synergy album Larry Fast was

introduced to Peter Gabriel who at the time had just left

Genesis to embark on a solo career and Larry was invited by

Gabriel to help with the synthesizer work on Peter's series of

self titled solo albums. During this time Larry also worked as

part of Peter Gabriel's live band and performed on many

sessions for diverse artists including Foreigner, Kate Bush,

Art Garfunkel, Hall and Oates and The Fugees in addition to

recording and releasing albums with Synergy. During the

eighties Larry Fast also moved into film work scoring the

films About Last Night and Planes, Trains and Automobiles.

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